I have probably participated in over several hundred new business pitches. Most go pretty much the same way. You are asked to submit some information about your firm, you get an invitation to present, you make the presentation after ignoring your normal workload for a week, then you are told that you didn’t get the business.

After sulking for a few hours, you call the team together and together ponder over why you didn’t get the business. You were brilliant at telling the prospect about your process and your outstanding creative work. You even threw up a few slides about
your knowledge of their industry. It was the best presentation you had ever made to a prospect. So why, you ask, didn’t you get the business? The team just sits there, wishing they were somewhere else.

Here’s the deal. What you failed to do was engage the prospect in a dialogue, based on where you thought you could take their business. Generally, prospects don’t want a show. They want a conversation about them. Now, some of you probably think that expressing a point of view at this stage is risky because you haven’t had a chance to apply your patented “brand exploration process.” However, you shouldn’t even be at the table talking to them at this point if you haven’t learned enough to take a stand. Sure it is risky. But a heck of a lot less risky than witholding your thinking.

So next time you are asked to present, think of yourself as a facilitator, not a talking head. The idea is to get them engaged with you. Make them think that you are already working for them. Do that and your chances of winning will probably go up dramatically.