How to Make Your New Business Presentation Irresistible

Imagine yourself in front of a multi-million dollar marketing opportunity presenting to the Chief Marketing Officer and President of the prospective client company. You are competing against the best of the best. You know you’re good, but like any human effort, your small group of professionals has knowledge gaps and fewer resources than your competitors. How can you win?

After personally going through several hundred of these pitches, there is nothing that guarantees the pain of failure more than not winning an account you really wanted. So what went wrong?

You hear all of the reasons. Most of them are beyond your control. Things like the decision was already made before you started. Or the chemistry between your team and the client’s was not quite right. And there is truth in all of this.

But more often than not, you did not fully understand the client’s concerns. You did not address the unspoken questions or interpret the prospect’s pain. And you know what, that will always be the case. So luck plays a big role here.

But what if I could give you one thing, a secret that would remove or even neutralize these barriers to winning new business. It would allow you to change the playing field with the client’s blessing.

Ask yourself these questions. “What is the prospect concerned about day to day? What keeps him from being a successful marketer?”

It took years of failures and a few successes to understand the overriding concern companies face in all of their marketing efforts. They either do not really know who their customers are, who they will be or enough about the customers they do have.

When I say, “know,” I am not talking just about demographic information. But what makes the client’s customers tick? How do they view the company? What do they consider to be the company’s best traits? What would they like for the company to do for them? When they purchase the client’s products or services, what other competitors do these customers consider before making their purchase decisions? What share of customer does the client enjoy? And the list goes on.

So here’s the secret to success in any marketing pitch you make.

Tell the client something they do not already know about their own customers and prospects. Only the non-marketer clients will walk away from you. And you don’t want those clients who don’t understand where you’re coming from anyway.

Once you’ve gotten the content right, then use the best technology and presentation tools available. “Presentation aids work because they tap into the presentation psychology; the underpinning of our minds and how we perceive and remember great presentations.”

What is your view on this stance? Have you seen other things that work better or may help readers in their pitch activities?