Genesis Blog
My first ‘pitch’Before I began my career in PR the concept of ‘pitching’ for new business conjured up ideas of awkward Alan Sugar wannabes inventing ridiculous profit margins and spewing business buzz words to smug corporate companies. However my first experience of a real pitch was really rather different…
In early April a very interesting tender dropped on the door of Genesis HQ and after a successful brainstorming session the team had come up with a brilliant proposal. We all kept our fingers crossed hoping to be shortlisted for the interview stage and after a tense few days we found out we had been selected!
In preparing for the pitch the team got together again to plan a presentation and to think of all the potential questions we might be asked in the Q&A. It is really exciting being part of this process as having the whole team together allows ideas and thoughts to be explored from lots of different perspectives. After collating all the information three of us were selected to attend the pitch.
The dress code in PR is quite casual day-to-day but I am a firm believer that when you’re out to impress it is essential to be dressed smartly! So early morning on the 10th April three of us set out, in our power outfits, armed with our presentation ready to amaze!
When we arrived we were put in front of a panel of three. As this was my first pitch it felt quite daunting and brought back memories of high school exams! But it was also very exciting and we were all so keen to do a really good job.
Thankfully technology was on our side and the presentation went up onto the projector screen without any problems, it’s always a worry that you will be frantically pressing the start button whilst looking over your shoulder smiling and saying some cliché like “well this has happened before”.
We took, the then prospective, client through our presentation and when we finished they only had a few questions as, exact quote, “the presentation and proposal was so thorough”. We all gave a huge but secret sigh of relief thinking ‘we must have got this right!’
When we got back into the car we broke out into a frenzied discussion on what we all thought, how we did, when we will hear and as it turned out we were all really quite pleased and feeling very hopeful.
The next day we all gasped everytime the phone rang, hoping it would be the good news we were all wishing for. We were kept in suspense until half past five on Wednesday the 11th when our Account Manager picked up a message stating we had won the account and they were looking forward to working with us!
It was thrilling to hear the good news. It is a fantastic client for Genesis PR to have on board and will hopefully offer other future opportunities for us. The whole team put in a huge amount of effort and so it feels like a great achievement for all of us.
I have learnt many things from attending my first pitch, predominately to have a thorough presentation, to consider all the potential questions and discussion points, have a sound knowledge of the client’s industry, to be open and friendly whilst communicating and finally to never consider BBC1’s The Apprentice as any form of reality!
Recent Posts
Archives
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- November 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
