Finding Your Presentation Voice

Having worked at 100+ agencies and trained or coached thousands of people in presentation skills, I have reached a conclusion that are plenty of different ways to a great presentation and just as many ways to do a poor presentation.  While this may seem counterintuitive, my point is that there is no one way to do it.

The problem is that when well-meaning people try to help others with their presentation skills, the end result is advice that basically says “do it just like me and you will be great.”  This creates many unintended consequences like having a group of people that all look the same or having many presenters that simply look out of sorts, trying to be something that they are not.

Everyone needs to find their own speaking style.  One that allows their natural personality to come through and accentuates their strengths.  For some, this style might be more measured and thoughtful.  That does not give that thoughtful presenter permission to be a sleepy presenter but it does give them permission not to be overly boisterous. 

Other presenters will naturally be more high energy.  They are the jolt of caffeine that interjects new life into the presentation. 

Just think for a moment what it would be like if everyone was the jolt of caffeine.  That would be a very difficult presentation to sit through.  Just like all clients sitting across the table from you are not alike, your pitch team should have similar diversity in their presentation styles.

While I am more than happy to give people a great deal of latitude in finding their presentation voice.  That does not mean that there are not some rules.  No ummmming and ahhhhhing your way through a presentation. No low energy presentations to the point of sleepiness.  No reading from notes.  Put the laser pointer down…you look ridiculous.  I could go on with the list but you get the idea.

Work to find your own voice.  Don’t try to mimic someone else’s voice.  It is fine to learn from watching others present but don’t abandon your own style in an effort to present like someone else.  Even if they are your boss;-)

Mark Schnurman

President -- www.filamentinc.com

The power of non-verbal communication

I am not one to place tremendous importance on non-verbal communication and body language but it is undeniable that it has an impact on a presentation. Since the difference between winning a pitch and losing a pitch is a collection of small differences between agencies, we can't ignore subtleties like body language.

The following article in forbes.com does a nice job discussing body language. 

Forbes article on body language

Ejnjoy...
Mark Schnurman
Co-founder
www.filamentinc.com

Loctite wins the Superbowl!!!

The general consensus seems to be that Fallon's Loctite Glue won the Superbowl. 
 See Loctite Glue spot.

The spot was funny and creative but as I walked through Home Depot the other day, I saw the Loctite Super Glue display.  $3.48 for a little bottle.  Assuming that Home Depot makes a $1.00 or so in mark up, that means Loctite needs to sell two-million or so bottles just to pay for the media (fuzzy math, not real math).

For a product that you only use occasionally, that seems like a tall order to me.  It is not the low price point but the infrequency of the purchase/need that makes it look like a curious choice for the Superbowl. 

I have read that Loctite spent what amounts to their entire marketing budget on the spot.  Time will tell if it was a wise investment.

Thoughts?

Mark Schnurman
Filament Inc.

David Droga thoughts on work ethic and creativity

I found a nice podcast by David Droga on work ethic and creativity.  It is interesting to hear his point of view on what he needed, and still needs, to do to be successful. 

My favorite quote from the podcast..."I wish creatives cared more about the ramifications of their work not just care about the creativity of it."  Very powerful.

Enjoy... http://drt.fm/david-droga/

Regards,
Mark Schnurman
Filament Inc.

Jon Steel, head of planning at WPP, give a great talk on communication, creativing and pitching new biz.

I have read The Perfect Pitch, by Jon Steel, and thought it was a great book on the new business process at ad agencies.  I just found a podcast by Jon covering a number of different issues from communication, creativity, how being "connected" 24 hours a day stifles problem solving and new business.  Clearly a very smart guy with some terrific insights.

Listen to Jon at  http://drt.fm/jon-steel/


Enjoy...
Mark Schnurman
filamentinc.com 

The Spark - Inspiring Better Presentations

While this blog is dedicated to winning new business part of the new business process is the presnetation.  Filament has launched a new blog (The Spark) dedicated to inspiring better presentations which looks  both withing advertising and beyond advertising to share lessons and thoughts on what makes for a great, compelling presentation.

Check out The Spark.

The following is a great blog post from The Hodges Partnership, a PR firm in Richmond VA.  I thought it offered great insight into life at an agency.

Eight things I’ve learned after one year at a PR agency

May 20, 2014 | by Kelsey Leavey

After turning my internship at Hodges into my first real job, no one has been able to scare me away, yet. During my first year working in an agency I’ve had a variety of experiences – writing pitches, helping to plan the office holiday party, creating social content for clients and keeping the supply of caffeine and sugar at an all-time high. Here are the eight lessons I’ve learned during my first year in PR:

