There is a certain euphoric state that washes over you when you win something big. Those who either play sports or compete for wins that cause survival or failure in business know what I am talking about. You put so much thought, effort and preparation into big competitions that you really set yourself up for a monumental feeling if you win or utter depression if you were to lose.
Recently, my company won a very large piece of business that will give us an even larger base to grow and advance our future success from. It was an amazing win that took several months from the start to finish. And even after the in-person presentation, there still was almost a month’s worth of wait time until we had a final decision. It was a tremendous win for our team and one that will be remembered for quite a long period of time. We don’t win all the time, but for the things that we really want to win – those that we really go hard after – we are able to win them a lot of the time. I’m lucky enough to be the leader of the company both in spirit and legally on paper and I think that people oftentimes don’t know what happens in these big presentations (or advertising agency pitches, as we call them) that sets us up for such success. It isn’t anything that I do, or the team members in the presentation do, that is the single cause for a win, but a combination of what happens throughout a process.
The real winning comes from a couple of different areas:
First, it takes the self-discipline to set aside your own time and the time of others to adequately prepare for something you are trying to win. Paul Bear Bryant and Vince Lombardi had similar sayings, and to paraphrase from each of them it’s that “you don’t have to just have the will to win, you have to have the will to prepare to win.” And there couldn’t be a more accurate statement. You have to prepare yourself mentally for your competition before you ever get to your competition. Then, you have to prepare yourself mentally that you are going to win your competition, as people can tell winners from losers just by looking at them. Don’t get me wrong on this subject, either. I have lost just as many things as I have won when it comes to pitching new business in my career, and without fail, I can track back 90 percent of the losses to not taking the time to prepare for a winning outcome. Not taking the time to instruct other people what needed to happen to prepare for a winning outcome. And frankly, just not believing in being a winner enough to have a winning outcome. If you invest the time to prepare to win and create a belief system that you can win, then you have already won in the most critical area of the process.
Next, you must have a point of differentiation of what you do different and why you do it differently that is beneficial for the person you are trying to win over if you want to be the clearly-defined winner. This is what sets you apart when you are in a setting like a new business pitch. It is your point of differentiation, your value proposition, the very essence of what you can do and provide that others cannot. Also, be quick to understand that it isn’t all about being the lowest price, either. There are certain people that will go “bargain shopping” when they are looking for a product or service, but that is only one segment of the population. There are a lot more people who, in buying a great product or service with a great brand name, know it will take care of them for quite a long time. This is also where you cannot get so busy talking about yourself when pitching a new piece of business that you leave out the “what’s in it for the customer” moments. You have to go into a hell of a lot of detail with what I call “Simple Speak.” Simple Speak just means that you have to talk to people and present ideas in ways that they understand. You cannot talk over their heads or allow them to glaze over. To win, you have to show and describe in great detail why you are the right choice and why you should be crowned as the winner. And all while you do this, you must do it with total confidence and zero doubt. People will see right through it.
Bringing it home, the fact of whether you are competing to win or lose something in business really comes down to what type of value you can get the customer to see. There is always an ending point when you are in competition for a certain win where you make your final run at why someone should do business with you and why you are the winner. This is the single greatest element in the personal presentation part of a competition. This is a testament to your preparation, your points of differentiation and finally, what your summation or bottom line assessment is as to why someone should choose you as the winner.
But wait, we are not done yet. What lies last is what can be the single greatest element that is overlooked by many competitors (and I thank them every day for it and pray they never get any smarter and learn from what I do), and that is the follow-up.
My father taught me early on in my career that deals are won and lost most of the time in the follow-up phase. You have to be the one who follows up with the most information and does it the most often to secure your place at the top of the podium as the one who provides the most value. One time in a follow-up after a pitch for new business, someone told me that they knew from all of my emails that I definitely knew how to conduct a spam campaign. But your manner of follow-up must show value and you must show that you can continue to deliver value each and every time that you reach back out in an effort to win. Follow-up is the key to success in winning any competition that isn’t a time-sanctioned event. The one who follows up the most usually has the best chance of winning.
In closing, I didn’t write this blog to talk about myself as a winner. I wrote this blog for those who read it to see that it truly is a set of steps that begins with the phase of preparation and ends with intense follow-up. It’s not about who dresses the flashiest or says all the right things but rather more about who is a diligent practitioner in following the steps necessary to win.