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Pitch Nightmares: One PR agency dishes the dirt

26 March 2014

Felicity Read, Managing Director of PR Agency, Leapfrog PR shares her pitch nightmares – and how agencies and clients alike can avoid them

Fotolia_57597807_XSTense brow, sweaty palms, churning stomach, dry mouth – yes it's a pitch. No matter how seasoned you are, it would take a hard -nosed professional not to get any butterflies before a pitch!

It’s also the culmination of days if not weeks of late nights, frenetic research, brainstorms, strategy meetings and drafting, re-drafting and powerpoint or prezzi. But hang on, where’s the potential client?

At a recent pitch, our PR agency turned up at the right time in the right place on the right day, even in the right room – but they didn’t. Apparently they ‘tried to call’ the previous day to postpone. In fact they just never showed up.

We all have all had pitch nightmares: equipment that refuses to work, traffic jams, lost artwork bags and so on.

One of the worst for me relates to a huge pitch for a big brand. I so wanted to win and worked hard with team all weekend to perfect the presentation. Exhausted, we went to the pub for an evening meal – and I chose warm chicken liver salad. Bad choice – I surfaced five days later.

The second nightmare situation that springs to mind is where the client called us to say we’d got the business (YEA) – only for his boss to call the following day to tell us the budget had been cut overnight and there was no campaign. (NOOOOO!)

So, here’s my pitch advice.

Client side:

  1. Develop a brief –sounds obvious but many don’t. It needs to cover your business objectives, marketing strategy, product or service USP’s and your sales targets. Make it as full as you can – the more you put in at this stage the better the pitches will be
  2. Give budget guidelines and make it realistic - ask for advice if needed from the PRCA or CIPR. ‘Blank page’ pitches never work and usually result in the need for smelling salts at the budget discussion stage.
  3. Give enough time – again be realistic – three days to prepare major brand development proposals is not enough, 2-3 weeks is.
  4. Always meet those pitching to brief them - you are expecting them to put in hours of speculative time to work on your brief – it’s the least you can do to make time to see them before the big day.
  5. Measure the chemistry – who can you and your team get on with? Who do you trust? Then check them out – like hiring an employee, you need at least two telephone references. And finally – get back to those who pitched – you’d be surprised how many pitches end in a frustrating dead end. If possible, give everyone feedback.

Consultancy side:

  1. Can you deliver this? Do you have the expertise to deliver and the right contacts? Do you have the resources? It’s tempting to pitch for anything that moves but in the long term that won’t help your business – be discerning.
  2. Check out the client – credit check them and make sure they can pay. If in doubt charge them upfront – and wait until you’ve received the money before starting.
  3. Research and don’t leave any stone unturned – the client is looking for your insight and understanding , read around the subject and be prepared to answer questions on the sector and the competition.
  4. Rehearse, rehearse and rehearse – you can’t go over it too many times. Check everything works, check the typo gremlins have been eliminated and ensure you have back ups of everything – if you are travelling separately make sure one of you can deliver if the other is delayed. Find out about the room you are presenting in, how many people will be there and who they are – this is often an indication of how seriously the client is taking the pitch.
  5. Get feedback – even if you don’t win the pitch this time, there could be valuable advice for future pitches. And keep in touch – it might work out better on the next review cycle.

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Danielle Stagg

Written by Danielle Stagg