Peter Levitan & Co.

The New Business of Advertising

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How To Win The Advertising Agency Pitch

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Hubspot Advertising Agency Expert Series: How To Win The Pitch

Screen Shot 2017-03-30 at 3.29.41 PMI won my first advertising agency pitch over 30 years ago and have been pitching ever since. And, channeling a bit of chutzpah, I’ve won more than my fair share at Saatchi & Saatchi, at my two Internet startups (I pitched VC’s and advertising clients) and at my own ad agency. In fact, I put my not so secret secrets in my book, The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches. I say not so secret because the agencies that win more pitches do so by following a set of logical rules or processes and truly understand the needs of the client being pitched.

Frankly, I’d love you to buy the book. However, our friends at Hubspot will help you get going to more wins by having me deliver a 1-hour seminar on pitching in their Agency Expert Webinar Series.

The “Win” session is in a couple of weeks – so get it on your calendar…. June 14 at 11 AM ET that’s 4 PM GMT.

 

My online presentation: The Pitch: Present Smarter To Win MoreClients. You can sign up right here @ Registration.

My goal is to help your agency and people master the new business pitch process. This means more wins; more profits; more happiness; more craft beers and longer holidays (OK, more beers.)

About HubSpot’s Agency Expert Webinar Series

HubSpot’s Agency Expert Webinar series is an opportunity for professionals in the agency space to hear from industry leaders and learn about their areas of expertise.

Hear from thought leaders about their experiences in agency life in one-hour YouTube live segments, focusing on topics ranging from agency growth and brand experiences to finding new talent and procuring clients.

My Presentation On Pitching & Presenting

My presentation will track the key elements and advice from my book, “The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches.”

You don’t have to buy the book to track the presentation. But, why not buy it anyway – you will win more advertising agency pitches. Hey, go ahead and buy multiple copies. You can do that with just a couple of clicks … and even get a free chapter at the top of this page.

What You Will Learn

I’ll track these key elements of the book…

Chapters One & Two:

These chapters reveal the very high cost of failing to run well-crafted, efficient pitches. Chapter One includes an instructive and humorous story about the worst advertising pitch ever… for the global Adidas account at Saatchi London. Chapter Two offers a system for how to choose which pitches to go for and which must be avoided.

Chapters Three & Four:

Chapter Three begins to help you position your pitch and presentation for success by learning how you will understand the client’s mindset, type of assignment and what style of agency and relationship the client is actually looking for. Chapter Four covers “The 12 Deadliest Presentation Mistakes” that must be avoided to win that new account.

Chapter Five:

This detailed chapter is a ‘how-to’ of 30 techniques on how to build a brilliant presentation that will increase your odds of winning. These ideas cover the three major elements of a successful pitch: process management, content development, and how to craft a compelling presentation. Each element is supported by an insight that offers a fast way to achieve these objectives.

Chapters Six & Seven:

These chapters deliver insightful interviews with advertising industry leaders. You’ll get valuable learning via 14 interviews with a range of clients, presentation gurus, and industry association experts. Finally, the book includes real-world insights from 16 of the world’s leading search consultants. Believe me, they’ve heard it all.

My Favorite Review of The Levitan Pitch

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You Suck Levitan

b2ap3_large_dont-suckI haven’t looked at my book’s Amazon page for awhile. I’m happier looking at the Amazon Createspace page that shows my sales. However, I did take a look yesterday after a friend alerted me to a 1-star review and found this beat-down. Looks like I suck.

Me thinks that EverybodylovesKittens needs a good hug.

Screen Shot 2017-02-18 at 9.42.37 AM

OK, next step… for you. Buy the book, hopefully enjoy it (and win more new agency accounts) and then leave me a happy-puppy review. Thanks.

My Book’s Video On Ad Agency Pitching

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My Book On Ad Agency Pitching – And, The Use Of Video To Sell It

TheLevitanPitch_COVER_Small-202x300A good and smart advertising friend is in the process of marketing his new book, “Rise Up: How To build A Socially Conscious Business”. Writing books is a good thing. He asked for some ideas on book marketing since I’ve published four books – two non-fiction and two photo books  – with another on its way.

Here is one big book marketing idea… Create an informational sales video for your book and get it up on your book’s Amazon page and… your book’s sales landing page. I put my video below to give you an example. However, here are a few more points.

