3 Ways to make a client pitch boring as hell

At some point during your career in an agency, you’ll find yourself pitching to a client. And it doesn’t stop there – from pitching and presenting a campaign strategy there’s a phone call & face-to-face meeting, and eventually reporting.

For that reason, you not only need to be great at your job but also be awesome at communications. Because there will be a lot of it when dealing with a current, new or potential client.

Anyway, back to the topic of this post – pitching. So how can you make a client pitch boring, or maybe more importantly, what shouldn’t you be doing when pitching to a client?

About Us

One of the most boring things I find when pitching to a client is when a presentation starts with ‘about us/about me’ slides.

That said, it’s an important element of your presentation and I do believe these slides should be in your pitch. However, it’s not an icebreaker, so you should not start the whole presentation with this. You’ll end up receiving ‘please end this pitch now’ kind of faces.

Include these slides at the end of your presentation, something to close the meeting with. It’s a great chance to introduce the whole team (in pictures) as well as talking about your agency achievements.

Monotone Monologue

You really want to avoid this one. There is nothing worse than someone reading off the script while delivering a pitch. You want to make sure you interact with your potential client. Let them interrupt you and ask questions while going through your presentation.

Make them feel like they are part of your pitch, not a panel of judges. Make sure you keep an eye contact and make your presentation a bit of excitement, not a session.

Text and more text

Two words – bullet points!

If you include ALL information in your presentation and then read it, you don’t really need to be there. Plus your potential client is paying you zero attention as they are reading your slides too.

Include bullet points that you can talk about, throw in some graphs and images that you can explain further.

Be prepared and time your presentation to ensure you are not done within five minutes or taking more time than the client can give you. You don’t want people excusing themselves during your pitch and leaving because they have other meetings planned in their calendar.

Last, but not least: the main thing is making sure that you are happy with what you are saying and trying to deliver. Trust us, people can sense if you don’t believe in what you’re presenting.