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The Pitching Process

In this evening event, three leading new media professionals gave some insights into the pitching process.

Pitching for New Media Business

Communication, relationship-building and the chemistry between client and agency are as important as your performance in the pitch itself, say experienced business development professionals.

Speakers

• Hilary Kelsh, Head of Business Development, n1media (www.n1media.com)
• Juliet Blackburn, Head of Digital, AAR (www.aargroup.co.uk)
• Chris Allen, Director, Clientfocus (www.clientfocus.com)

Hilary began this evening seminar by urging all new media agencies to spend more time listening to their clients. A potential client’s needs and objectives may not be fully articulated in a brief, and it is important that agencies talk to the client, find out what is really wanted and the real reasons why the pitch has been set in motion. You should try to spot the nuances and clues that explain why a brief has come into existence. The process of communicating and understanding is key, and agencies must avoid falling into the trap of talking about their own expertise and capabilities, without listening to the, often subtle, needs of the client.

Hilary went on to discuss management issues relating to pitches, both in terms of the client and the agency’s own processes. In particular, it is important to see the pitch as resulting from a relationship between client and agency, in which mutual trust and understanding should have been built up along the way. More important than winning or losing the pitch is the management of this relationship, ensuring that the pitch is not a culmination but rather just another opportunity to deepen the relationship.

On the agency side, there needs to be a clear assignment of internal roles, communication protocols and responsibilities. The co-ordination and management of the creative and production team needs to be established, so that everyone (including the client) knows what is expected in the pitch itself. There should be prior understanding of how much creative work should be undertaken for the pitch, or whether a more strategic discussion is expected.

Finally, the outcome itself needs to be well handled. Expectations should be managed, so that the team hasn’t already done too much work, or become too excited, about a pitch that they don’t win. The long-term perspective needs to be maintained, and the value of even unsuccessful pitches needs to be appreciated, in terms of learning and the possible strengthening of relations with the client.

As the Digital Manager at selection consultancy AAR, Juliet has experienced more new media pitches than most, and she has extensive knowledge of how both agencies and clients approach a pitch. She began her talk by outlining why a pitch occurs in the first place, and, based on some research undertaken by AAR, she estimated that 60% of all client reviews are a result of current dissatisfaction with the incumbent agency. She made the point that clients don’t actually like pitching – it is anexpensive and time-consuming activity, and clients can often be surprisingly nervous about choosing new suppliers, so prospective agencies should be looking to make the process as easy and comfortable as possible for them.

For Juliet, the pitch process starts from the moment that an agency makes contact with the client, rather than the time actually spent in the pitch. There are numerous opportunities in which the agency can communicate their distinctive brand values, and emphasize the benefits that they can provide. On this point, Juliet thought it important for agencies to polarize opinion and ‘stand for something’ – too many new media companies promote themselves as generic, full-service interactive agencies without sufficiently distinguishing themselves to clients, who are often looking for much more specific expertise.

Juliet also warned the audience that what clients really want is a team. They are very good at spotting internal differences between those that are pitching, and that as far as they are concerned, the pitching team is the agency. For this reason, the individuals that present a pitch on behalf of an agency must be chosen carefully. Agencies should avoid sending too many people in, make sure that the creative members behave themselves and strive to ensure that the chemistry between the client and pitching team is a positive one. The key measure for Juliet is that ‘people buy people’ and the quality of the personal interaction underlies the decision-making process, however much it is rationalised afterwards.

Finally, Chris Allen gave some insights into the art of pitching, drawn from his extensive experience in business development, originally in manufacturing and computing but now in communications services. Chris used to describe himself as a reluctant salesperson, but now regards himself as a ‘sales conservationist’, someone who is in almost continuous conversation with a number of companies. For Chris, a pitch is the beginning of a sales conversation, and he urged the audience to move away from the idea that a pitch has some kind of finality about it, something to be unduly excited or anxious about.

