Pitching

Presentation Toolkit Must Have

Peter · April 21, 2014 · Leave a Comment

Here is an oh so simple presentation tool that will cost you all of $30 or less. Keep this with your laptop to projector cable in a handy presentation toolkit and don’t leave home without either of these.

If you are going to present off of a laptop and don’t want to be tethered to the machine – you know, having to walk back to or reach across the table to advance the slides or play the video – then get yourself a wireless remote clicker thing. You will look way smoother.

Sounds obvious? Then cool. You have one? Even cooler. Now, all you have to do is to remember to bring it to the presentation.

12 Ad Agency Presentation Mistakes – Why?

Peter · April 2, 2014 · Leave a Comment

I interviewed Tony Mikes, Founder/Managing Director of the 800 strong agency network Second Wind today (my agency used to be a happy member.) The interview will be one of ten expert interviews that will be included in my book on ad agency pitching. You can see the title I slaved over at the very bottom of this email.

The interview confirmed the sad truth that many agencies are making serious presentation mistakes when they pitch for new business. I already knew this because I’ve talked with many agency owners, agency search consultants, presentation experts and… clients that have sat through mistake ridden presentations. Tony reconfirmed it.

I can’t wait to publish Tony’s insightful comments. They come from firsthand experience when he recently sat on the client side of the table during the RFP and finalist process. The pitch was for the National Aquarium account and the interview with Tony is (pick your word): revealing, sad, unnerving and any other word that you can come up with that describes the lunacy of avoidable agency failure.

Tony hit on the almost all of my twelve ad agency presentation mistakes. Each of these will be discussed at length in the book.

Immediately bore the audience
Don’t have a distinctive message
Don’t have a logical flow
Load up the room with agency people
Bring poor presenters
Don’t deliver any WOW’s
Bring tons of ideas – make many of them irrelevant
Spend too much time talking about YOU not THEM
Don’t rehearse
Misuse PowerPoint
Don’t stage manage
Run out of time

Yikes. As I said, sad but true. By the way, if you search my site for other articles on pitching you will find ones like this: Half of Advertising Agency Staff Hates Pitching. This research was the genesis of my book’s reason for being.

Oh, the title…. The Levitan Pitch: Buy This Book. Win More Pitches.

Now, please sign up for my email newsletter below to make sure that your competitor down the street doesn’t read my book before you read it. I want you to win more pitches, not the other agency.

Advertising Pitch Book Update

Peter · March 18, 2014 · Leave a Comment

I hit 41,000 words this weekend. That’s 41,000 words on how advertising, digital, design and PR agencies can better manage the process they employ to build new business winning presentations. 41,000 means I am getting close to finishing the book.

Why am I repeating myself? Good question. Here is a short segment from the book on the art of repetition.

Think Flow.

“We can learn a lot from Nancy Duarte’s sparklines analysis of Steve Jobs. However, I suspect that you might be thinking that channeling a new Apple product launch with the dramatic reveal of the first iPhone might not directly relate to an agency pitch about advertising the essence of Widgets. An advertising agency new business pitch most likely does not have an earth-moving climax. But, lets get past that. For another path to channel, consider Aristotle.

Aristotle, apparently one of the earlier presentation coaches, is credited with developing the three act structure and advising people to, “Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them.”

Tell them what you are going to tell them. Tell them what you want to say and what they want to hear form you. This will set up your major points and will let the client know that you have your act together.

Tell them. In this section you’ll tell them that you understand their needs, that you have the experience to meet these needs and that you have proof that you can deliver. Think of this as the content section.

Tell them what you told them. I consider this the support section. You will reiterate your major points, support these points with clear rationale and you will nail your pitch with conviction and enthusiasm.”

Experts.

The book includes interviews with experts from the world of agency search consultants, major advertiser organizations, procurement specialists, IP lawyers and the world’s smartest presentation consultant and author. What is a word they all use to describe what it takes to win the heart and mind of a new client?

Chemistry.

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The Worst Advertising Agency Presentation – Ever

Peter · February 18, 2014 · 5 Comments

A Very Sad Story… The Worst Advertising Agency Presentation – Ever

This is a story about the worst advertising agency presentation – ever (I know, I was in it.) It was bad.

This special experience, along with more stories, strong opinions, and brilliant advice (I’ve learned a lot over the years) is in my new book… How To Run A Kick-Ass Advertising Agency.

If you buy the 27-chapter book and read it, I guarantee that you will win more new business, run a tighter ship, and will make more money.

My First Advertising Agency Presentation

Back to the beginning: I won my first pitch in 1984. For the first email service.

I was an account executive at Dancer, Fitzgerald Sample, New York’s largest “Mad Men” era advertising agency (Saatchi & Saatchi bought Dancer in 1987.) The pitch was for Western Union’s $15 million EasyLink Service. EasyLink was the first commercial email service and launched the same year as the IBM PC – the times were changing fast. We won the pitch and I learned how a well-oiled presentation worked from a new business team that won nine out of ten pitches that year. After I began working on the business, I asked the senior client why we won. She stated three reasons: [Read more…] about The Worst Advertising Agency Presentation – Ever

My First Time. It Was Sweet.

Peter · February 8, 2014 · Leave a Comment

I won my first pitch in February 1984 — so, this is my 30th anniversary of pitching and winning.

In 1984 I was an account executive at Dancer Fitzgerald Sample, New York’s largest “Mad Men” era advertising agency and I used this pitch to gain senior management awareness and a promotion to account supervisor. Dancer also known as DFS, an agency you might not know about, had some small clients like P&G, General Mills, Toyota, Sara Lee, Nabisco, Wrangler and HP. (Saatchi & Saatchi bought Dancer in 1987.)

The pitch was for Western Union’s EasyLink service. EasyLink was the first commercial email service and launched the same year as the IBM PC. We won the $15 million AOR pitch and in the process I learned how a well-oiled pitch worked from a new business team that won nine out of ten pitches that year. One of the reasons we won the Western Union account was our repositioning of electronic mail (yes, that’s what it was called back then) as Instant Mail. DFS was very keen on selling the benefit.

So, just to go back to 1984 for a second. I was three years into my advertising career, I got promoted, I was working at New York’s hottest agency. I was working on one of the earliest internet technology accounts (a reason that I eventually left advertising to launch two Internet startups) and I learned how the Internet was going to transform the world of communications.

Here is how the New York Times reported on the win. get this. There were about 40,000 email users back then. Today? For 2014, Radicati Group projects 2.5 billion email users worldwide.