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<ul><li>Pitching to clients is tough but there is an art to it.</li><li><keyword id="6441731" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ankita-Kulkarni" source="Orion">Ankita Kulkarni</keyword>, Head, Account Planning, SoCheers shares 4 mantras that can help take your pitching to the next level.</li></ul>Pitching to clients is tough! There, I said it. Why wouldn’t it be? You’re basically convincing them to spend their money on an idea that you and your team have a hunch about and believe in. You can visualise it as clearly as a movie you just saw, but now the client has to also see it. In the current remote working scenario, which still doesn’t seem to have an end date, this process has only gotten tougher. Why? Because the process now lacks some of the key elements that a live meeting offers in abundance, like the chance to gauge the level of enthusiasm through body language, or the constant eye contact to hold someone’s attention, or the discussions that flow and extend deeper than just the pitch. I believe that we often circle the pitching process around simply presenting the PPT, but going beyond is where the real strength of the pitch lies. Based on the insights and experience I've gained, here are a couple of suggestions that work brilliantly for me. Some of these may seem rebellious at first glance, but give them a minute, maybe they’ll surprise you and feel like worth trying. So let’s dive right into it. Ditch that PPT! If you’re still reading after that heading, god! you’re brave! We’re so used to PPTs while pitching an idea that we often forget that it’s not always necessary to have the slides guide your way at every step of the conversation. It could just be a conversation; albeit an engaging and convincing one at that. While PPTs do provide amazing backup and data accessories, an insight stems from cultural and human behaviour, and a human connect can work wonders to establish the idea. So go ahead and tell them a story, one that transports them and makes them see the idea as you do. I don’t hate numbers, I just like stories more! Oh! And what if you could mix the two you ask? That’s what the next one is about. You &gt; PPT You as the speaker should be leading the presentation but what we usually see is the exact opposite, i.e. the PPT leads and the presenter follows. The core reason why people in meetings lose interest is because more often than not what’s on the screen is exactly what’s being spoken. Hardly any anecdotes or experiences are added to make the available information more interesting. That’s a huge no! The pitch has to always be a 2-way communication with unique incidents, stories, etc. told colloquially, fitting the larger narrative of your idea. Content is King. Context, the Queen Setting context at different points in the pitch meeting is supremely important because without that, even the best content can fall flat. At the very beginning of the presentation, it’s imperative to let the client know what you have in store for them - whether it is a campaign or just different communication routes, whether ideas are fleshed out to the T or just thought starters. This helps set expectations and the flow for the meeting. So everything that follows just seems easier. When you’re moving from the strategy to the creative part of the presentation, you sum up the key points and then segway into the creative communication. This comprises the journey the team actually went through while putting the plan together. This is crucial as the client must know how it all panned out. It’s simple really - the more the context, the less the questions you leave people with. Gimmicks win Pitches! Who hasn’t heard about how the famous Fevikwik Fishing Ad was pitched and won by the great Piyush Pandey at Ogilvy? Another famous story is about how Anil Kapoor from FCB won Mahindra Vehicles’ huge business for the agency in just one meeting. Gimmicks - no matter the scale, just straight up take you two notches higher in the game. It gets the client to notice you, and more importantly remember you. If it’s a pitch you can’t afford to lose - think of something quirky or heartwarming to do during the presentation. Take them by surprise. It just goes on to show the client how excited you are to have their brand on board and that zest is something every client’s looking for at all times. Leave that mark on them, because if it’s a close call, you’ll thank that little hint of drama. We’re in a highly creative industry and ideating and executing creative projects is literally our job. So, why not add a pinch (or a bottle-full) of creativity and boldness into how we pitch the ideas. Go ahead and create a winning formula that works the best for you and your organisation.

4 mantras that will elevate your art of pitching

<ul><li>With uncertainty still looming around, it is often to get caught in the vicious cycle of self-doubt. </li><li><keyword id="6441731" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="ankita-kulkarni">Ankita Kulkarni</keyword>, Head of Account Planning, <keyword id="4919767" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="SoCheers">SoCheers</keyword> shares a few ways in which you can come out of your <keyword id="1598691" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="creative-block">creative block</keyword> and stop procrastinating. </li></ul>The supposed new normal that we are still grappling with has undoubtedly brought in a lot of changes in our everyday life. While our personal lives have surely benefited from the extra time we got to spend with family and loved ones, the professional lives have undergone a 360 change. The work-from-home did seem quite like a boon in the beginning but little did I know at the end of 10 months, I’d be eagerly waiting to go to the office and work from there. I miss meeting people at work and interacting with them in comparison to video conferencing or on phone calls all day. What I think I miss the most is that there isn’t any beyond-the-work-talk happening right now. Offices brim with work sure, but they’re also home to conversations about what one’s weekend plans are or what another one is planning to cook for dinner while how another one just got the nicest deal online for her birthday dress. These seemingly unimportant interactions did help me bond and connect with my colleagues beyond work. They made understanding them and their thought processes easier and so working with them was something I looked forward to. It’s not the most conducive environment for ideation with talking to screens all day, more so when everyone’s feeling like they’re living the same day everyday - but the ecosystem still demands that. It’s common in such a case to hit a roadblock and feel like there’s nothing creative and new that you’re able to think of! But what’s important is to not give-in and instead break out of the block and get the mind recharged so that those creative juices start flowing again. Just going to leave you with a couple of things that really help me get on track every time I face a creative block: 1. Change surroundings, almost immediately What I usually do is, plan a day or 2 where I’m working out of a friend’s house so that my immediate environment is new. I’d rather plan a short trip to a calm place for a couple of days but my family is not very comfortable with me travelling just about yet, so we discussed and sort of came to this middleground. A changed atmosphere automatically opens up the mind and helps one think better. Even just moving out of home and working out of a cafe for the remaining half of the day helps me feel better and as a result ideate better. 2. Consciously, leave the task at hand &amp; take up something else I’m sure you’ve experienced this too - when you’re trying super hard to remember something and you’re sure you know it but just not able to recollect it at that time. You let go of it and then randomly while doing something else, the thing you were trying to remember effortlessly flows into your head out of nowhere. The mind does work in miraculous ways! Drawing a parallel from this, if I try too hard to think and come up with ideas, seldom have I got the desired result. But reading the brief a couple of times, mulling over it for an hour and then leaving it while doing something else helps me think and process my thoughts in the background subconsciously. When I then turn my attention to the brief at hand again, there are some quality thoughts and ideas that I’m able to bring to the table. 3. Get more perspectives or think using their heads A lot of times what happens is, on revisiting the same brief a couple of times, I reach a standpoint where there’s nothing more that I can think of. It’s almost as if I’ve thought of everything covering multiple aspects but nothing is seeming great or meaty enough to take back to the client. What’s missing in this case is new perspectives and thought starters. I usually call 5-7 of my friends and speak to them about the brief and ask them what they think of it and to talk to me about it for less than a minute. These are usually folks from office but sometimes depending on the brief, even friends who are usually the ones changing channels every time an ad shows up! I record these conversations and on revisiting them, on most occasions I’ve realised there are more ways to look at the brief than before - eases the ideation process for me a lot. 4. Start thinking, but for other things If you’ve hit a roadblock and can’t think of any more creative things in relation to the brief at hand even after multiple attempts, a fun thing to do is look around and start crafting lines or communication routes for the things you see. For example, come up with something for your laptop, your notebook or your favourite snack like a vada pav. The coffee mug or a comb - absolutely anything that is in you can think of or see. You can almost behave like Chandler from the FRIENDS episode where he tries and crafts taglines for a few products and goes, Cheese - It’s milk that you chew or Pants - Like shorts, but longer. This helps me open up my headspace, lightens the work burden a bit and allows thoughts to flow freely, while having fun because you’re thinking about something so mundane but from a new viewpoint. Usually, when I move back to thinking about the original brief, it doesn’t seem that daunting a task; and I’m able to navigate through ideas better. 5. Stop thinking, get reading There’s more material than one can consume on any topic today. Thanks to the internet, it’s accessible at a click. It’s always great to draw inspiration from what stalwarts in the industry have to say. So I usually look at old ads of similar products, try and analyse the insights they’ve used to crack that piece - it helps me think from a broader lens than I already was. I also turn to books that aggregate the best ads and stories behind how they were crafted for some inspiration. Hey Whipple, Squeeze This and The Copy Book are personal favourites! Hoping these quick tips help you like they’ve helped me in my creative thinking journey. If there are any other things that you do when faced with a creative block, let me know, I’d love to try them too. Wishing you some great campaigns for the hopeful 2021 while you proudly don the thinking hat!

The creative and ideation block: 5 simple ways to wiggle right out

<ul><li><keyword id="6441731" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="ankita-kulkarni">Ankita Kulkarni</keyword>, Group Account Manager, Brand Strategy, <keyword id="4919767" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="SoCheers">SoCheers</keyword> writes how the pandemic-induced lockdown impacted the digital industry and its <keyword id="9259409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="pitching-process">pitching process</keyword>. </li><li>She further shares a few tips that can help you build a strong pitch despite the restrictions. </li></ul>Close to a month and a half ago, our organization decided on working from home given the unfortunate <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="coronavirus">coronavirus</keyword> situation. All ongoing work had to be looked at and actioned differently! Co-ordination now had a whole new meaning, where everyone had a lot of getting used to, to do. Not everyone’s lucky enough to have rooms to themselves, honestly in Mumbai it can be considered a privilege, and so conference calls were nothing short of a cacophony in the initial days. Everything was so overwhelming for everyone! But like I said, it was all a matter of time before everyone got the hang of it. And the amount of understanding and patience colleagues have shown in this time - Remarkable to say the least. Also, special mention to the ‘Mute’ feature on calls, what a saviour; surely saved me quite a few embarrassments. Like everyone else, I predicted that operations would drastically slow down, but as advertisers and marketers would already know, there’s no stopping! In fact, we stepped up and saw what we could create for brands even in these times and have gone all out with ideas and campaigns for almost all brands. My role at work majorly revolves around pitching ideas, campaigns and an overall digital strategy to existing and potential clients. It’s not very easy convincing brands to invest in digital while you also explain how you add more value v/s thousand other agencies. And now to do it without actually meeting them, it’s just a whole new ball game that no one knows the rules to. All in all, this time for sure has been a huge learning experience, at multiple levels. When you meet clients in person, it sort of works in your favour because they see you and physically meet you. Conversations in the room are free-flowing, from credentials to ideas to did you check the recent campaign on…? Just in case there is an idea that the client is unclear with, you get it from the expression or the hesitance; and there’s your chance to explain it better with more relevant examples! In the current pitch e-meetings that are happening, reading the room is what I think I miss the most. Just some tips that may come handy if you, like me, are pitching ideas to clients and convincing them to spend their money on digital: 1. Presentations Beyond Pointers Make them more explanatory than you would for a usual meeting. Helps the client see-through your ideas till the end. A lot of speaking is involved, sure, but on e-meetings, you can afford to be a little elaborate with the presentations. Also, the flow is of prime importance. Explain well, what the client is in store for. Helps set expectations and gives clarity regarding your overall approach towards the brief at hand. 2. Need of the hour are ideas, will always be ideas! Include simple, thought-through, actionable ideas that are relevant to current times. Try to bring something novel to the table. With every brand communicating in a similar space, the differentiating factor is sure to get you some brownie points. Showcase ideas with creative samples or easily executable videos, for clarity of understanding. Explain to them your perspective on how their journey looks for the next couple of months. 3. Don’t lose the human touch, not even on call! Keep content on the deck as relatable to clients as possible. Make sure the references that you are benchmarking against are of the client’s interest. Let each slide necessarily connect back to the previous. Add filler conversational slides in the middle if need be, so that at no point in time there is a gap. After every 6-8 slides, converse to make sure everyone is on the same page. Address questions if any so that their attention and interest is not lost. After the call, send out the minutes and action points almost immediately. Showcases proactiveness and involvement; honestly the soft skills, even if on email, go a long way! When you leave a pitch meeting physically, you know how it was. Call it a gut feeling or instinct, you can tell if you’ve done well or not! Currently, the ‘we'll get back’ on video calls leaves absolutely no hints for us to take! And that suspense kills. But that I guess none of us can do anything about. Just keep your fingers crossed and look forward to good news! - Ankita Kulkarni, Group Account Manager, Brand Strategy, SoCheers

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4 mantras that will elevate your art of pitching

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The creative and ideation block: 5 simple ways to wiggle right out

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Pitching to clients in these uncertain times

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