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In times like these, when the credit crunch ishaving such a serious adverse effect on the lives ofus all, it is even more important for people inbusiness or who are self employed and working forthemselves, to do all that they can to win newbusiness. This is not an easy thing to do becausethere will always be competition from yourbusiness rivals who will be pitching for the samebusiness, and so it is critical that the skills andcompetencies required for making successfulpresentations and pitches are learnt, and indeedmastered.

It is not good enough to be able to perform wellon the job if you are not equipped with the skillsto pitch for business and to win contracts in thefirst place. If the client knew how good you were,you may stand a chance, but if he is consider anumber of proposals, and your presentation isweak, lacking structure, or sounds confused, thenyou don’t stand a chance.

In this article, I am going to show you how youcan increase your chances of winning new businessby making high quality pitches. The first thing tosay is that when you are preparing your proposal,

whether it is a stand and deliver type presentation,or whether it is a written proposal, what youshould be doing is not just trying to inform theclient about what you can offer, but what you aredoing is trying to persuade.

The idea is to persuade the client to choose yourproposal over the other ones, or if you are the onlyone pitching, then you are trying to persuade theclient to hire you. If you do this successfully, youwill get the business. If you don’t, then the clientwon’t make a decision there and then but will lookaround to see if he can get other quotes and abetter deal.

A simple structure for making pitchesmight look like this:

Get a clear brief of what the client is looking forwith his goals, expectations, timescales andbudget. Write down all the things that you can andwill do to meet every single criteria that he wantsaddressed and fulfilled. Concentrate on resultsrather than creating a to do list.

Analyse the client, the task at hand, determine itsneeds, and come up with other ideas or goals thatyou can add to the list. This is to create addedvalue for the client and give them more than theyhave asked for. In doing so, you will be exceedingtheir expectations whilst at the same timeestablishing a difference between you and yourrivals.

Develop your main message, the one thataddresses their main wants and needs, and thendraft your supporting statements showing thebenefits to the client.

Agree who will draft the proposal or deliver thepresentation. Choose the best person for the job.However, in many cases, the senior figure ie theManaging Director, would be expected to do this.

Encourage the client to take action ie make adecision. Your whole pitch should be one of

by Ewan Denny

In times like these, when the credit crunch ishaving such a serious adverse effect on the lives ofus all, it is even more important for people inbusiness or who are self employed and working forthemselves, to do all that they can to win newbusiness. This is not an easy thing to do becausethere will always be competition from yourbusiness rivals who will be pitching for the samebusiness, and so it is critical that the skills andcompetencies required for making successfulpresentations and pitches are learnt, and indeedmastered.

It is not good enough to be able to perform wellon the job if you are not equipped with the skillsto pitch for business and to win contracts in thefirst place. If the client knew how good you were,you may stand a chance, but if he is consider anumber of proposals, and your presentation isweak, lacking structure, or sounds confused, thenyou don’t stand a chance.

In this article, I am going to show you how youcan increase your chances of winning new businessby making high quality pitches. The first thing tosay is that when you are preparing your proposal,

whether it is a stand and deliver type presentation,or whether it is a written proposal, what youshould be doing is not just trying to inform theclient about what you can offer, but what you aredoing is trying to persuade.

The idea is to persuade the client to choose yourproposal over the other ones, or if you are the onlyone pitching, then you are trying to persuade theclient to hire you. If you do this successfully, youwill get the business. If you don’t, then the clientwon’t make a decision there and then but will lookaround to see if he can get other quotes and abetter deal.

A simple structure for making pitchesmight look like this:

Get a clear brief of what the client is looking forwith his goals, expectations, timescales andbudget. Write down all the things that you can andwill do to meet every single criteria that he wantsaddressed and fulfilled. Concentrate on resultsrather than creating a to do list.

Analyse the client, the task at hand, determine itsneeds, and come up with other ideas or goals thatyou can add to the list. This is to create addedvalue for the client and give them more than theyhave asked for. In doing so, you will be exceedingtheir expectations whilst at the same timeestablishing a difference between you and yourrivals.

Develop your main message, the one thataddresses their main wants and needs, and thendraft your supporting statements showing thebenefits to the client.

Agree who will draft the proposal or deliver thepresentation. Choose the best person for the job.However, in many cases, the senior figure ie theManaging Director, would be expected to do this.

Encourage the client to take action ie make adecision. Your whole pitch should be one of

by Ewan Denny

27

trying to persuade so when you get to the end,simply ask confidently for the business. If there areother companies pitching also, then confidentlysay that you really want the business and that youbelieve that you can deliver outstanding results tothe client.

If you are going to use visual aids then practice itover and over again as you practice thepresentation. The effective use of visual aids canbring your presentation to life by illustrating andclarifying your main verbal messages, but get itwrong and you can seriously damage your proposaland create a negative impression with the client.Keep your visual aids clearly visible to each personin the audience and make sure each page or slideillustrates a single point. Having too much text isclutter and making the slide too “busy” is adefinite put off.

You should aim to complete your presentation ontime or in the time that you have been allotted.This discipline is an indicator of your level ofprofessionalism and so it is important. Before yourtime expires, you should be summarising briefly,and by doing so, you will be in control of how thepresentation ends. Naturally you will want tofinish with a bang and with an upbeat tone thatleaves a positive impression on your audience.

At the end of the presentation, you will probablyface a Question and Answer session. Some peopleget nervous and tense over this because this is theunknown part of the process where they don’tknow what the client is going to ask them and theymight look bad if they don’t know the answer.Don’t be nervous by this. See it as an opportunityto re-inforce your main messages and to addsomething new that you may have forgotten tomention.

In the Q&A Session you will hear any points ofconcern that the client has and you can addressthem specifically and clarify ideas and theinformation given. You will also get a good

indication of whether or not your presentation ispersuading them and winning them over, or if theylook uncertain and unconvinced.

One way of reducing the anxiety over questions isto plan for them and to try and anticipate whatquestions the client will ask. You can do this byrehearsing your presentation before some friendsor colleagues and see what questions they ask. Notonly are you practicing to make perfect and fine-tuning your delivery, but the process will show upany elements that you have neglected to include inyour proposal.

When you are before your client, don’t appeardefensive, but look as if you welcome questions(even if you are really nervous about them)because a positive attitude and self confidence canbe seen and it goes a long way. If you don’t knowthe answer to a question, don’t lie or bluff yourway through hoping to get away with it. Just behonest and say that you don’t know but that youwill look into it and get back to them with theanswer.

If you plan for your sales pitches, prepare properlyand deliver them well, you will significantlyincrease your chances of winning new contracts,and at this difficult time in the economy, yourbusiness survival may depend on it.

Ewan Denny’s book‘The Marketing of

Jesus Christ’ can bepurchased from

Amazon,Barnes &Noble and other

leading stores.

For business advice or speaking engagements

contact Ewan Denny on 07962 630 724

How to Successfully pitch for new business

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