Pitching to Win: Client Debrief Call Part 1

Talking to a client recently about how they were getting on with their pitches, I heard that they recently got the following client feedback having pitched for a major piece of business.

“Firm A were bad, firm B were really bad, Firm C good, but Firm D were really good. You were firm A.”

Not the feedback any of us would like to get but nevertheless very revealing about the current pitching environment. It’s interesting to note that in the clients mind, out of four firms the group cleaves neatly into good and bad and an even split. On face value (website or document) clients would be hard pressed to evaluate one firm from another and any preference would be largely down to colour or branding or a long term association with an organisation. Yet a pitch serves to flocculate, the good from the bad, a win from a loss, hitting your quarterly numbers or missing them.

Another point to takeaway from this example of 4 is you have a 50% chance of being considered. We know from research it is avoiding little things and actively doing a few little that make a big difference when it comes to winning pitches. Success comes from doing this on a repeated basis.

Think about 3 things you could do/avoid doing to win bids/pitches….

– Discuss them with your colleagues.
– Do they agree?
– What’s the view of your older colleagues?

Next time we will give you an example of another debrief call and some tips to point you in the right direction to win.

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