1. Time management is important. Working at an agency means you’ll have quite a few balls in the air at one time, and it’s your job to ensure that none of them hit the ground. Turning in something late no longer means getting a bad grade, it means an angry client. Always ask for clear deadlines and break your habit of procrastination early.
2. Don’t be afraid to speak up. Your ideas are valid. At THP we do agency brainstorms twice a month and everyone is expected to contribute. Whether you’ve been in your job for five weeks or for five years, provide thoughtful input. Don’t blurt out all 50 ideas you have but don’t be afraid to share the ones you feel strongly about.
3. Ask for feedback. Create an environment where people feel comfortable sharing constructive criticism with you. Did you write your first pitch? Ask for honest edits and advice from a coworker. Asking for feedback now will help you to avoid developing bad habits that will be hard to fix later in your career.
4. Social Media will continue to change. In the past year Facebook redesigned its timeline and newsfeed, Twitter drastically changed the layout of its profiles and LinkedIn launched Sponsored Updates, changing the game for companies using the platform. Stay knowledgeable on these constant changes and be flexible to changing your social strategies.
5. Writing takes practice. There are major differences in writing the 15 page research papers you wrote in college and PR writing. Pitches and press releases should be short and concise, while also eye catching and interesting. Blog and social content should fit the client’s voice and tone. And if you’re writing for a B2B client, learning how to be a great technical writer will be important. Raise your hand for writing projects when they come up; it’s the only way to gain valuable experience.
6. Do your research on reporters. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about media relations during this past year, it is to spend valuable time researching who you’re pitching and know what they are interested in. Doing this won’t guarantee a story, but it increases the likelihood that they will acknowledge your pitch or keep your information for when they have a story that is a fit for your client.
7. Don’t be the last one to arrive and the first one to leave. There’s no such thing as homework in the real world, but there are times where there just isn’t enough time in your work day to get everything done. That means coming in early or staying late. Trust me, your coworkers and bosses will notice if you’re always the last one to arrive in the morning and the first one to leave.
8. Don’t be discouraged. There will be days where you send out the perfect pitch to a reporter that should jump at the opportunity to cover your client, and you’ll hear crickets. And there will be days where things just can’t seem to go right. Don’t let the bad days discourage you from working hard and doing your best work.

But hands down, the most important thing I’ve learned at Hodges is that the number of days without donuts WILL determine office happiness (read: that number needs to be low). If you’re in your first year in PR, share what you’ve learned in the comments below.

-- Great job by Kelsey at www.hodgespart.com sharing her thoughts on the industry.
-- Mark Schnurman
-- President www.filamentinc.com

Don't pitch like Madonna's halftime show

Maybe I need a break from new business pitches because I am starting to see parallels in the most peculiar places. The most recent parallel was in last night's Super Bowl Halftime show.

It seemed as if Madonna, in an effort to be FCC-friendly and inclusive, strayed from her irreverent style and settled smack dab in the middle of mediocrity. In an effort to make the show less lame, she added Trojan warriors, a high-tech stage, LMFAO, Cee Lo Green and M.I.A. All of which made the show busier but no less interesting. How often are the advertising equivalent of Trojan warriors added to your pitch? The result is the same... a busier, but no more compelling pitch.

Just like bells and whistles don't make a boring halftime show any less boring, those same bells and whistles also don't help to make a new business presentation any more compelling.

It is easy to get caught up in the fun of finding new and interesting tricks to make new business pitches cool, but it is not always time well spent. Clients are smart enough to see really smart thinking and creative. Over time, clients have also become adept at recognizing pitch bells and whistles.

Ask yourself and your team "what do we want the client to remember about our agency?" Odds are, the answer is not that you had really cool Trojan warriors.

Mark Schnurman
Pitch Consultant -- Filament Inc.

www.filamentinc.com

Every Presenters Nightmare

The following post is from Jim Joseph's blog, Jim is President of Lippe Taylor Brand Communications and author of the book The Experience Effect. I thought his post was a wonderful reminder about both preparation and connecting with the audience.

Every Presenter's Nightmare
I guess I should consider myself lucky that I lasted all these years without it ever happening to me. But yesterday it did. The moment I have dreaded for years ... the moment that all public speakers dread.

I was speaking at the MDPA marketing conference just outside Washington, DC ... talking about the evolution of social media especially as it relates to wellness. The MC of the conference makes a very articulate introduction for me and I confidently walk up onto stage. I say "Good Morning" with all the gusto I've got and hit the button to advance the next slide ...

Nothing happens.

I click again, I point it at the screen, I click again ... Nothing happens. Thinking that maybe something will save me I click again ... Nothing happens.

I decide to give an intro to the slides while the IT folks figure out what's going on -- to buy myself some time ... Nothing happens.

By the look on the IT guy's face, I quickly realize that I am hanging out there on my own. Forty-five minutes of content and I've got no slides. So I just start talking ... and something really cool happens.

I connect with the audience!

I pretty succinctly convey the message I want to make without a single slide. I proceed to tell a story of what I want people to hear from me. I put all my attention into the audience, rather than on the slides. And although I may not have hit every bullet point from every slide, I certainly did deliver the message. And because everyone felt so bad for me (and afraid for when it's their turn), they actually paid attention. Nothing like sympathy to draw in a crowd!!

What a concept. A story that people paid attention to ... at a marketing conference! I got pushed out of "slide land" and was forced just to talk and to tell a story. And by the sound of all the Q&A that happened afterwards, I'd say it went really well. Without a single slide.

Five lessons learned from this "experience":
- Be prepared for the worst case scenario ... always
- Tell a story ... in the moment
- Pay attention to your audience ... and they will pay attention to you
- Give 'em just enough content to spark engagement ... and they will ask questions
- Smile the whole time :) ... and they will smile back!!

Now that was an experience!! Ever happen to you? Jim.

Filament Inc. has a new website

After toiling over every word of copy and scrutinizing every photograph, Filament Inc.'s new website is up and running. While the old site served us well, it was starting to look a little dated. A fresh look at the copy was also useful.

Take a look, give us some feedback!

www.filamentinc.com


Mark Schnurman
Pitch Consultant - Filament Inc.

All Hand on Deck!

When I am with a new client working on a pitch, I am usually asked how other agencies handle the responsibilities of writing the deck. While revealing how a particular agency handles deck writing would be like revealing Kentucky Fried Chicken’s secret recipe, there are basically two different philosophies of deck writing represented by a deck dictator versus a deck democracy.
The deck dictator scenario is where one person writes every deck. The biggest advantage of the pitch dictator is that the agency is assured of a consistent flow and cadence to the deck with a low chance of inconsistencies. This typically makes it much easier for the audience to track with the presenters and follow the story. While this is the only significant advantage, the advantage is enormous and should not be overlooked.
The disadvantages of the pitch dictator are numerous. The most obvious is the tendency to get only one point of view. If that point of view is in line with the client, you are golden. If not, you will likely lose the pitch.
From a management standpoint, one author handling all new business puts the agency in a precarious spot. Basically, the entire new business engine is being run by one person. That person can then dictate their terms to management when it comes to compensation. Meanwhile, two or three concurrent pitches, a pitch during the dictator’s honeymoon, or a wayward bus on 5th Avenue could all put the agency in trouble.
Another disadvantage of the pitch dictator is the tone of voice. Presenters have different tones and manners in their presentations, and if they are not writing the content, the tone is not likely to fit their style. A presenter that needs talking points on the screen could be completely flustered by a dictator that does not believe in talking points. A more formal choice of words, which may work for a copywriter, might be completely inappropriate for someone without a copy background.
Finally, the dictator can become the bottleneck in the process, and virtually no work takes place until after the deck is written. Since people have little input on their slides, no one feels any urgency to do any work since they are going to be told what to say and how to say it.
At the other end of the deck spectrum is the deck democracy, where many authors contribute to the process. The big advantages of this style are that more people are developing their new business skills, the bottleneck is distributed among a number of people, and the agency is better prepared to handle multiple pitches (or wayward busses).
From a presentation standpoint, deck democracies are a mixed bag. While it is a significant advantage to have people write their own content, the downside is that this process frequently leads to subtle contradictions in the deck where presenter A says one thing and 30 minutes later, presenter B says something that conflicts, confusing the audience. A way to avoid this is to have enough time to rehearse to uncover the contradictions.
The presentation advantage of a deck democracy is that people own their content. It is written in their tone of voice and they should completely understand their slides since they wrote the slides. This ownership should lead to more genuine and compelling presentations.
If the more democratic approach makes more sense to you, there are a few techniques that will make it go more smoothly. First, have one person in charge of writing the agenda and organizing the content. This will help to make the content flow better and be easier to follow. Develop a style guide that lets staff understand the basic methodology to putting together slides. For example, bullets should not have children or grandchildren. No more than five bullets per slide. Bullets should be as short as possible and not full sentences. When possible, use a picture instead of a bullet. This will help to make the deck look more consistent. The last thing to keep your eye out for is that not everyone is going to be good at writing content. Including bad content simply because it is already written is not doing anyone any favors. Weed the garden and get rid of weak content.
I have seen both the dictator and the democracy systems work. Agencies that win the most seem to be best at adapting themselves to address the weaknesses of either the dictator or the democracy. Pick whichever system works best for you, but have your eyes open for the built in disadvantages of each option.

