MENTHER BUSINESS
Y
Pitching To Clients
ou’ve heard your friends and colleagues say it. You’ve said it often enough, yourself. “I’ve got a client pitch today,” or “I’m preparing for a client pitch.” What does that even mean? How often have you said it, reached the final hour before the pitch and grabbed a bunch of company documents, your laptop, a few business cards, raced off and hoped that the traffic will be light enough to get you there on time. Now, with online meetings being the go-to place to pitch, that same panic happens before the Zoom conversation. You book it, check your teeth for spinach, start the call and cross fingers that the elusive client remembers the meeting. If not, you have to start the process all over again. Most of us have discovered, to
our horror, that it’s more difficult to find a ‘missing’ client over the Internet than it ever was when there was a kind receptionist to help search the building. Nowadays, the worst part for me is that I get totally dressed up and made up before a Zoom meeting. But, before and after the meeting, there is literally
nowhere to go for coffee, besides into my own kitchen. It seems a dismally small reward for all the time and effort that has gone into the call! A pitch meeting traditionally is the pre-cursor to the negotiation process. Whether you are using it as a warm-up process or whether you expect to make a sale in the meeting, why not improve the experience all round and aim to GIRFT - ‘get it right first time’? GIRFT is my motto when I pitch. However, I know well enough that not everyone is on the same timeline as I am. If I don’t clinch that deal first time round, I don’t beat myself up. I go into every meeting knowing that I’ve done the preparation; I’ve made the connection and have a relationship in place that I can build on.
LOUISE MITCHELL Pitching Coach
Inspire | Connect | Empower
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