I see many Marketing agencies preparing fancy “Pitch ppts” in an effort to convert the client.
In a typical environment, the “Pitching team” gets together and starts putting together everything that they know. The approach is simple – Try to impress the prospect, by being as fancy as possible. The designers, the copywriters, the strategists… everyone comes together and vomits their ‘creativity’ onto the ppt.
It’s a great platform for creative people to showcase their skills.
The drawback of this strategy –
You are wasting a lot of time and resources on something that the client might not want! You might be creating a fancy PPT, however, that might be miles away from what the prospect wants from you.
This pitch is made on assumptions and not facts.
What can be a better way?
A better way would be to request a ‘listening’ meeting with the prospect. The agenda of this meeting is not to present anything, but to ask questions. Questions are powerful, and if you can impress the prospect by asking intelligent questions, the job is half done.
You can then go back with the exact requirements, and prepare something which tries to solve the problems that the prospect has! Now, your pitch is concise and is less of a creative vomit.
Listening is a key part of a Sales strategy… and not just talking and showing off.