Mark Schnurman
Filament Inc. - Pitch Consultant

www.filamentinc.com

Clear all hurdles to win the pitch

During the pitch process, clients are not just looking for the agency they should hire. More importantly, they are looking at the agencies they should not hire. An agency needs to clear a number of hurdles in order to win the business. Some of the hurdles are obvious: creative, strategy, capabilities. But some of the hurdles are more difficult to see coming: charisma, likability, chemistry.
First let’s take a look at the obvious hurdles. When it comes to creative, clients are not only looking for good creative (and you can define good however you like), but they are looking very closely to make sure that the creative is on strategy. In both pharma and consumer pitches, I have seen creative presented that was not completely on strategy. There are typically a number of reasons for this. One is that it was politically not a good move to kill the concept. Perhaps the creative person had another concept killed and the team did not want to kill two concepts from the same person. Another reason could be that the concept was really exciting and sexy. While agencies will frequently argue that clients can’t spot great creative (this may or may not be true), clients can absolutely spot concepts that are off strategy. Present them at your own peril.
Another hurdle that the agency needs to clear is strategy. Unfortunately, sometimes the strategy to market a drug is pretty clear, and numerous agencies will wind up on the same strategy. If the strategy from agency to agency is the same, the winning agency frequently is the one that either did the most compelling research or did the best presentation of the strategy.
Research is the piece that establishes that the strategy is solid and not just your team’s opinion. Presentation skill is the component that develops the necessary excitement around your strategy. Do not think for a moment that presentation skill can’t be the difference between winning and losing. A better presentation of similar content can push your agency across the finish line first.
Capabilities is a different kind of hurdle. One would expect that if you make it to the pitch, you have made it over the capabilities hurdle. If you are a smaller agency and made it into the finals against larger competition, have you ever lost because the client wound up wanting a bigger, more established agency? If so, did you really make it over the capabilities hurdle? There is nothing you can do to make your agency bigger overnight, but it does make you question pitching a product when you know that you are at a disadvantage. A competitor three times your size is three times as likely to have someone on staff that is an expert in the therapeutic area being pitched, and their new business budget could be five times the size of your new business budget. I am not suggesting that you never pitch against larger competition; I am suggesting that you recognize when the cards are stacked against you and choose your battles wisely.
Charisma, likeability and chemistry come from a combination of factors, some of which are in your control, some not so much. Some people are naturally more charismatic as presenters. In many ways chemistry is a crap shoot. That being said, rehearsal can help to improve those areas. Once you are confident in what you are going to say, you can start to concentrate on connecting with the audience and being more personable. As rehearsals progress, presenters tend to spend less time worrying about the words and more time focusing on the audience.
When the strategy and creative are similar from agency to agency, presentation skill plays a larger and larger role. Two of our clients pitched a major retailer a few years ago. The agency fee (not including media) was well over $30 million per year. While each agency had its advantages, the winning agency was simply more likeable. Even the losing agency admits that they are not particularly warm in a pitch. The winning agency views warmth and charm as an important part of their presentation and works hard to dial it up. The other agency is also very smart, but they present the facts as they see them and make little attempt to connect with the audience. It is difficult to say that charm was the deciding factor, but connecting with the audience is in every agency’s control and is not something that should be ignored. It is not just the words but how you say the words. This is the last hurdle that you have to clear in order to win.

Mark Schnurman
President - Filament Inc.

One pitch, one leader

The single biggest characteristic of winning agencies is that they have a clear leader for every pitch. Rather than a bunch of people who think they are the leader, a team needs a very clear, one-to-one relationship: one leader for one pitch.
The pitch leader’s primary role is to keep the process moving. The leader is the final arbiter when there is a discussion about things such as strategy or creative. This does not mean that the leader makes every decision. It does mean that this individual makes sure a decision is made and that the process keeps moving.
Far too often agencies get derailed discussing a subtlety of strategy or creative when they would have been better served to move on with the process. The pitch leader needs to remind the team that the clock is ticking, and every minute the team spends on the particular topic at hand is one less minute that they have for the rest of the process.
The natural question becomes who should be the leader.
The advantage of the new business person becoming the leader is that this individual frequently sourced the lead and is very connected to the prospect. He is frequently a very strong strategic person with a great understanding of the new business process. While these are great advantages, the one disadvantage can be huge: no one on the pitch team reports to him. As a result, he can persuade and cajole pitch team members to do their jobs, but he has no hammer. To make matters worse, it is his rear-end in a sling if he loses the pitch. To sum up, the new business person is responsible for winning and is compensated and evaluated on the agencies win rate, but he has virtually no power to get people to execute the pitch. Not an enviable scenario.
The creative director can be a good choice because a large part of the pitch process and a good deal of the last minute work is in her department. She is the best person to crack the whip on the creative department, and she understands the numerous issues that can come up in the creative department during a pitch. There are two basic disadvantages. The first is that it can be difficult to get account services and strategy to listen to the creative director. The second is that process orientation is typically not a term used to describe creative directors, and the ability to stick to a process is very important in working a team through a pitch.
Similar to the creative director, the head of account services or strategy can make a good leader. The advantage is that a good portion of the team reports to him, and he is likely more process and schedule driven than a creative director. The disadvantage is that the creative team does not report to him, and he is not as tuned into the creative process as a creative director. This can lead to a certain amount of resentment when the pitch leader is trying to drive the creative team to stop tweaking and start rehearsing when that pitch leader has never been in that art director’s chair and does not understand the creative process.
The head of the agency is the obvious choice for a number of reasons. Everyone reports to her, so she should have no problem motivating people. Sticking to the process should not be an issue for her. But even the agency head has a few potential downsides that need to be addressed. First, the pitch leader needs to be at most, if not all, of the meetings. If the leader is not present, the leadership vacuum can grind the process to a halt. The second is that the leader needs to be careful to lead the process and not simply take over the process. Because of their role at the agency, suggestions made by managing directors and CEO are frequently taken as mandates by well-meaning staff. As a result, the process can turn into one person’s thinking.
While it may seem as if there is no ideal pitch leader, by simply managing the disadvantages of each potential leader’s role, you can develop a strong pitch process. I have seen people from each role be great pitch leaders, and I have seen people from each role fall prey to the disadvantages listed above. The key is insure that you have one person running the show. While we can discuss which person will make the best pitch leader, typically a committee will have all of the disadvantages listed above without any of the strengths. This is not to say that a committee can’t work, but you will make the process more difficult and painful than it needs to be.

Mark Schnurman
Pitch Consultant

www.filamentinc.com

Who Presented vs Who Sold at SXSW

The following is a blog from Luke Sullivan, CD at GSD&M and author of Hey Whipple, Squeeze This. Luke does a great job of discussing the need for selling ideas as opposed to simply presenting ideas.