  • Write a book to help sell your agency. Pick a subject that deals with your target market’s ‘pain points.’ My pain point, targeted at YOU, is how to win more new business pitches.
  • Your book will make you look like an expert and isn’t that what your future client is looing for?
  • The book does not have to be looooooong. Just, super smart and helpful. Look at how short many of Seth Godin’s books are
  • Use smart interviews with industry leaders and influencers to create content and make friends. About one-third of book is loaded with highly useful interviews.
  • Market the book in your inbound and outbound marketing programs. You know how to do this.
  • Repurpose and leverage the book’s content on your Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, blog pages.
  • Guest post on big industry websites to gain broad awareness and message reach.
  • Get your friends, like me, to help promote your book.
  • Use the book to get invited to speak at conferences. I am in April in L.A. speaking at Hannapin Marketing’s Hero Conference. It is the world’s largest PPC conference. My session is directed to digital marketing agencies: “Is PPC The Smartest Way To Sell Your Agency’s Services? Um, No.”
  • OK, one more link. here is my HubSpot presentation on why you should write a book …

My ad agency dedicated book, Buy This Book. Win More Pitches. (see above to purchase) just had its best sales month in January. I think that is because agency folks just like you thought hard over the holidays about how to grow your agency. As a FYI, in addition to books sales, I also get a large number of qualified leads for my consulting business at the start of the year. Looks like you guys have some pent up sales needs. Give ma a shout, I can help you get this whole process right.

OK, My Video

I asked Rebecca Armstrong, Managing director of Portland’s North agency to interview me. Easy!

 

Watch As Canada Pitches Clinton & Trump

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Canada Pitches Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump

images flagI have worked with a few Canadian advertising and digital agencies on their business development programs. I even went so far as to learn Canadian. Even looked at a map of Canada. Note: my personal research indicates that 94% of USA citizens cannot find Toronto on a North American map.

For some reason, and this is way unexpected, Canadian agencies actually have a serious sense of humor. Something most American agencies do not. Crazy right? See what I mean in this post about unignorable agencies. This post includes Canada’s John St.

A head scratcher… Why don’t more advertising agencies employ humor in their new business programs? In most cases, agencies say close to exactly what the agency down the street says in the same way that the other agency says it. Dumbfounding if you think that agencies are in the business of helping their clients stand out from highly competitive packs.

Humor tells stories. Humor sells. Humor gets passed around. Humor goes viral (like the following video will.)

Now, With Even More Laughs

Today, I offer more from Zulu Alpha Kilo and its pitch for the Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump campaign accounts. As ZAK says:

After winning Ad Age Small Agency of the year in 2016, Toronto-based Zulu Alpha Kilo decided to break into the U.S. market with a tongue in cheek political satire. Frank Zulu is the fictional founder of the agency and a character created for Zulu’s parody website which pokes fun at the absurdities of all agency websites and even Zulu itself.

Ok, on to the Clinton and Trump pitch video.

The wall copy (think Mexicans and emails) alone is worth the price of watching.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEvx7_Lc7Lg&feature=youtu.be

 

 

The Advertising Agency Pitch System

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The Advertising Agency Pitch System

keep-calm-pitchThe Levitan Advertising Agency Pitch System is included in the book, The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches. Just in case you haven’t looked up yet, the book is available at the top of this page. A few thousand books have been read by your competitors — and some might be using my tried and true strategies in their next pitch — against you. (How is that for a sorta hard sell?)

An element of the pitch system is the Pitch Playbook that supports the book. These are essentially simple tools to help you manage the pitch process. Here is one of the Playbooks. The others can be seen right here.

Use the Playbook to get past the inefficiency of the standard pitch process and reduce your agency’s collective groan when they hear that you are about to embark on yet another new, sometimes random, pitch.

A Big Issue

Too many agencies pitch too many accounts too often. They do not have their very own advertising agency pitch system. This can be disastrous for a few reasons:

You are pitching accounts that do not fit into your business plan and model. Worse, you have little chance of winning the account.

You are using up agency brain power and money trying to win business that you should not pitch in the first place.

You are burning out your team.

You are spending thousands for the wrong reasons.

The Go Quiz is a tool to help you decide — should you pitch that new client account or not.

The Go Quiz – 11 Essential Questions

[Read more…] about The Advertising Agency Pitch System