The Agency Pitch : 10 slides for 2016

Your simple shiny new capabilities deck

As a frequent marketing agency advisor, I have the honor of going into some of our industry’s most creative organizations. I am constantly inspired by their imagination and way they can transform that creativity into reality.

But with that great creativity can often come blockages on the business side. Small things that feel unsurmountable. But they are not. You just need a kick in the right direction.

In 2015, the biggest one from every agency I met with…. ?

The capabilities deck.

It’s dreaded. Politics, drama or simply — “we don’t have time.” Or worse, “we just send people to our site.” Well, that’s a whole other story, but after capabilities decks, sites are the last thing that are frequently updated.

I find myself this week writing another quick overview with pointers to friends who own an agency. And, I thought, ‘the rules of the deck and what needs to go in it don’t change, so why not just publish it for all?’

With a fresh start to 2016, now is a great time for all agencies to tighten the bolts and give a quick dust off to the dreaded deck.

I promise, It won’t take months or even weeks.

First things first — GOALS :

Here are the four things you want to solve for with your capabilities deck.

Print this guy and work through it with your team.

For purposes of this post, let’s assume you are writing for an in-person capabilities walk through. Your mailer should be almost identical, but will need copy to reinforce key voice-over moments.

Two key things to keep in mind that go hand in hand.

1. You already have a seat at the table. A client is willing to sit and listen to you which means you have passed the first wave of credentials. Assume they did their homework and are familiar with your company and services. It’s now time to explain your brand, your culture, and what really makes you stand out enough to earn their trust as a partner.
2. You are here to sell. Look the part, dress the part, and be prepared. Rehearse for meetings. Do your homework on the brand. And listen. The most effective salespeople know that listening is the most important part of the job (80/20 rule). So if your capabilities walk through is all about you and no time to listen and get to know your client — you aren’t doing your job.

Next — GUIDELINES :

Time: You should allocate 20 minutes for your part of a sales pitch.
Hard? Yes. Impossible? No.

File Type: Keynote or Powerpoint. Your call. Use smart transitions as you can. Try not to make this in InDesign as you need to be able to change it on the fly with non-creatives. Be sure to add in the client logo. Have a backup PDF ready to go right after your meeting.

Visuals: As much visual & voice over as possible. Text on slides can be your worst enemy.

Style: Pick a style — direct or conversational.

Design it: You are great at interfaces and visual storytelling right? So apply that to your deck. Design the deck to tell your story in the simplest way.

Short and sweet : Based on meeting format
In Person : As little text as possible — video and visuals all the way.

A Mailer : Bullet, bullet, bullet. 32 point font and never drop below 12. Every word must count.

Energy: It’s important. You make creative things! Inspire with the work, the results and the power of your media. Also, look up and check on the room’s energy during your meeting. Be prepared to quickly pivot or engage your audience as needed.

Who to bring: Three people max from your side. Ideally two. Bring only people who will contribute in conversation and presentation. No seat fillers!

Be present: No phone checking, fidgeting, whisper-chatting, spacing out or looking out the window. Stay engaged in the meeting!

Know your audience: Put yourself in the shoes of your audience. Some of the things you have done will be over their head. Know this & your room. Adjust the speed of your voice. Be soft, informative, and approachable. A great agency can make a client become progressive in how they constantly look at each solution or problem from the eyes of their client.

Listening could be the best kept secret you’ve never thought to try.

Step by Step — YOUR SLIDES :

In a past life, I had to pitch to VC’s. For real money, not just a website or agency account. And my business partner happens to be one of the best ones in the business. VC’s know a thing or two about pitching and getting someone to believe and quickly understand your brand. Many rules from my partner & people like Guy Kawasaki apply to our industry. Guy’s 10 slide pitch has stuck with me over the years. I’ve created this format that follows his core tried & true rules. And in turn, that advisement to agencies has lead to many fruitful client pitches.

This format offers a great narrative around explaining just the right amount about your brand.

[SLIDE ONE]: Why what you do is important?
Here you want to make a correlation between why what you do is important in our industry. Any client who makes the decision to work with you should feel supported by momentum and support. It may even help them stand out within their organization.

• A VR Company : Why is this important for a client to make an investment in it?
• A new project collaboration model : Why is that a model a client can feel safe with? Who supports it that is like them?
• An experiential agency: How can you inspire confidence in what you do being less of stunt and has major growth in ROI vs other channels?

Think of this being a statement, a quote or a visual.
It can be straightforward or provocative.

[SLIDE TWO]: What you do
Short and sweet. This is your one-liner hook that defines what you do. And probably the hardest. But just write it quickly as whatever comes to mind and move past it.

Tips

• Creating emotional experiences is NOT what goes here. Very clearly define what you do in a way you could tell anyone at a cocktail party.
• Don’t be afraid of the word agency. It is a business that performs a service. Modify it however you like, but at the end of the day — you are an agency and that is fine. Definition of agency.