To read his blog directly, go to www.heywhipple.com

Here is the cut and pasted version...

The ideas that were actually selling here at SxSW were the ones that were actually sold – by a fantastic speaker.

Now I agree, some ideas are so great they don’t need to be sold. For example, they day they discover a cure for cancer? They won’t need an ad agency. They can take out a classified ad in the Tulsa Weekly-Bugle and the world will know about it within a week. But for those of us with ideas less world-shaking, we will need to sell them.

Fact is, most of the presentations I saw this week kinda blew. The content was great, no question. Pretty much every presenter had something cool to say. (With one exception; one speaker was so 1998 she was puttin’ up slides about how “Consumers can now scan bar codes with their phones!” Dude. Please.)

The big difference in the transmission of ideas comes down to this: Passion. Power. Clarity. Energy.

I don’t care if you’re just on a stinkin’ panel about banner ads, when you have the mike you’ve been given the gift of the attention of 200 people and you’re failing if you do not knock it out with passion, power, clarity and energy. Of the sessions I attended, every single speaker failed. I know, I know, they weren’t all that way. In fact, at last night’s party at GSDM, most people were talking about Gary Vaynerchuk‘s speech. People were blown away by it. Blown away. Damn, I wish I’d seen it. I didn’t, but I heard about it. And you know what? Even if it turns out his speech was content I’m not really interested in, I woulda ended up interested in it because he made me interested.

President Bill Clinton came to speak here at the agency a couple a times (he’s best friends with Roy Spence, himself a legendary speaker). I remember watching Clinton that day and just soakin’ it in, trying to learn everything I could; his intensity; his command of the material; his pacing; his eye contact; his comfort in front of people; his accessibility. It was the full package and, man, it was mesmerizing.

So, if you agree we’re in the business of spreading ideas, of selling ideas, make it your business to learn how to speak publicly. To learn how to put on a kick-ass presentation.

TWO FINAL NOTES:

My friend here at GSDM, Jenn Totten, she told me to CTFD. (Calm The Fuck Down, a hip abbreviation I predict will soon to be in the national lexicon.): “You are cranky, but you’re right. The panels were the worst. They all winged it. But I found the solo speakers to be pretty good across the board.” Another agency friend, Lauren Walker, agreed with Jenn. “The solo presenters were great. The panels were ‘eh’ and the discussions just tanked. There were certainly a lot of interesting topics to discuss but moderating a discussion is a fine art. It requires tact and a large knowledge base. Most of the discussions I attended were steered in one direction early on and stayed there. Next time, no discussions for me.”

Dang, I wished I’d been in those cool solo presentations. (BTW, folks. SXSW is very good about listening to feedback, so fill out those survey thingies.)

Final note: I really liked these “Ogilvy Notes” things I saw here and there. I wonder if my own agency oughta do something like this? Maybe have our own artists make big-ass drawings this cool, for those presentations we have to make more than once – like, say, agency themes, case histories, stuff like that. These boards are more interesting, more playful and informal than stupid Powerpoint slides.

------------------------------------------
Thanks for a great blog Luke!

Mark Schnurman
Filament Inc.

Pitch Consultant
Twitter: @markschnurman

How many people should attend a pitch?

A recent blog question posed to me was how many people should attend a pitch. Based on the question, I am assuming it came from a small to mid-sized agency and the piece of business in questions is not a huge, multi-national assignment with multiple partners. For typical pitches facing small to mid-sized agencies, there are a few general guidelines that I tend to recommend when considering the size of the pitch team.
First, do not overwhelm the client. If there only going to be two or three people representing the client side, do everything that you can in order to keep your pitch team as small as possible. This does not mean that you need to bring only two or three people, but it does mean that you should not bring 10 people.
Second, everyone on the agency team gets a speaking part. Bringing a junior person that does not have a speaking role so that the client can “meet the team” does not count. Clients want to get to know the person and see if they are a good fit, not simply put a name to a face. If you send a person to the pitch but do not give that person a speaking part, the client can get the impression that you do not trust junior staff. The advantage of letting a junior person have a role in the presentation is that the bar is set lower for the day-to-day person. You may find that with a lower bar, the day-to-day person will sail over it and wow the client.
Third, it is good to bring at least one day-to-day person. Clients can only assume the worst if the agency is not willing to bring any day-to-day staff to a meeting. This is not to suggest loading up the entire team with more junior staff, but bringing a day-to-day account or creative person is probably a good idea.
Given those three guidelines, there are seven key roles to be played on a typical pitch team.
The role of the executive – a CEO, president, managing director, etc. – is to open and close the meeting and discuss the agency. He or she should not talk about the specifics of the client’s work unless the executive is going to be working on the account. Another role of the executive in the room is to field questions and distribute them to the team. If the executive answers every question it can appear that the team isn’t trusted to answer the questions. Artfully moving the questions to the appropriate team member can help to promote team chemistry.
The planner/high level account person will talk about strategy. Depending on the resources of the agency, this could be a planner, director of account services, or a high level account person.
The day-to-day account person is not necessarily 100% assigned to the account. This person is simply the primary point of contact for the client, usually somewhere between 50% and 100% billable. This person will typically discuss tactical executions and how the strategy will be implemented.
It is great if everyone can speak to digital, but typically this requires special expertise. The advantage of bring the digital person is that you have that extra level of expertise. The disadvantage is that digital can look like a separate department instead of one, unified creative team.
Creative staff is typically one high level and one day-to-day staffer. The higher level creative staff can outline the challenges that the creative assignment presented and set up the first concept. The day-to-day creative can then present some concepts. It is a good idea to have the creative director come back and summarize all of the different concepts that were shown.
Some pitches do not include Media, but even then it is still useful to have someone that can serve as the bridge between the agency and the media buying firm. The absence of this role can leave some gaps in the pitch. We have all seen the role of media change over the last five or so year. Media truly is the new creative. With that new role, comes new responsibilities. In the old days, the media section was what done when everyone else was finished with their presentation. Now, the media section may be asked to carry a pitch. Presentation and storytelling skills which were never stressed in a media department are now very important and can make or break pitch.
The pitch is the client’s opportunity to get to know everyone on the team, so remember to give everyone a substantive role. This does not mean that the role needs to be complex. It does mean that each presenter needs to have enough time to connect with the audience and enough time to establish him or herself as an important member of the team. While team size is probably not going to make your team win or lose the pitch, team chemistry can, and the larger the team, the more difficult it is to show chemistry.

