Pitching to Win New Business

Find out why:

• Why do some consultancies seem to beat the odds?
• Why are some firms consistently better at getting onto long-lists, making it onto short-lists and then landing the business, time after time?
• It's not just effort and it's not just talent. What are they doing better?

This course examines what actually happens in the sales process - from the client's point of view.

Every PR contract is the result of someone deciding to go with one consultancy rather than three or four others - who most likely all have the experience, competence and ideas to do an equally good job. But the client has to pick one.

The idea behind this approach to new business pitching is to make it virtually impossible for the client to choose anyone else. It is based on the concept of ‘earning the right to the sale'. The client is faced with a tricky problem: how to make the right choice when he or she has insufficient information to work with. Some clients are well-versed in PR and know the consultancy sector well; most are not, and don't. This course suggests a technique which will maximise your chances of being chosen on the day.

How attendees will benefitAttendees learn how to sharpen up their pitching skills; how to align their proposals with the client's real objectives; how to make their pitches gripping and memorable; and how to manage various kinds of client behaviour during the presentation. The outcome: attendees will increase their win-rate.

Who should attendThis course is aimed at senior level and all those who would like to learn about pitching to win new business or to refresh and develop further their skills in this area.

What you will learn• Getting on the long-list: profile, cold-calls, new-business agencies
• Understanding procurement and establishing good business relationships
• Qualifying the opportunity: should we pitch?
• Before the pitch - winning without pitching
• The brief. What the client really wants; the business objective
• Earning the right to the sale
• The pitch process: preparation, research, team, roles
• The pitch process: format, materials, theatre, dialogue
• The pitch process: the ‘big idea'
• What they will remember you for
• Follow-up: win or lose

Materials- Hard copy (or online copy) of the Powerpoint slide deck
- List of relevant books, articles, sites and blogs
- Checklists, cue-sheets and fast-facts where appropriate
- Email address for questions after the course

About the trainer Adrian Wheeler began his career as a local newspaper reporter and co-founded Sterling PR, which became the European HQ of GCI Group, where he worked as UK CEO and then European chairman for 15 years.

Adrian is now a non-executive director with Firefly Communications and The London Communications Agency and a partner in Agincourt Communications, an issues and crisis communications management consultancy.
 

PRmoment.com training is priduced in association with the:

Agenda: