#01 DON'T BE TOO GENERIC
Too many pitches are simple 'cut and paste' or template driven responses. The solution is straightforward: stop talking about yourself and start talking about the prospective client. If you mention your own corporate plans more than you do theirs, your pitch will fail. The more often the clients hear their own name, the more they will be engaged. Ultimately, the pitch is not about you — it is about them.
#02 DO YOUR RESEARCH
Demonstrate a clear understanding of the client's corporate objectives. Show that you have taken the trouble to understand them and mention their goals often. Provide details of how your products or services will help them achieve those aims, no matter in how small a way that might be. By doing this, you will help yourself to observe the first rule, which is to be less generic. Most importantly, you will be demonstrating a clear empathy with their aspirations and this will set you apart from your competitors.
#03 WRITE A SUMMARY
The writing of an expert executive summary is a specific skill and should be carried out by someone who understands the 'rules'. In a nutshell, an executive summary must comprehensively capture the main points of your pitch. It must state customer objectives, provide a backdrop to the pitch response, highlight the principal benefits of your pitch and reference the proof you are providing to support your claims. It must be short (approximately one page to each 35 pages of actual pitch) and it must be written in a business-like and functional style — free of hyperbole and unwarranted adjectives. The final rule is always to write an executive summary from scratch — twice: once at the beginning of your pitch to act as your document map and then revised at the end to ensure it captures everything.
#04 PROVIDE EVIDENCE
Evidence and proof come in many forms: case studies, testimonials, references, awards, accreditations, third party audits and so on. You can say what you want about yourself but it means nothing without proof to back it up. Whatever claims you make should always reference appropriate evidence contained, usually, in the appendices to the pitch.
#05 FEATURES ARE NOT BENEFITS
A feature is something about the make-up of your company. For example, you may have a quality accreditation. If you tell your prospective customer this in your pitch and stop there, you have told them nothing that your competitor will not tell them. Your quality accreditation is a feature. It only becomes a benefit when you can demonstrate that the customer will gain something as a result. That might be a cost saving, a reduction in waste, an enhancement of image, a time saving. These are examples of real benefits. You should always ask yourself, "Have I just written about a simple feature or a real, tangible benefit?"
#06 TICK EVERY BOX
Simple this one: answer all the questions fully, then go back, and make sure you did. The single most common cause for not making a shortlist is not answering a question fully.
#07 PROOFREAD YOUR PITCH
A proposal with spelling errors is unacceptable. It is as simple as that. Proofreading is a task that often seems to fall to someone simply because they happen to be a manager, but seniority of position does not guarantee literacy or attention to detail! Ensure that your proofreader can do the job by giving them a couple of pages to read that have perhaps 20 deliberate errors. See if they get them all.
#08 USE PLENTY OF IMAGES
Appropriate images to illustrate a point or concept are essential. The basic rules are that images should advance a proposition or effectively illustrate a point. They should not be generic library shots and should be reproduced to an extremely high standard. Placement within the text is critical and they must not look as if they have been shoehorned onto the page. All imagery must be captioned to explain its relevance.
#09 USE QUALITY PRESENTATIONAL MATERIALS
Never use comb binding, spiral binding or thermal binding — always a ring binder. Compose a bespoke cover and use a tabbed index system to make your pitch easy to navigate. Use paper that is a minimum of 100gsm. If your bid looks like a quality production, your reader will immediately consider it favourably. This is a proven and unconscious human reaction.
#10 MEET THE DEADLINE
Self-explanatory.
Marcus Eden-Ellis is founder of Bid Perfect, a specialist bids, pitches and tenders consultancy. Visit bidperfect.co.uk
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