7 Success Factors in a Client Pitch for Advertising Account Executives
Pitching an online project to clients can be a challenge for an advertising account executive, since it involves research, market knowledge, design capabilities, programming skills, and technical knowledge. Or does it?
Your agency is doing more and more online projects, you’re great with clients, but your online marketing and technical skills could be better. What to do? Observe these guidelines and increase your win-rate.
- Listen to client needs and think like their customers. You are trying to address customer needs and make your client successful in doing so.
- Ask the right questions your client may not have thought of. Show your smarts and impress on the client that you understand their market and business trends.
- Conduct an internal brainstorming session to source your best thinking. Get a potential user involved to get qualitative input that holds water with marketers.
- Create a business case for your pitch. Nice pictures and “creative” ideas are not enough any more. Demonstrate how you intend to monetise the solution.
- Visualise your online concept with a wireframe or a sketch. A couple of free-hand sketches or simple wireframes will get your concept across better than mere words.
- Build a relationship from the start. Easier said than done, just don’t forget about it and launch straight into your pitch. Use every opportunity to connect and feel.
- Go on a customer journey together. A wireframe is perfect for taking the client along on a ride through your solution, show how customers connect with the brand, and get client buy-in.
Note that all of the above tips take an active stance, including listening and connecting with the client on an emotional & personal level.
Get on the Same Page with your Client, Literally
The technical side of online projects becomes far less daunting when you can first get on the same page with clients, demonstrate how you will add value, identify with their pain, and have what it takes to build a successful solution.
According to Advertising Age, agencies win only 25% of pitches on average, which can be discouraging for account executives and their agencies. Yet some pitches and agencies are more successful in closing the business than others. Here is why and how.
It’s all too easy to strut your stuff and do a lot of talking, but listening very carefully shows the client that you really want to understand what they truly need, some of which may not be in the brief or have been voiced expressively by the client. Find the questions behind the question and make a connection that shows you’re on the same page as the client and want to solve their issue with them to make them successful.
Visualisation helps, since a picture tells a story and can be very evocative. A pencil sketch or wireframe will serve well to illustrate how a customer might interact with a new product and how the brand could be presented or revealed. The pitch after the credentials presentation needs to get specific and offer value for the hour your client is investing in you.
Your presentation needs to orchestrate your business case based on market research, client and end customer interviews, and your experience with similar projects or development processes. While some clients may respond very well to the technical elements of a solution (techie), others may want to primarily feel good about you (relationship), and the financially oriented business manager may simply think of cost and ROI (line manager with financial responsibility).
Advertising account managers need to be able to dance in all three arenas and be flexible during the pitch to switch from one costume to the next depending on the person they are addressing or the pain points that start to show during a meeting. Successful account managers can straddle the somewhat schizophrenic roles of being on the agency side as the marketing expert and consultant while also identifying with the client and getting on side with them to solve customer and market needs.
If the client relationship is on-going, a workshop-style setting with a team process may be a good way to address issues together, interact with visualised material such as a wireframe mockup or prototype and get some emotional mojo going to successfully embark on the project and start to address problems while you are listening for clues and pitching your ideas at the same time.
I know, good luck with that, but hey, no one ever said working in an agency was a piece of cake!
