Pitching

Pitch Pain (As In Ad Agency Screw Ups)

Peter · October 2, 2014 · Leave a Comment

The advertising pitch column Pitch Pain launched today on the Agency Post blog. Pitch Pain provides a platform for the advertising industry, clients and search consults to tell their favorite good and bad pitch stories. The goal is to help all of us advance the efficiency of the pitch process while being entertained by our often crazy stories.

Each revealing and occasionally humorous story (just think of the schadenfreude) will be accompanied by a brief review of any home runs or mistakes made plus how-to insights to help us all learn form our dear industry colleague’s experiences.

You can read the first post right here on Agency Post.

Here’s Some Background

I wrote The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches. to help advertising, design, digital and PR agencies improve their pitch development processes and, rather importantly, win more business. I got the idea for the book from a December 2013 research study of advertising professionals by Provoke Insights that supports the idea that agency employees are dissatisfied with their agency’s pitch process.

“Approximately half (47% of respondents) of advertising professionals surveyed by Provoke Insights say they are dissatisfied with the current internal approach to pitching.”

Other issues include:

“unrealistic timelines” (66%) and “long work hours” (65%.)

Clearly, trying to craft account winning pitches with disgruntled staff is not a great way to kick off the pitch development process.

In writing the book, I interviewed a range of agency executives, clients, presentation experts and search consultants who have sat through thousands of pitches. Most shared very entertaining pitch experiences. These experiences form the basis of many of the book’s ideas and tips for how to build account-winning small and large agency presentations and pitches.

Pitch Pain And You

My friend Jami Oetting, Agency Post’s Editor, and I quickly realized that we all have our favorite pitch stories. That’s why to air these out and provide industry learning, we teamed up to provide agencies, clients and agency pitch consultants with a platform to tell their own pitch stories.

We want to hear your stories. The good, bad and even ugly. To help, there is a simple form on the website that you can fill out. Form shy? Just send your stories directly to me and i will post them for you. These don’t have to be long. I’m at peter@peterlevitan.com

So, agencies, clients and search consultants… don’t be shy.

Send us your favorite pitch stories. You can name names or exclude some of them if you think anonymity is a wise move.

I didn’t go anonymous in my lead Pitch Pain story about the time that Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising blew a pitch for the global Adidas account by showing videos of bloody baby seals.

Our goals are to entertain and enlighten. Improving the pitch process for all of us is a very good thing.

Remember… I Can help You Grow Your Advertising Agency’s Revenues -> Go Here Now

12 Stupid Advertising Agency Presentation Mistakes

Peter · September 29, 2014 · Leave a Comment

These cartoons from my new book on how to run a winning new business pitch, The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches. illustrate how to blow a presentation and LOSE a pitch.

Sorry, but I just had to express my findings this way. The bad way. But,it is a good way to help all of us kinda wake up and stop making simple pitch mistakes. And, I am talking about small to huge agencies based on the stories and insights of my book’s 30 expert contributors that include 13 leading agency search consultants than have sat through thousands of pitches.

You’ll know what I mean when you hear some of the pitch stories in the book.

Yes, you can buy the poster in different sizes.

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.

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:

I Love HubSpot

Peter · September 5, 2014 · Leave a Comment

How Could I Not Love HubSpot?

They just bought a bunch of copies my new book for the Inbound Conference. I’ll be there talking about how advertising agencies can go from idea to having a published book in 6 months.

I did that for both of my books: The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches. and Boomercide: From Woodstock To Suicide. Both are on Amazon – which is one of the ways to control the process and get published quickly. There are more.

I will be putting the presentation up on SSlideShare and here soon.