[SLIDE THREE]: Who do you do it for?
You can go a few ways on this slide.

• Brand Board : If you want to show off who you work for with a brand board, this is the place. But don’t be casual about it when it comes up. State why it earned a spot in the presentation and why it’s important to you. What is the thread between these brands? Be proud of this slide.
• Type of client : Do you have a type of brand or actual marketer client you prefer to work with? Are they known for innovation, a culture, or a risk taking attitude?

[SLIDE FOUR]: Why should anyone want to work with you? What makes you stand out?

When Betty tells Joe about your company, what is that amazing thing about you that will stick with them.

“You should work with this agency because they [work in this really interesting way].”… I just met that agency the other day, [they are so unique in how they].”

In boring terms, it’s called your Unique Selling Proposition(USP)and something I find creatives want to avoid fully. No great artist who is worth their salt wants to define what makes them awesome. Nor do they want to pick one thing to pin themselves to.

But you have to, and the successful agencies I work with take an active interest in solving this core positioning battle.

Examples of “thought starter” categories where USP’s come to life : culture, price, service model, quality, dependability, way of doing X, speed, a process and so forth.

Note : Most people go for culture or a unique service model ( i.e. working onsite with your client).

[SLIDE SETS]: FIVE, SIX, SEVEN
Note : This may be multiple slides to showcase creative work.

This is how you apply that key USP.

Select three projects that demonstrate tell an organized story for this client. Change these based on the client or project formats you think they may be interested in seeing. Guide through the selection of the three cases and why selected in this order.

Writing a good case study

• Flip through creative during the story but make it big, bold and beautiful. Visuals you can voice-over and/or tell through a quick video are best.
• Video : If you are showing this it should be to visualize the experience in a way that can not told as static images OR should be a full case study with all the details built in so you do not need to add voice-over.
• STAR. Still the best approach to telling your story. Each person names it differently, so here are some thoughts to guide you
• The Situation : The Ask, The need, The Upfront — whatever you want to call it, choose one word that works for you to describe the situation. Put your insights in here if you have real strategic insights.
  i.e. losing sales, no awareness, market down , competitors creeping up
• The Task : What needed to get done by your engagement
  i.e. get people to taste something, get millennials talking, gain earned media, buy a product
• The Action : What you did. The idea.
  i.e. we produced a campaign that did xyz, we created a new line of products that did xyz, we changed an internal business process by xyz (Leave as many tech & production details out of this unless they are incredibly pertinent.)
• The Result : What we did for the brand
  i.e. we got X press, this amount of people did X, moved the market, sales numbers went up by x

Remember : All of the case content should be VO when in-person. If you have a powerful Situation or Metric, use text to call that out just like you would a visual.

Written cases should be only for a mailer — which of course will be short and sweet with bullets :)

[SLIDE EIGHT]: What is it like working with you ?
This can be your unique way of working if you have one. Use charts if you want to show a process. Remember, you don’t need to write every little detail.

i.e. do you do workshops with each project, a discovery phase, do you do sprints & prototypes, is there a way you imbed at the brand?

[SLIDE NINE] : Climax slide
You have developed a great story, now it’s time to climax — ha, for real. Anything else unique we need to know about you that demonstrates why you are awesome? How can you now drive home or open a sale opportunity?

Is there one last little thing to remember you by? Perhaps an image of your office, a funny quote, something interesting that helps to speak more to the nature of the culture you’ve created at your agency.

[SLIDE TEN] : Over to them
This slide now should prompt you to start a discussion with the client. You had 40% of the meeting time, now you want to put 60% in their corner.

Let the client guide the conversation. What was interesting? What may be on their mind? Where do we go from here?

Conversation doesn’t kick start as you would like?

• Have back up cases to show
• Refer to what you know about them & a guided set of sales questions that can help to surface discussion.
• Perhaps have some prototypes of work with you or if in your office, all set up for guided interaction

And, voila. You have a capabilities deck.

There are a lot of other gimmicks or bells and whistles that can add to presentation such as room dressing, using your website for the presentation or something food inspired.

Just remember — be confident and succinct in telling your story. You’ve earned it. You do great work. You have a seat at the table. The more you do beyond that — the more it may feel like you are overcompensating.

This is not to say that this is the be all, end all format for every creative agency— but it will get you to a great starting point. And one that is a proven format that marketers like.

Feel free to add and subtract where needed as long as you are able to address the core goals of your deck and format guidelines.

I hope this can help to create a guideline to start this ominous task. If you are a creative agency, of course,reach out with any questions. I’d be happy to advise or offer a copy of a great template to get you going.

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Lindsey lives & works in Dumbo, Brooklyn. She runs Sunday Dinner. A company that exists to help brand marketers & independent agencies uncover new ways to work together for today’s modern business. Engagements often come together in the form of an agency tour, workshop or project assignment.

And yes, there are dinners. Check them out here.