Tag Archives: Michael Parker

“Look your best – who said love is blind?” (Mae West )

Three images in newspapers over the weekend did not need words to tell you what was going on. Two Frenchmen share the feeling that they may soon be out of a job. One lets you know it with every frown, grimace and wrinkle at his disposal. The other looks as if he is on top of the world. Which one would you want on your pitch team?

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Arsene Wenger may be a footballing tactical genius, but everything about him is signalling defeat. Team talks must be a motivating barrel of laughs.

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President Sarkozy on the otherhand, against the evidence of opinion polls, has regained his mojo and now  looks like a winner. His huge jaunty smile is working for him again to such an extent that many feel he will turn the tide in his favour.

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Photos of the Huhnes in court are not available but the artist’s drawing says everything, without headline. 

And yet in so many pitches 99% of the effort, the angst, and the focus goes into the words!  Worth remembering that The Artist, a silent movie, is winning the awards.

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The secret structure of great talks.

The ultimate source of great talks, and ideas worth spreading, is TED.com.

A recent one is a must for anyone interested in pitching and was given in compelling fashion by Nancy Duarte.  Check it out!

http://www.ted.com/talks/nancy_duarte_the_secret_structure_of_great_talks.html?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2012-02-07&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email

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Will they like you?

 An article by Christina Patterson in i last week set out to explain why David Cameron, an Etonian, son of a stockbroker, married to an aristocrat, a multi-millionaire who had just spent £30k on his kitchen, should have been clapped and applauded by a group of Asda employees.

“They liked him. But then lots of people like him. So many people like him that the Tories are now more popular than they’ve been for nearly two years.”

Martin Jones of the AAR , who was on the recieving end of over 600 pitches with his clients, concluded that, above all else, they are looking to answer “How much do they want my business?” “Do I like them and can I spend time with them?” “Do they like each other?”

Gallup’s Personality Factor Opinion Poll concludes “in politics the single best determinant of electability is likeablity.”

Nielsen’s Likeability Index, used in assessing advertising, reports that “if we like an ad we can remember it and that liking is a key driver of effectiveness”.

Laurence Green in the Daily Telegraph gave a definition as ” relevant information combined with empathy and entertainment”. He suggested that “if emotion is what drives us we do well to chose likeability”.

Kevin Millicheap, advertising writer, said “Rehearsal makes nice people nicer”

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“NEARLY ISN’T ENOUGH.” Paula Radcliffe.

From the early days of their first “just do it” posters Nike have set out to capture the spirit of a winning attitude by association with global sports heroes who win when it matters most, against the toughest competitors, in the cauldron of an Olympic Games or World Championship.

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 Athletes like Paula Radcliffe don’t just compete. They dedicate their lives to a single goal to the exclusion of everything else. Every daylight hour is focussed on a training regime, a mental and physical preparation towards that single goal that would terrify us. When she says ‘nearly isn’t enough’ most of us would have said enough already!

Can this approach to translate to the pitch? A winning attitude is evident in most successful companies since without it they also can’t compete. It is usually not lacking in pitch teams who launch into the  preparation with all guns blazing and a real desire to perform well.

However, unlike Paula, they are not channelling their ‘winning attitude’  to the exclusion of everything else. Why? Because they have day jobs, clients to look after, operations to manage. So while they may be ‘putting everything into the pitch’, they aren’t. ‘Enough’ will be what can be done in the time available after other demands are met.

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If Paula, or Mo, were on your team you would not say enough so readily. You would fight for more preparation, more training, more resource, better support and make “nearly isn’t enough” your mantra. After all, it only takes one of your competitors to be doing this and they will win.

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Finding the G-spot.

The unfortunate Ed Milliband seems to have chosen the wrong career. In politics in the 21st century, with 24/7 screen exposure, ‘style’ puts ‘substance’ in the shade. Journalists are having a field day at his expense. Mary Ann Sieghart: “Even Ed’s friends don’t see him at home in Downing Street ……only 16% of Labour supporters agree that he looks and sounds like a possible Prime Minister.”

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Matthew Norman is more explicit, if that is the right word, saying “If politics is like sex, Ed will never find the national G-spot”. He further suggested that voters decided “within 0.03 seconds of his becoming leader…. that they did not want to dive under the blankets with him”

While the G-spot is as elusive in business as elsewhere, the style over, or under, substance issue is live. Every pitch, audience and decision process is different so claiming one more important than the other is foolhardy. An outstanding solution presented indifferently can win against brilliant pitching of a moderate solution, sometimes.

However, typically in practice three or four firms of very similar ability-in the eyes of the potential client who selected them-will be in competition and the chances are that their technical solutions, the substance of their response, will be of very similar quality. Chosing the ‘best’ is not easy. 

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In these instances style will often be the only differentiator in the eyes-or rather the emotional responses- of those judging. And yet, so often, work continues right upto the last minute with attempts to improve the substance leaving no energy for improving style, the winning ingredient that just might hit the G-spot.

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