Perfect Pitch Live
17 January, 2007 at 1:16 pm 5 comments
Almost all of London’s Planning and New Business community (plus Northern Planner and I) packed themselves into the Holiday Inn last night to hear Jon Steel reveal the secrets of the Perfect Pitch
The book and Jon’s talk were slightly skewed towards WPP-style international agency networks and their clients (‘first fly your global pitch team to one location’ and ‘as you’ll have several months to work on the pitch’ being among the classics in the book) but Jon was warmly received and made some very sensible points:
1) Dump the Blackberry. Apparently your IQ drops ten points when you’re constantly being interrupted by calls and emails. Jon also pointed out that the subconscious mind is better at processing data than the conscious mind, so you need to stop work and go and do something else for a bit to let your brain get on with it.
2) Bin PowerPoint. Or at the very least just include a few key images and statements on very clean slides – put all the detail in the leave behind.
3) When in doubt, leave it out. An image tells a thousand charts. Just because you’ve done half a dozen focus groups and commissioned some Quant to boot, it doesn’t mean that you have to report it all in detail. Insights only.
Of course, in a perfect world we wouldn’t ever have to go through pitches – clients choosing agencies on the basis of their reputation, work for existing clients and chemistry with the account team. But maybe its only the frantic environment of a pitch that produces the kind of breakthrough thinking that clients are looking for?
By the way – Hello to anyone who was there and I didn’t say hi to – for example I’ve no idea what Beeker looks like. Perhaps we should have had badges with name, agency and blog on to make things easier.
Entry filed under: Account Planning, agencies, Planning. Tags: Account Planning, Blackberry, Jon Steel, Perfect Pitch, Pitching, Planning, PowerPoint, Talk.
1. beeker | 17 January, 2007 at 3:10 pm
What a shame not to see you! I don’t have orange hair. Was near the front on the right. But had to scamper off right after so didn’t get to see anyone properly. Badges next time.
2. Northern Planner | 24 January, 2007 at 10:34 am
Interesting thoughts on the value of pitching. Do you perform better when you’re up against it?
3. almostalwaysthinking | 24 January, 2007 at 12:50 pm
I think that teams perform better when they have a common goal and timeframe to work towards, which a pitch is a great example of.
4. what did you do last night to make me feel proud? « (almost) always thinking | 30 November, 2007 at 3:17 pm
[...] Part one: Daryl Goodrich, director of the ‘Sport at Heart’ and ‘Inspiration‘ films that were instrumental in helping London to win the 2012 Olympics talked us through both films, complete with storyboards, anecdotes and the tale of his own pitch process to get the films into production. He’s a brilliant, relaxed presenter that had the room hooked. The subject matter was pretty fascinating too – and a great accompaniment to Jon Steel’s own take on the run up to the final pitch in his book ‘Perfect Pitch’. [...]
5. never thought I’d write this, but I think I disagree with Jon Steel « (almost) always thinking | 12 August, 2008 at 2:01 pm
[...] one of the most valuable things a Planner can offer as part of their toolkit. He’s written some brilliant books and his track record in Planning speaks for itself, but on this occasion I have to politely disagree [...]