Rather than worrying too much about winning or losing pitches, the real trick is to develop a relationship with the client in which productive and useful conversations can take place. Even if the client won’t always like what you say, it is vital that you get them listening, and to demonstrate that you are listening to them. In order to develop these kinds of positive conversations, Chris put forward his SPIID, or ‘speed’, sequence of questions, which will help to guide a fruitful and focused conversation with the client. In brief, the SPIID sequence is as follows:

Situation: what’s the current situation?
Problems: what are the existing problems?
Implications: what are the implications of these problems?
Ideal: what situation do you want?
Do: what are you going to do to get there?

Finally, Chris reminded the audience to be clear about what you want out of a pitch – is it the business itself, the development of a relationship, or perhaps some other goal such as a referral or another conversation? Before going into a pitch, be very clear which of these you really want – it will make you more effective and should also help you to enjoy the pitch process. For Chris, pitches are ultimately enjoyable and valuable learning experiences, something that professionals should never lose sight of if they are to make a successful career in business development.

Speaker Profiles

Hilary Kelsh, Head of Business Development, n1media
Hilary is head of business development with n1media (www.n1media.com) an online advertising and marketing agency.

Previously Hilary was Director of Marketing with Icon Medialab from August 1998 to April 2001, where she was responsible for overseeing all marketing and new business for the UK arm of the Swedish based multi-national communications consultancy. Her role was also ambassadorial, she hosted and presented a number of industry events with New Media Knowledge, The Institute of Directors and New Media Age. Prior to this, Hilary was Business Development Director at Modem Media Poppe Tyson, an American mult-national communications consultancy. There she set-up and co-ordinated a new business strategy and working methodology, whilst generating new business opportunities and relationships, again, she presented and hosted a number of industry events.

Hilary began her career in digital communications as an account executive with The Brilliant Agency, just as the internet industry started to get off the ground in London. Here Hilary raised company profile, via several high profile public relations initiatives and introduced new business opportunities whilst developing strong relationships with existing and new clients, partnerships and alliances.

Hilary obtained a BA(Hons) degree in Graphic Design at Central St.Martin's Collage of Art and Design, having gone back to study as a mature student. She then freelanced as a designer and animator for six years for a variety of film and production clients including BBC Children's Television and BBC Youth and Entertainments, where she designed stings, programme identites, short films and corporate identities.

Chris Allen, Director, Clientfocus
Chris is Director of Clientfocus (www.clientfocus.com), an agency providing interactive media services as well as professional training in sales, business development, business communications and account management.

Chris has 20 years of sales and marketing experience in high value information technology products and services. His background is in sales, international marketing and worldwide operations at Director level for major American and European software companies such as Thorn EMI, Comshare, Pilot and Allshare.

Juliet Blackburn, Head of Digital, AAR (www.aargroup.co.uk)
Juliet started her career at Coca-Cola 1985 where she became Brand Manager on Five Alive with responsibility for developing and implementing plans and strategies for the brand. In 1992 Juliet moved to the agency IMP as an Account Manager working on the Texaco account delivering promotional and communications support programmes. In 1995 she joined British Telecommunications as a Communications Team Leader, becoming Head of Communications in 1997 with responsibility for strategic leadership for the delivery of campaigns including BT's Internet and Multimedia services, BT Retail, BT Payphones and BT Phonecards. She was then made Head of New Media Marcomms in 1998 and Head of Broadband Marcomms in April 2000 when she launched BTopenworld Broadband.

In January 2001, Juliet joined the AAR - specialists in creating and enhancing client:agency relationships - to establish and head up the new Digital division. Since its launch, she has become a leading authority on the new media marketplace, having met over 170 agencies. When helping clients to find their new media partners, she uses her unparalleled knowledge of this complicated and fast-moving sector to ease the selection process for them.

This event was presented in association with:

Business Link for London: www.bl4london.com

UK Online for Business: www.ukonlineforbusiness.gov.uk