Pitch tips from a Pharma Marketeer

 Wish you could get into your pharma client's head?

Having been on the client side for 20 years, led and sat through hours of agency pitches, I can only imagine how stressful and time consuming it can be. Especially when you've received one of 'those' briefs i.e. vague, short and downright uninspiring! Let me cheer you up with those first 5 tips!

1.    If you don't get a clear brief and even if you do, ask for a meeting where you can ask all the questions you need answered to put the proposal together. And….and this happens often and is worth you knowing upfront, sometimes clients get a pitch done to get ‘new ideas’ for their brand plan so be bold and ask if this is the case, well maybe not that way but you see what I mean!

2.    Build a relationship with the procurement manager. Yes, sometimes they’re just coordinating the process but they’ll still have a say. Make sure their needs are covered and you build a positive relationship with them.

3.    Treat the process as a co-creation project, an opportunity to build the relationship and get more client insights. Don’t keep radio silence from the brief to the presentation. Show you care and want the business.

4.    Sounds obvious but make sure you tick all the boxes on the brief. Even if you don’t get to present that slide on the day, make sure it’s in the deck so it can be referred to by the client. I'm talking about account team bios (make them relevant) and case studies.

5.    Don’t go nuts with your slides, less is more unless every single slide is relevant to the pitch. Put the rest in the appendix. Have exec summaries upfront, the marketing directors love them. They absorb information fast and want to get to the point… That’s how they got to where they are.

What do you think of those? More to add I bet!

If you want more advice, give me a call, I’d love to help you in the same way I have already added value to a few agencies since starting up Haven 35.