The Pitch

My passion for advertising began with the “the pitch.”

Larry Trink, Copywriter

The PitchMindset: You have nothing, so you have nothing to lose

- Think like a start-up that has not built-up their business

Whatto bring: Humility, a smile and something that solves a problem

- Everyone has pain or else you wouldn’t be there - Show them something to get rid of the pain

Impress: Think big. Bring big. - Provide something to touch and feel. Print it. Bind it. - You want them to keep it on their desk to show others

You never forget your first pitch. Mine began on a snowy day, making it easy to find prime parking in the massive

Unisys lot.

My partner and I waited nervously as the security guard rang the Director of Marketing

to escort us in. We had no idea if he braved the elements to come to work. We only

knew he had a budget, a sales quota, and a mistrust of large agencies. He was the

best prospect we had.

A computer. Excel. And nothing to lose.

We nailed the presentation. Perhaps it was the pie charts that sealed the deal or the thinking behind the data. I like to believe it was the charts. These were not your gorgeous Adobe Illustrator generated graphics. These were vintage B/W dot-matrix prints from an Apple printer powered by Macintosh and Excel. Fresh, new thinking never goes out of style.

Thirty

Something’s and

a computer

The client reaction you want to hear.

“You guys did this? How did you do this?”

Desktop computing was new to the IBM/Unix world and not surprisingly our

presentation, reminiscent of the classic Apple TV commercial “The Pitch,”

hit a cord. We left the Unisys office with the assignment and the validation

of our ability. Our reputation for staying ahead of the curve and

recommending the unexpected grew, and so did our business.

Go the distance on every pitch.

When it’s taken 6 months or more to actually get to the point where you’re in

a pitch, you want to raise the odds of closing the deal. Your competitors are

feeling the same, so there will be a winner and a loser.

If you can’t serve your clients AND do a terrific job on the pitch, contact Larry

Trink ([email protected]).