I Bet You’d Dig A Sweet Jaguar Request For Advertising Proposal

Imagine getting a request for a proposal from Jaguar. The car manufacturer. You’d feel mighty fine, right? Below is a segment from Mad Men in which Rodger Sterling gives pitching advice to his British partner Layne Price. Give it a look. First, here are a couple of my takeaways.

Look at the office. I started in offices like that. First I was in an AAE Qube (with walls, what a good idea), then I got my AE window office, then an Account Supervisor window office with a couch, and then the big Management Director office where we could also hold meetings at a table. Imagine that. NOTE: It was all way better than today’s (or yesterday’s) people sitting at long tables plus headphones.

Rodger talks about how to do a ‘chemistry’ meeting. Use your time together to get to learn about your prospect. Pay attention. “Smile, sit there, and let him talk.” “Don’t let him near the check” and “Find out everything about him before you get there.” Allow me to parse this out. Be friendly, listen, learn all about him (her) before you get there. In my parlance – there is no blind date in 2021.

A couple of stories. How to get or not to get a request for advertising proposal.

I once ran the $60 million Northwest Airlines account at Saatchi & Saatchi. When we lost that (we were fired by the new CMO at an award dinner while winning a Gold EFFIE). If you think you’ve met a bigger asshole, let me know. A couple of years later I was running global biz dev and had a get-to-know-you dinner in D.C. with the President of US Air and the New York Saatchi Chairman and President. My NYC guys talked about their golf game for two hours. Non-stop. I never had a chance to talk about airline industry issues. After yawing, the client guy left. Never heard from him again.

Early in my career, I got some advice from a smart Minneapolis agency leader. He would travel out of town to meet a business prospect. Invited him to dinner. Before they met, my guy would head to the restaurant, hand over his AMEX card and put down a 20% tip, told the restaurant to just charge the account… not to bring the bill over (made the guest go, “WTF” with a smile). Serve my guy a watered drink (see the video). Also when they walked into the restaurant to call my guy by his name and say “nice to see you again Mr. XXX.” Ok, yup, kinda corny. But for me a learning experience about managing an experience. Especially the part about the bill.

Need more info on how to win an account? Buy me dinner sometime. Or just… Buy my book. 

Mad Men’ Rodger Sterling On: Request For Proposal From Jaguar

Once Connected: Stay In Touch & Follow-Up With Your Future Client

I am going to keep this blog post brief. In fact, I will concentrate on one feel-good idea: do some follow-up touching.

Do The Client Follow-Up

No, it isn’t a 1960’s James Brown song. Follow-up means stay in touch with past clients, referrals that have not signed up yet and clients that you’ve pitched and did not win.

Need three reasons to have a follow-up plan?

1. Ex-clients can recircle to become a new client. I had a casino client that did just that after a couple of years of their wandering in the agency forest. It took them a while to re-realize just how wonderful my agency was.
2. Your ex CMO, the one that left your account in the lurch, will resurface someday at a new client organization that will want you.
3. Client prospects that did not choose you in a pitch will eventually tire of the agency they selected and might eventually realize that they want your brilliance. After a pitch loss, do not say, “oh, they didn’t select us – boo hoo” and crawl into a hole. Nope, stay in touch. After all, that client once put you on their new agency shortlist.

Here is a how-to from my book: The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches. (LOL, given the book’s sales figures, there is a good chance your competition has already read the book. Go buy it).

The Post Pitch Follow-Up

You’ve busted your ass to get into and then pitch the new client. Sorry, you did not win. Now what?

Chances are good that it has been at least a couple of months since the client or consultant first made contact. This major league pitch might have included an RFI, RFP, a kick-off meeting, phone calls, questions, and your own special strategies designed to make you look smart, passionate and well, you fill in the blanks of what you did ahead of the big presentation.

After the presentation, you graciously handed over your leave behind, smiled, hugged, and walked out. Now what? Really, now what? You could sit by the phone like a 1950’s ingénue on a Friday night waiting for that call or be a bit more aggressive. But, how aggressive? And how long should you take before you make contact? How passionate do you want to look – because there can be a fine line between looking passionate and, well, desperate.

As I have said before: every pitch lives in its own little world and has its own pace. Some clients recognize that you are anxious, there is a need for speed, and that they should get back to you quickly. Some are not so caring. Or worse, after going through the pitch process, they may be revaluating their initial business objectives and requirements. Need more maybes?

Maybe the client is now wondering about what type of agency they really need. Do they want a huge agency or a specialist? Maybe a decision maker just went out of mobile range to climb K2 for three weeks. Or, maybe, just maybe, the budget has shrunk.

Or, bam! After getting to know a few new agencies, they’ve realized that they really love the incumbent agency.

Lots of maybes. But fear of follow-up? Get over it. I mean, get over over-thinking. The deal is that you have no choice but to follow-up. You have to look like you care, a lot. Clients, good clients, respect passion. Here are my 3 follow-up rules.

1. Do it. Find the balance between looking very interested in working with the client and being respectful of their time. Being a nuisance does not work. Acting interested does. The other agencies will follow-up. Just do your own follow-up scenario smarter.
2. Find a value-add reason to follow-up. Chances are good that the client asked a question in the meeting that could be the basis for a follow-up call. It is quite possible that you didn’t have the time during the presentation to answer a question in detail, or you might have some new related research to impart. Maybe you held back some information, and it’s now time for your pre-planned reveal.
3. Be you. Maintain the personality you used in the presentation. Be genuine, professional, and if you can, add some humor if appropriate.

A Pitch Planning Tip:

Don’t wait till after the meeting to create a follow-up plan. Think ahead and have a follow-up insight or document at the ready. Consider embedding a preplanned reason to follow-up in your presentation. Let the client know that you will be sending them something and get it to them fast. Get it in their head that you are on the ball and are proactive.

Give me a call. Let’s discuss your last or future pitch.

The News Today

Stay with me on this post. The happiest part is at the end.

I live in Mexico. Split from Portland, Oregon in 2016. Nice to live in what is a happy country (despite the shitty press Mexico gets in the USA). By the way, Mexico’s inbound tourism is up.

Nice to earn a good living here. Nice cost of living.

Nicer to not be hammered by daily USA news. Today was particularly nuts.

Because of my move, I am often asked by my American agency clients about the how and why of my move down south.

To help… I am reposting my blog post Moving to Mexico. A super well-read post.

And, just because I do like going to a happy place, I offer the Beatles’ A Day In The Life.

“I read the news today, oh boy…”