Winning pitches, or learning when to shut up

Even the most sophisticated of commercial clients has a limited understanding of the services we provide. Clients can only appreciate what we do for them by what they directly experience. As a result, to win a pitch for work, we need to be able to contextualise what we will provide – by showing them that we have expertise in and experience of their particular situation.

In addition, we need to start to build a working relationship. At the end of the day, clients will have to make a personal judgment about whether to use us or not. Research into how clients choose their professionals highlights the importance of trust. In addition, clients want to work with people who understand them and are focused on solutions.

Finally, clients want their professionals to listen to them. Too often professionals do all of the talking and expect the clients to be impressed by this. Clients, however, would prefer to be listened to rather than talked at!

Let us start by looking at formal presentations.

Formal presentations

1. Contextualise what we do

Many professional brochures and websites tell us how important these firms are – that they have offices in 15 cities in Europe or that they employ 200 people. This generates a “so what” response in clients – “so what does that mean for me?” Clients can become cynical about expensive offices, websites and staff. They wonder if they will be expected to pay for all of these in the fees we charge. Quoting our hourly rates at them merely confirms that we charge by the hour rather than by the results we achieve! Clients are much more interested in finding out whether the firm has experience of his or her particular situation and what success it has achieved for other clients.

It has become fashionable to present formal pitches using PowerPoint software. This allows firms to develop template introductions to themselves and their services. However, many clients now complain of “PowerPoint fatigue”, where teams of professionals spend 40 minutes or an hour talking at them, showing no regard for the clients’ business or understanding of their situation.

Clients notice when there has been little pre-thought or preparation. They often find it difficult to differentiate one group of presenters from another. Some firms do rehearse and practise their presentations but many do not, thinking that they will “wing it” on the day. One of my clients accepted any opportunity to pitch for work, with the result that they won 1 in 10 pitches. They estimated that, including partner and travel time, each pitch cost them about £4000, with the result that the one piece of work they did win had to generate in excess of £30,000 of profit to break even. By concentrating on targeting key clients, they now win 1 in 3.

It is important to think through the content of the presentation. With limited time, it is essential to make it direct and straightforward, avoiding jargon. Depending on the client, using humour can be a valuable way of getting a message across. One firm of surveyors, pitching for a project where teamwork was vital, simply put up 3 slides illustrating great cartoon teams!

Sometimes it is easier to jump the “should we use this professional firm?” stage to “how would we use this professional firm?” stage by offering a couple of options of how the project would proceed. This approach allows us to show our understanding of their context and our experience in it, as well as illustrating that we are prepared to invest time in clients up front. 

2. Develop trust

Both clients and professionals want to work with people they trust. For professionals, this means that we can get on with our work without constant interruptions and back covering and that we get paid promptly. For clients, it means they can focus on their own job rather than spend time watching over people they are paying!

At the outset, whether we trust people is based on instinct checked against subsequent experience. We make this instinctive judgment by finding out about people’s values – are they the same as our own? Think about how we ask about family, background and past experience. Once we establish that there is commonality, we will check our judgment against direct experience. In formal presentations, the key element is therefore to provide sufficient illustrations of what we have achieved for other clients to allow potential new clients to make that choice.

Knowing who we are presenting to is vital. If, for example, the selection panel includes the finance director, he or she is likely to value professionals who minimise risk and deliver certainty. If we can provide examples of bringing the project through on time or where we directly reduced risk, that director will want to work with us.

Formal pitches by definition can become too formal with clients struggling to see the people behind the presentation. It is important therefore to keep the pitch short and to the point and then sit down and let the client speak.

3. Listen to them

In general, professionals tend to talk rather than listen, yet clients continually complain about our inability to communicate effectively. As a result, we need to be very careful about how much we talk! Listening to clients allows us to find out what is important to them and what they are looking for from their professionals. By asking particular questions, we can also find out how they make decisions. Finding out what other professionals they use and why provides illustrations of what is important to them and what they will want from us.

Like any skill, our ability to listen can improve with practice. It needs to be built in to any formal presentation and not just left to happen by chance. In addition, attentive listening implies direct eye contact – not taking notes! It also requires us to show that we have listened in the way we then respond. Too often listening appears to be an opportunity to mark time until the next opportunity to start talking again where we left off!

Being able to respond to any question the client may have shows that we are experienced in their situation, not just that we are good talkers. At the end of the session, clients have to make a judgment about who to use and speak of a “leap of faith”. One part of that is hearing us say that we want to work with them, yet many firms do not include that in their pitch. This may to us appear to be stating the obvious (as why else would we be here and have put all this effort into being here) but it still needs to be said.

Finally, it is important not to assume that formal presentations are always the best way to convince a client. Some clients would prefer informality.

Informal presentations

These three elements apply equally in any informal discussion with existing clients and potential new clients or contacts.

One of the main mistakes that professionals continue to make is that we assume existing clients understand the full range of services the firm provides. Clients need basic information about what we can achieve for them. Developing trust with existing clients should be much easier but cross selling continues to be fraught with difficulties. At the end of the day, people make an intuitive judgment about whom they trust. Assuming that they will automatically trust other professional in our firm is a mistake. We need to manage this transition by continuing to be part of the “getting to know” process until we feel confident that both sides will work well together. Listening continues to be an essential part of informal client development. We all recognise the difference between spending time with people at a networking event who do all the talking and those who listen to us and develop a two-way conversation with us.

How to do it?

• Prepare fully for any formal presentation – the background to the client and their brief. What is their overall objective? What impact will this project have on their business?
• Find out who you are pitching to. How do they make decisions? Are they risk takers or risk averse
• Find out what other professionals they use. Ask them about the client – how did they decide about them? What works well with the client?
• Think through whether formal presentations are the best way – many clients would prefer informality with professionals illustrating that they can work alongside them
• Tailor your presentation to show your understanding of their problems – show them what you can actually achieve for them
• Keep it short and to the point – 20 minutes maximum and then sit down and shut up
• Build in time to listen to the clients – prove that by listening at this stage you are confident that you can take any questions they have and that you will listen to them in the future
• Have some specific questions for them – show them that you have thought about them, that you are prepared to listen to them and respond to them
• If possible offer them a number of options – this bypasses the first stage of “should they use you” to “how can they use you?”
• Say that you want the work!

Fiona Westwood runs  her own management and training consultancy specialising in working with the professional sector. A solicitor with 20 years’ experience of private practice, she established Westwood Associates in 1994.

For more information see her website, www.westwood-associates.com.