New Business

Inside My Book On Advertising Agency Pitching

Peter · September 16, 2014 · Leave a Comment

What’s Inside My Book On Pitching?

As some of you know, I am speaking at HubSpot’s Inbound 2014 conference. I am talking about how to write a B2B book in less than 6 months.

Since I am not actually talking about the art of pitching for advertising agency new business that is the subject of The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches. (which I wrote in 5 months), I thought that I should share what’s inside the 251 page book. I find that people dig the title but still wonder what they are actually going to get. How will this book actually help them win more advertising pitches? Can’t blame them. There are a few books on pitching out there and while I know that I’ve designed my book to be insightful and easy to read, how can anyone other than a reader know this without picking up a copy. So, here you go… (from the book’s introduction)…

Chapter One

In Chapter One of this book, I discuss the very high cost of failing to run well-crafted, efficient pitches. The costs of failure include poor agency staff morale, individual employee burnout, and the financial cost to an agency’s bottom-line that comes from the cost of participating in four-month agency searches and funding an agency’s annual business development plan. There can also be significant costs to career advancement, as you will see from my personal experience in my Saatchi & Saatchi story about “The Worst Advertising Pitch Ever”.

Chapter Two

Chapter Two offers an escape hatch. You should not pitch every account that comes knocking. I give you a handy tool to gauge both the value of the prospective client and your agency’s chances of winning. This is a rather good exercise to do before you embark on the path of winding up the agency to build your finalist pitch.

Chapter Three

Chapter Three begins to help you position the pitch for success. We look at the essential facts of the pitch and dig into understanding the client’s mindset by understanding the type of assignment, type of relationship they are looking for, and what type of agency will fulfill their needs.

Chapter Four

Chapter Four delivers my list of “The 12 Deadliest Presentation Mistakes”. These are identified pitch killers that come from my personal experience and the experiences of agency CEO’s, clients, and search consultants. The accompanying cartoons wouldn’t be as funny if these mistakes were not being made over and over, even by the most sophisticated agencies.

Chapter Five

In Chapter Five I lay out thirty short but very sweet suggestions for how to build a brilliant presentation that I know will greatly increase your odds of winning. These ideas cover three core elements of a successful pitch: process management, content development, and how to deliver a standout presentation. Each rule is supported by a tip or insight that offers a fast way to achieve your objectives. One of my favorite insights is how to use LinkedIn recommendations to understand the personalities and interests of the clients that will be in the presentation. This insight isn’t what you think.

Chapter Six

Chapter Six is all about don’t take my word for it. This chapter brings in valuable learning via fourteen interviews with a range of communications industry experts. It is informative and often mind-blowing to hear the pitch related experiences and advice of agency search consultants, compensation experts, an ex P&G procurement executive, a negotiation trainer, the 4A’s, the Association of National Advertisers, a silicon valley presentation guru, a leading agency strategist, an ex-Nike and W+K executive on building chemistry, an IP lawyer on who actually owns your pitch ideas, the CEO of a London advertising agency, and the CEO of an independent agency network who has been on both sides of the table.

Chapter Seven

Finally, I’ve included insights about all too common agency pitch mistakes from 16 of the world’s leading search consultants.

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That’s it. Hope this sounds like a book that you’ll want to read. My goal is to help you win more pitches. I can almost guarantee that if you pay attention to the book’s advice — you will win more. By the way, take a look inside the book on Amazon.

Thanks To HubSpot, Ad Contrarian & Advertising Week

Peter · September 15, 2014 · Leave a Comment

Making Friends Is Good Business

I was on a plane from Portland to Boston yesterday. I spent some of the time reading John Jantsch’s new book “Duct Tape Selling”. He is a big fan of making friends with bloggers and other industry influencers to advance your own brand awareness and authority. I make friends and it works.

I am here to speak at HubSpot’s Inbound 2014 conference. I am up on Thursday speaking about how advertising agencies (and all B2B marketers) can write and publish a book in 6 months. True. I’ve done it twice. You can see my presentation here.

