Search Results for: pitch

Ad Agency Pitch Killing Mistakes

Peter · March 19, 2015 · 1 Comment

Last Batch: Ad Agency Pitch Killing Mistakes

This is the third installment of my list of 16 ad agency pitch mistakes made by, um, you Ms. Ad Agency CEO, Business Development Director, Creative Director and other pitch team members.

This list is in my book, “The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches.” Amazon is holding your copy for you right here.

I’d like to reiterate what I said in part one of the series:

This expert list is one of the last chapters in the book. I consider it a coda to my detailed advice on how to nail a presentation. In this case, I wanted to see what people who have listened to thousands of hours of sales presentations from what should be the best presenters in business (advertising, digital, PR and media agency executives) had to say about mistakes that occur all too often.

“All to often”. Yes, I know it’s crazy. Have you made these pitch killing mistakes? According to these consultants…. You do.

Debbie Morrison: Director of Consultancy and Best Practice, ISBA, thegoodpitch.com, UK

In terms of things agencies do wrong in pitch presentations, the biggest howler I have come across which instantly alienates the client, is disharmony in the agency pitch team!

Either the session is dominated by one senior person and no other agency team members ‘dare’ or are given the chance to input. Or there have been times I’ve experienced in pitches when there has been obvious hostility between agency team members resulting in open warfare during the pitch presentation! Highly off putting and results in an instant de-listing in most cases!

Dan Pearlman: CEO/Managing Partner, Bob Wolf Partners/TPG, California

In answer to your question: Most agencies don’t pay enough attention to the chemistry and culture aspects of their pitch. Where do the philosophies and values of their firm align with those of the client? [Read more…] about Ad Agency Pitch Killing Mistakes

7 More Ridiculous Ad Agency Presentation and Pitch Mistakes

Peter · March 3, 2015 · 1 Comment

7 More Ad Agency Search Consultants On “The Single Worst Presentation Mistakes”

Here is Part Two of a list of ad agency sales presentation and pitch mistakes from some of the most experienced people ever to sit on the buyer’s side of a B2B sales presentation table. This list, and the next three parts are from my book, “The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches.” The poster on the left has all of my top 12 agency presentation mistake cartoons. These are all in the book.

Don’t miss Part One of the series and its first 6 mistakes… it is right here.

Mind Blowing.

As you will see from this series on agency presentation and pitch fails, most agencies make these mistakes. Yes, it is hard to step up and say that you and your team also make these kinds of mistakes. But, according to my agency search consultant friends, and their zillions of hours sitting across the table from you, you are in fact making these mistakes.

Pete Bogda: ABA Consulting, Inc., Texas

The common/worst mistakes that agencies make is not starting with the folks who will be on the client team, but load the room with agency top brass and/or stars. [Read more…] about 7 More Ridiculous Ad Agency Presentation and Pitch Mistakes

Freeze Your Ass Off While Pitching Ideas

Peter · February 26, 2015 · Leave a Comment

The Polar Bear Pitch Fest

The Finn’s have pitching figured out. And, as you know, are the best at freezing their asses off. Vodka anyone? Thanks to @Btubenetwork.

“The Levitan Pitch” Ad Agency Book Video

Peter · January 23, 2015 · Leave a Comment

“The Levitan Pitch” Ad Agency Book Author Video — On Amazon

I’ve written and talked about why and how your ad agency should write a book. You can see my presentation “The Agency Book. From Idea To Published In 6 Months” below.

In the presentation I mention that video is a great way to promote your agency-built book and that the video can go up on your author page on Amazon (very easy to do.) You can see how it fits in right HERE. But, to make your life easier, I put the video below.

As I discussed in the presentation, interviews are a great way to create lots of content – easily. In fact, my author video is an interview I set up with my friend Rebecca Armstrong, the leader of Portland’s ad agency North. The whole experience took about 45 minutes and it was done in one take. Again, very easy.

Here is my SlideShare presentation.

http://www.slideshare.net/peterspace/yes-you-can-write-and-publish-a-business-book-in-6-monthspeter-levitan-inbound-presentation-slideshare-version

Advertising Agency: Do Not Pitch That Account!

Peter · November 11, 2014 · Leave a Comment

Hello Advertising Agency Leaders: Do Not Pitch That Account – Yet!

Please, Don’t Do It!

The following blog post on when not to pitch for a new account is from my book, The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches. I suggest that you buy the book if you want to (do I need to say this?) win more pitches.

Buy the book – > Here.

Virtually all of the advertising search consultants that I interviewed for the book said that advertising agencies pitch too often. Many agencies seem to pitch almost any account that knocks.

They are inclined to pitch most incoming because (pick one or more): they are feeling the pinch of lower margins; they just lost their big account; they are generally nervous and don’t know the next time they will be invited to a dance; don’t have a serious new business plan that attracts the right clients; haven’t actually identified the types of clients they really want to work with, etc. This pitch anything that breathes mentality really reared its head big time during the recession, but it has become omnipresent in our new world of projects vs. AOR searches.

From the book….

Just Say No!

Before you embark on a new pitch, you should be asking yourself one extremely important question…

Should we be pitching this account?

I know what you are thinking… Levitan’s kidding, right? We’ve made it through the RFI and RFP stages, and now he wants us to ask if we should even be going to the finals?

It’s still ok to say “no”, and now is the time to take a deep breath and review a go-no-go decision. You are about to spend a great deal of time and money. Are you sure that you should go through the next step? Are your colleague’s groans getting louder? Looking in any way ambivalent about the pitch will not help your pitch team feel good about charging into it. Passionless pitches don’t win.

Pitch or not is usually one of the most difficult decisions agency manage- ment has to make. There is a good chance that you think that you’ve already answered this question if you participated in an RFP that led to your selection as a short list candidate. I believe that even if you’ve performed a sound decision making process, now is the time to stop to determine if this potentially expensive pitch is worth the time, effort, and human and cash cost.