Back
PM Forum - London
Displaying Flair – Crafting persuasive pitches to win profitable work
What is ‘flair’ and how can we inject it into pitches and proposals to gain a competitive edge? Those were the questions posed by John de Forte at the November PM Forum event. (As those whose other subscription is Horse and Hound can attest, “a hound’s sense of smell” is the answer to the first – but I digress.)
For starters, “flair” is most certainly not the bureaucratic process that now typifies so many proposals – to the contrary, these processes have often been designed by procurement teams specifically to strip out any sort of subjectivity from the decision.
The good news is that demonstrating ‘flair’ isn’t limited to just an individual personalities, and more importantly it has a track-record of success! John illustrated with a framework of four key ways to differentiate your proposal: Client understanding, Problem-solving, Adding value and Presentation.
Client understanding is perhaps best illustrated by the now-famous London bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games, where it is now widely accepted (and imitated) that it was their understanding of the IOC’s unstated desire to leave behind a legacy from the games which won it for them. Another example of this was when the Seventh Day Adventists put their pension fund management out to tender, it was the firm that recognised that their belief in healthy living directly impacted their members’ life expectancy to the tune of nearly six years.
Problem solving is demonstrated through a pro-active approach to both identifying potential issues, and crucially offering solutions. While adding value can be as simple as a pricing model customised to allow the client maximum control – although the ‘freebies’ don’t hurt either, as long as they genuinely are added extras.
Presentation is the part which is most natural for marketers, but that doesn’t mean it’s any to challenge the still lingering perception that drafting a proposal is a writing exercise which can be achieved by pulling up ‘one we did earlier’ and tweaking. A winning proposal starts with the ideas that are then developed into a presentation catered to the client demonstrating the insight, problem-solving and added value, and reviewed from a ‘clients’ eyes’ perspective.
And once the client has made their selection remember to de-brief with them – regardless of whether you won or lost – their perspective is invaluable. At the end of the day, it’s still all about the client.
Dominic Graham
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu
Back