Monthly Archives: January 2016

Tips on the Pitch

The Pitch is as important as the proposal. –Brandon Eley

This is important: your proposal is not your pitch.

When you are pitching a new client on why they should choose you over your competitors, you need to do more than read from a paper proposal to win over your prospects.

Think about the key messages you want to convey in your presentation. What is it you want the potential client to remember about you, your team, and your proposal? Is it your experience in their market niche? Your expertise in a particular technology segment such as mobile or application development? Is it your creative strengths and awards you’ve won? You should come up with two or three messages you want your potential client to remember about you first.

Tell a Story
The most effective public speakers don’t get up in front of a large audience and lecture for an hour like a college professor. They tell stories that captivate their audience instead of putting them to sleep with bullet points and graphs.

Tell Them Three Times
Tell them what you’re going to tell them, then tell them, and finally tell them what you just told them.

You want your client to remember two or three key things from your presentation. Tell them at the beginning of the presentation what you’re going to cover. Then go into the details of your presentation. Finally, summarize what you just told them and wrap up your presentation by reminding them of the key points.

Brandon Eley is the Interactive Director for Kelsey Advertising & Design and the co-author of Online Marketing Inside Out.