I was invited to speak because of my guest posting relationship with Agency Post, an advertising industry blog that was purchased by HubSpot. The strategic friendship with Agency Post delivers awareness for my advertising agency consultancy and now this connection to the all-powerful HubSpot marketing machine.

I am also a friend of San Francisco’s Bob Hoffman. Bob is the best selling author of “101 Contrarian Ideas About Advertising” which is Amazon’s #1 selling advertising book, “The Ad Contrarian” and “The Ad Contrarian” blog, which was named one of the world’s most influential advertising and marketing blogs by Business Insider.

Today Bob published a blog post about my book. Actually, he published the interview I did with him about his views on advertising agency pitching.

Bob makes 7 points about pitching. I’ll riff on the headlines. You’ll have to visit Bob’s blog to see what he wrote.

Or, if you really want to get the full Levitan Pitch treatment (and all of my interviews with experts)… buy the book.

Here’s Bob on pitching:

You can’t be everyone’s girlfriend: Simply put, don’t’ pitch everything that walks.
Do what you tell your clients to do: Look and sound different from your competitive agency set.
Be clear on your objective at each stage: Run your pitch like a strategic marathon, not a sprint. Read Bob’s words to see what I mean.
Make the presentation you want to make, not the one you’re asked to make: Be authentic.
Only let the good presenters talk: Bring your best. The one’s that will win.
Have a strategy and stick to it: Run a smart, strategic presentation.
The best new business program is a good reputation: I’ll use Bob’s word here… Duh!

I also write for Advertising Week Social Club. Because of this, I am going to Advertising Week New York as a journalist. This is a major conference and I will be able to promote my book to industry leaders. I am also starting to work with them to see if I can put on a program at Advertising Week Europe.

I could go on about the obvious benefits of making friends but I suspect that you get it.

However, there is one key point I have to make.

Your relationships need to be a two-way street. Make friends to make friends first and the goodies will flow. Follow rule number 8:

Do Not Be Obnoxious.

Now, be my friend by signing up for my newsletter below. I promise that I will reward you with smart thinking every week.

New Reviews For The Levitan Pitch

Peter · September 11, 2014 · Leave a Comment

Wow, Nice Reviews Are Coming In

Here are some early reviews of The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches. that are up on Amazon. Very cool to read. Well, for me that is!

No, I don’t know all of these people.

Russ Stoddard:

You get it all in this book. Peter Levitan presents insights gleaned from global pitches for multi-national brands all the way down to the local and regional level. Hey, some aspects of pitching transcend client size. With the significant funds you invest in pitching, how can you not afford to make a small investment in a resource like this? It’s a gem.

Jerome Seljan:

I found this an invaluable handbook for a small business operator who handles all his marketing. I owned & operated a restaurant & jazz club for 25 years. This book would have greatly aided my strategy in marketing my business. The book is clear & concise & gets right to the point.

Big Jim:

Advertising Agency Love – Dutch Style

Peter · September 11, 2014 · Leave a Comment

Having been a client once, I know (and, I suspect you know) that finding the right advertising agency is hard stressful work.

It can make or break your brand and slow down your marketing. Yes, it is just like dating.

So, why not a Tinder for agency searches? This new app is from Amsterdam’s Woedend! – an agency that clearly understands that creating their own brand awareness is a good thing. I can see Dutch clients being attracted to them.

Here is what ADWEEK had to say about finding advertising love the Dutch way…

Know The High Cost Of Advertising Agency New Business?

Peter · September 10, 2014 · 1 Comment

Advertising Agency New Business Is Expensive

Surprising? No.

Over the next few weeks, I am going to be writing about the costs associated with advertising agency new business programs and how to offset these costs by increasing your win rate and ROI. There are many costs to an agency beyond the high dollar cost. But, since the cash cost has the highest rate of winging… here you go. These calculations are from my pitch book and have been blessed as reasonable averages by my industry contacts.

The Big Metaphor

Agency CEO’s and Business Development Directors occasionally use metaphors to help describe their business development efforts. One of the all-time favorites is how similar agencies are to cobblers and shoes. Cobblers do not have the time to make shoes for their children, and too many agencies don’t make the time to run smart business development programs.

Here’s another metaphor.