You have a pitch to a prospective client but you are one of three or five to do so, how do you stand out from the rest?
Don’t fall into the trap which is so easy to do, that is present and emphasise your competence. You have been invited to pitch because you are perceived to be competent; going over this point again and again will only serve to bore your prospect. By all means we can refer to our competence but not make it the basis of our presentation.
We can differentiate ourselves by demonstrating how well we understand the client and their business and their needs.
If we can look at the position of the client from their perspective we will demonstrate that we understand them. So if it is a transaction we don’t just focus on the legal aspects of that transaction but the whole strategy and circumstances of the situation, the competitive situation, the market and likely future changes, the experiences of these transactions in the past and what makes this one different.
The more we can build a picture of what the situation looks from the prospect’s viewpoint the better.
I was involved in a competitive pitch with four possible suppliers to a prospect who wanted help with a new product launch in UK. The first part of our presentation was to describe the situation from the prospect’s viewpoint and an analysis of the market, which concluded in quite a desperate perspective; the competition were spending 10 times the budget and it created a very challenging scenario. The client verbally told us our analysis was by far the best and their body language told us this. We went from being one of five, to being the only one who truly understood their situation.
The next thing we do can do is ask questions, which is another post!