Mark Schnurman
www.filamentinc.com
Pitch Consultant

Differentiation vs. Betterentiation

If the goal is to differentiate ourselves from the competition, then why do agencies spend so much time just telling their clients and prospects how much better they are than the competition? The difficulty with focusing on what you do better than the competition is that the agency can rarely back up its claims. As a result, it just sounds like sales puffery that clients politely listen to and completely ignore.
After years of effort, agencies are now selling themselves as “full-service” and “integrated.” However, what they are basically saying is that we all do the same thing. The result of all of our effort is that we have created non-differentiated agencies and commoditized our product offering. When clients have a difficult time distinguishing one agency from another, there’s just one thing they use as a differentiator: price. This is not the situation any agency wants to be in, but it is where many agencies find themselves right now.
The key to a point of differentiation is that it is provable. Saying you’re better is mostly just stating an opinion. Differentiation always has a point of proof.
“Our creative is better” is an opinion. Your agency’s creative may in fact be better, but unless you have a shelf full of awards, you have no proof. And recognize that every agency has won a creative award or two, so unless you have a shelf full of awards, your claim is just your opinion and will not resonate with your prospects.
“Our agency has better experience than any agency in the business when it comes to biologics” is an opinion. Nearly every agency has biologic experience. “Our agency is agency of record for more biologics than any other pharma agency” is a fact.
The problem is that simply claiming to be better is easier, and as a result more agencies go down that path. It is easier to simply claim to be better than to go through the difficult work of actually making the agency different in some way. The question for agencies is, what is it that you can own in the marketplace? Odds are it is not about what you do better. These types of claims have difficulty gaining traction. It is more likely a controversial point of view or a method for executing some part of the advertising process that will help to put some distance between you and the competition.
One most popular differentiating claim is that an agency’s people make them different. While it is wonderful for morale, it probably is not true. If you are based in the New York area, those people that you claim make you so different probably worked for your competitor just one or two years ago. You could claim that your culture makes you different, but you would need to point out the specifics of the culture before the claim had much of a chance of sticking.
As if this were not difficult enough, the next danger is giving something a name and claiming it is different only to have the client say, “I have seen that before.” An agency’s branding process typically falls into this category. Having seen hundreds of agency new business pitches, both pharma and consumer, I know that if your agency has a process that includes concentric circles, a pyramid, or some kind of structure with columns supporting a roof … it is not unique or differentiating. Just because you have a pithy name for the process does not mean that the underlying process is different. It just means that the name is different.
So where does that leave an agency? There are still plenty of ways to carve out your own niche in the marketplace. One way is do primary research and uncover a hidden insight about the market. This is probably the oldest PR trick in the book. In the absence of news, make your own news. You can than build upon this research to become the defacto expert on the topic.
Another strategy would be to develop a unique point of view about the role of the agency, the role of promotion, or the direction of the industry. Anything that gives you a platform to discuss your topic as an industry leader and not just another agency in a sea of similar agencies could work.
While none of the solutions to the conundrum are quick or easy, the value of being different is immeasurable. It may seem silly to preach the value of differentiation to an agency, but sometimes we all need to listen to our own advice.

Mark Schnurman
Pitch Consultant

Pitch swag

I was involved in a pitch recently where one agency was criticized for not giving the client a goody bag. Mind you, the client did not put it in so many words, but the message was loud and clear.

The agency did provide the presentation on a memory stick, as well as 10 bound leave behinds (as required by the client)...just no gift bags.

What are your thoughts? Have you heard this kind of feedback before? If you are a client...what do you think of the goody bag? Is it a pitch necessity or a lame pitch bribe?

I am interested to see everyone's feedback.

