A masterclass in business pitching from The Pitch 2011's Carl Hopkins
Posted by Carl Hopkins in Finances on Fri, 15/07/2011 - 09:44
Carl Hopkins, star of The Secret Millionaire and judge at BusinessZone.co.uk's The Pitch 2011, offers expert advice on how to pitch your business.
As I sit here making my way toward Bristol for the second round of The Pitch, I have time to ponder; what makes a good pitch?
And the answer is, I don't really know. Each pitch, dependant upon its objective, team, personality, plans or core idea can differ wildly and neither one makes it a good or bad pitch.
The more I think of it, the more I recall pitches that I have been involved in in my past life. I 'grew up' in a creative and marketing agency. The lifeblood of any agency is the pitch. Whether we were pitching a new strategy, a new campaign, a new brand or a new layout even, at some point you had to stand up in front of your peers, your colleagues, your boss or your client and make that pitch.
I hated it. Well, I did for the first four to five years, but then I gained confidence in my own abilities and a greater understanding of my own discipline and this, coupled with belief in my ideas gave me the confidence I needed; that's what a good pitch boils down to. People want you to be good. They do not want you to fail so take heart in that and go for it.
In every ‘top tips’ article about pitching you read that you must rehearse and I totally buy into that; however, personally, I was shocking at rehearsals.
We used to have to rehearse as part of a team and whether it was the glare of my old boss, tapping the large red alarm clock she would bring into pitch rehearsals or the nervousness of the rest of my colleagues, I usually fumbled and mumbled my way through it and ran over time.
I pretty much ended each of my rehearsal nightmares by saying "I will be fine on the day" and I'm happy to say that I always was. Today, I never rehearse as it feels stilted and I enjoy the slight rush of not knowing exactly what I am going to say and being able to respond to my audience. However, I always know the stepping stones of my story, the key points I wish to make.
One thing I always try to do is 'control the room'. It's rare to get the chance to set up a day or so before your pitch but I am a fan of this approach; if this is my chance to pitch then I want to control the room. So I always did, and always do, get there as early as possible and go view the room. I don't just check out the tech, I move tables, chairs and swap name plates. I alter the lighting and faff around with the curtains.
Once, while setting up one room in the absence of the client, I came across the creative work of the two previous pitches. So, with one member of the team watching the door, we looked over the work and made sure we had good arguments in our pitch which quashed any of the previous strategies. And yes, I have also read the notes of clients when they have left the room - who wouldn't?
The rooms themselves can be problematical as I found when I turned up to pitch and found we had been bumped from the boardroom to an office where you would have struggled to invite a cat into, let alone find out if you had enough room to swing it around. This room was about eight feet square and as the work was on PowerPoint, we ended up having to project it onto the back of the door.
I recall another incident of setting up a room with a colleague and finding we had forgotten a vital PC cable. Panic? Not at all. My colleague told me and the prospect that he had seen some cables in a meeting room on another floor and that he would nip off and retrieve them. I must have endured about 20 minutes of small talk while I awaited his return, but return he did and went to sit quietly in the corner while I plugged in and pitched. It was only when we were in the cab on the way back that I said to him, ‘you took your time, and were very quiet when you came back, where did you find the cable?’ To which he pointed at a row of shops opposite the building that he had sprinted to, bought the cable and sprinted back. He was quiet as he thought he was going to have a heart attack and couldn't actually breathe, never mind speak.
I have been part of many pitches, winning some great accounts and I have lost lots too. But the one that may be my crowning moment of improvisation, has to be when, on the train heading to the pitch, my boss asked to see the creative for the first time - my area of responsibility.
My other four colleagues were eagerly waiting for her to praise the work as she looked over it but the look of joy on her face never materialised as she felt that we had gone too far from the brief. To say she was unhappy was an understatement. In fact, she told me to throw it out of the window and that we should get off the train and tell the client weren’t coming – slight over-reaction?
My colleagues were all of a sudden very interested in the magazines, newspapers and croissants on the table in front of them while I tried to retrieve the situation. The creative was only one part of a wider response so I said I would present the 'concept' for our creative and the format of the piece, but not the execution in order to 'challenge' the client and gain their buy-in... Okay, this may be agency bullshit but I was desperate.
All I needed was a large piece of blank paper but we had none. I recall that at one point we resorted to carefully tearing open sandwich bags to see if they would do. In the end I settled on a piece of paper that had a gant chart printed on one side.
In the presentation I hammed up the drama and moved around so fast they couldn't see what was going on; I read many magic books as a kid so perhaps the sleight of hand and misdirection knowledge kicked in. The result? We won, of course. They bought into the ‘creative’ and we didn't change a thing. I maybe should add that the pitch was to a charity for the blind.
If you are pitching, not your ideas or your creative response to a brief, but for cold hard cash, from an investor, a bank, a VC or your mum, then consider this advice which I was offered from a banker:
The savvy money is looking for CAMPARI, and I don't mean the rather dodgy drink from the 70s.
- C is for customer, that's you, your business, its legal status, your board members and your main staff.
- A is for ability. What's your governance, what is your experience and what are you and your team’s skills?
- M stands for means; do you have any available security?
- P is for purpose, what will you be spending the investment on?
- A is for amount, how much do you need, will it actually be enough and what other resources might you require?
- R is pretty important, repayments is the investment affordable to the business. Can it be paid back? And finally;
- I which is for interest. The banks will charge it and the investor will want a return, so are the interest rates suitable for your business, the risk, the need the ability to repay?
Pitching is difficult but it's also one of the most exciting parts of the business world I think - I love it. It's a chance to show off, to be the centre of attention, to inform, entertain and persuade. It can be the start of new relationships, new chapters in your businesses, new ideas and directions or simply the start of your business.
So outside of the usual 'don't read your slide' tips what would I suggest?
- Don't over-rehearse
- Watch and respond to your audience
- Know the start, middle and end of your presentation. Make the journey a story for the audience to follow
- Allow your personality to show through
- Control the room
- Be prepared to improvise - if you ever can?
- Create drama and memorability
- And never wear clothes you've not worn before - you don't want to be worrying about wardrobe malfunctions
And of course, enjoy it and let your passion come through, because if you're not interested in what you’re saying, then I guarantee your audience isn't either.
Applications for the Scotland and Northern Ireland heats of The Pitch 2011 are still open. To enter click here. The overall winner of the competition will receive business support worth £50,000.
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