Perfect Pitching - rehearse it first

For many of us the idea of pitching is against all we stand for. For us the beauty parade should be a thing of the past. It is old fashioned, costly, time consuming and judging by feedback from clients it is not foolproof.

Ideally you should not be pitching for new work. If you get involved with the tendering process and or build a relationship with the prospective client there should be no reason to pitch. They should trust you to deliver the goods.

However, we do not live in a perfect world and culturally here in the UK we are all asked to pitch.

Here are the top 5 tips that will help you to maximise the chances of winning the pitch:

1. Understand what the client really wants. Delve in deeper. Ask the awkward questions. Challenge their thinking
2. Find out if you have a realistic chance of winning the pitch or are you making up the numbers. They will not answer a direct question but they might tell you who is the current incumbent, how long they have been in place and the quality of the relationship which might in turn tell you how likely you are to win it.
3. Make absolutely sure you know the budget. If they are not prepared to divulge it then walk away.
   
4. Get to know who the various people are in the decision making process. For instance who is the sponsor, the budget holder, the user, the gate keeper. They all need to be bought on board
5. Do a full dress rehearsal. Preferably in front of an independent but knowledgeable expert
   

We are willing to act as that independent expert. We will come along and see the full dress rehearsal after reading through the client brief.

Call me on 07956 532963