Mark Schnurman
Pitch consultant
www.filamentinc.com

Stop talking about rehearsing

During the pitch process, every agency gives lip service to rehearsal. They plan for rehearsal time and schedule a conference room, but how much time is actually spent rehearsing? Odds are people would rather talk about rehearsing than actually rehearse.
We have all been in sessions where it took half a day or even all day to get through a 90-minute pitch deck. There is a great deal of spirited discussion as to the content on slide 37 and whether the strategy is well articulated in the strategy section. In addition, everyone is happy to report that they spent a full day rehearsing when, in fact, they spent 90 minutes rehearsing and about seven hours talking about rehearsing.
Discussing the content, removing slides, wordsmithing, etc. are all important parts of the pitch process; they are just not rehearsal. Once the presentation deck is tight and the discussion of content is over, this is when rehearsal starts. Rehearsal is the part of the process where presenters become so familiar with their content that they can start to concentrate on other issues. For example, connecting with the audience.
Agencies get so wrapped up in the content that they frequently forget that the audience is a group of living, breathing human beings who want to be conversed with, not simply presented to. When pitches work well, agencies often hear that there was good chemistry. If chemistry is such an important part of winning pitches, doesn’t it make sense to at least make some effort to enhance the chemistry in the room?
Chemistry happens when the presenters make an effort to connect with the audience. The presenters need to be more than just automatons, getting up and delivering their slides. They need to be personable and charming. In essence, presenters need to give the impression that they would be a pleasure to work with. The more conversational tone the presenter has, the more chemistry they will be building.
This kind of tone is natural for a precious few presenters, but for others, it only comes when they are no longer nervous about forgetting their part. It is rare that an agency hears that their strategy or creative was bad, but it is not uncommon to hear that the chemistry was bad.
Think about the acting world. Actors have read-throughs where the actors sit at a table and read their parts. This is not the time to practice the physical part of acting. This is the time just to get comfortable with the lines and what comes before and after the actor’s part, much like the first read-through of a pitch deck. After the first read-through, the actor goes home and practices. The next step is to get up and rehearse. Here the actor rehearses both the words and the delivery. Finally, we are ready for a dress rehearsal. The actors go through the entire performance without stopping, without discussion. Actors are smart enough to know that the first time they get through their performance without stopping should not be on opening night. Agencies can benefit from the same rigors when it comes to rehearsal.
The question is how to allocate time when the timeline to get a pitch ready is so compressed. Typically, agencies work forward from the day the pitch process starts, and rehearsal time is whatever is left over after the team is done talking about the deck. Winning agencies work backwards from the day of the pitch. Those agencies know exactly how many rehearsals they need in order to have their best chance of winning. Typically, it is a relatively low number of rehearsals. Four or five usually do the trick. Winning agencies also do not rely on working until midnight the day before the pitch. They finish at a reasonable hour and get some rest. This way if they need the extra time, they have it.
Agencies in the consumer world suffer from the same short pitch timelines, but they still manage to dedicate significant time to rehearsal. You can bet that when the Martin Agency won Geico and NASCAR, they didn’t decide to wing it on pitch day. That team was rehearsed and ready to go when they arrived at the client to give their presentation. If rehearsing helps to win at the big consumer shops, then it can clearly help give agencies the winning edge in the pharma world.
If your agency is not winning at least 40% of its pitches or if you’re hearing that the chemistry is not right, perhaps now is the time to rethink the pitch process and dedicate a bit more time and discipline to rehearsal.

Let junior staff speak

Most ad executives I speak with agree that bringing junior staff to a pitch is a good idea. After all, the day-to-day employees are going to be doing the work, and clients are likely to expect to meet the team. And bringing junior staff to pitches – with small roles – is a great way to develop the next generation of pitch superstars. With all of this going in their favor, I would expect to see pitch teams overrun with junior staff. But that is not the case.
Most ad executives I speak with agree that bringing junior staff to a pitch is a good idea. After all, the day-to-day employees are going to be doing the work, and clients are likely to expect to meet the team. And bringing junior staff to pitches – with small roles – is a great way to develop the next generation of pitch superstars. With all of this going in their favor, I would expect to see pitch teams overrun with junior staff. But that is not the case. Most of the resistance seems to boil down to two issues: presentation skill and knowledge.
When it comes to presentation skill, management is simply concerned that a junior person will lay an egg and lose the pitch. But in reality, it is virtually impossible for a junior person to lose a pitch. First of all, the bar is much lower for them. The client does not expect them to be perfectly polished. Second, if the junior person flubs but the rest of the team is great, the client will simply ask that individual not to be assigned to the account. On the other hand, if the junior person does a stellar job, now the client thinks that everyone at the agency is as smart as the junior person.
A bigger issue around presentation skill has to do with senior staff as opposed to junior staff. My suggestion is that agencies scrutinize all of their presenters, not just the junior ones. Poor senior level presenters do not get the same latitude as their junior colleagues and may cause much more harm to the chances of winning. Over time, a client may recognize the genius of an individual who is not a great presenter, but in a pitch, the client does not have the time or inclination to recognize that genius. They just see an inarticulate senior staff member.
When it comes to knowledge, not bringing junior staff because they do not know as much as the senior staff seems a little foolish. No client expects the day-to-day account/creative person to have the same expertise and insight as the VP of account services or the creative director. Clients expect the day-to-day staff to be smart and easy to work with and to know where to go when they don’t have an answer. They do not expect them to have all of the answers.
There are few keys to insuring that junior staff does a great job in a new business pitch. First, define their role. This means making sure that they use words like day to day when they describe their role on the account in order to set the bar that they need to clear. The client sets the bar lower for day-to-day staff than they do for the VP of account services.
Second, give them appropriate content to deliver. Clients expect to hear industry analysis and/or tactics from day-to-day account people. They do not want the 26-year old account executive to be developing and delivering the strategy for the product. The other half of appropriate content is giving the presenter enough content to deliver. If the account executive only has 90 seconds worth of content to deliver, he or she is not giving the audience enough time to get to know the presenter. But once an audience establishes an opinion on a presenter, there is no benefit in having the presenter continue. It takes about five minutes for an audience to get a good read on a presenter.
Finally, don’t change the content at the last minute. Junior staff members are probably petrified of the new business process. For many of them, they will be presenting with the president or managing director for the first time. Changing their content at the last minute could very well send them into a tailspin. Give them a day or two to really own their content.
Remember, the bar is lower for day-to-day staff. No one expects them to be as polished as the executives at the agency. Use that lower bar to your advantage and let the lower level staff show the client how smart everyone is at your agency.

Mark Schnurman
Pitch Consultant

Power Point Punch Up

The following article was publish in Med Ad News --

Over the years, it has become fashionable to criticize PowerPoint for making agency presentations long and boring. But PowerPoint does not make for boring presentations. Bad presenters make presentations boring. Let’s think about the components of a boring presentation and address them individually.
Too much data, not enough story is one common flaw. The slide deck is not supposed to be a comprehensive explanation of your presentation. The slide deck is a visual aid. The slide show is supposed to aid the presenter in delivering her message to the audience. Never lose sight of the fact that the presenter is the compelling component of the presentation, not the deck. If the deck were the compelling component, we would simply e-mail the deck to the audience and not have to fly half way across the country to make a presentation.
But wait you say, “The deck is our leave behind. We need a comprehensive leave behind in case someone misses our presentation.” It is true that if you take information off of the deck, it will no longer be your comprehensive leave behind. If you have to choose between a comprehensive leave behind and a solid presentation that helps instead of hinders the presenter, always choose the latter. In the history of advertising, no one has ever won a pitch because they had the best leave behind, but plenty of people have lost pitches because their presentations were painfully boring.
But wait you say, “…I want all of the information on the screen in case our junior person forgets something.” When you have all of the information on the screen and the junior person is forced to just read the slide, that person is offering no value to the audience. The audience could just as easily read the slide themselves. It is as if a really smart person wrote the slide, and then gave it to this (not so smart person) to present. You would be better off if they missed a point or two but remembered a few points that are not on the slide. The solution is to write the slide with all of the content so that the junior person can get the content down. After they understand the content, remove some of the points (typically sub-bullets) so that they can look smart at the pitch. If they miss a point or two, don’t worry about it. The goal is for them to look smart in front of the client, not for them to remember every point.
But wait you say, “PowerPoint slides can be so boring with a sea of bullet points.” It is not a mandate that slide shows are dominated by bullets. Mix it up a bit. Some bullets, some pictures, some video. If you are no longer worried about getting every last bit of text on the slide, it frees you up to be much more creative with slide composition. The one thing to avoid is clip art. Most clients expect their advertising agency to be able to come up with something more creative than clip art.
So we have addressed some issues in PowerPoint that are more a function of the user than the software, but that doesn’t mean that PowerPoint is the ultimate in presentation tools. Keynote is rapidly gaining acceptance in the new business world, but it has at least one pretty big flaw. Since not everyone at the agency uses Keynote, agencies tend to rely on their Keynote specialist for making every little change to the deck. This creates a significant bottleneck in the development of the presentation. This can create a severe limitation, all for the promise of marginally prettier slide shows.
I have seen circumstances where the deck was written in PowerPoint and then given to the Keynote specialist to convert. This method avoided the bottleneck problem, but then the team practiced with PowerPoint and did not receive the Keynote deck until the eleventh hour. Presentation teams are probably better off presenting with PowerPoint if that is what they rehearsed with. When Keynote is widely used throughout the agency, it will be a great tool for presentations, but in the meantime, it creates as many problems as it solves.
Boards and flip charts are another presentation tool that are making a comeback after years of PowerPoint use. Boards and flip charts have some distinct advantages over presentation software. The biggest advantage is that because boards require production time, they require a “pencils down” time. Presentation software’s promise of a perfect presentation can lure staff into never ending tweaks to the deck, even in the cab ride to the pitch. This type of last minute thinking certainly makes the presentation different but rarely makes it better. The last minute tweaks always raise the level of tension on the team, which is a recipe for disaster.
Just like presentation software, boards have some legendary issues of their own. Production snafus and size are the two biggest issues. If you have done new business long enough, you know what I am talking about.
Regardless of the presentation tool you decide to use, never lose sight of the fact that the presenter is the single most compelling part of the presentation. If the presenter is the key, then make sure everything in your new business presentation is designed to make the presenter more compelling.

Mark Schnurman
Pitch Consultant
filamentinc.com