Almost all our clients see the pitch process the same way: time-consuming and exhausting. And they almost all go about it the same way: First, you discover that the information you need is not up-to-date. The relevant work highlights aren’t collected anywhere, except in the partner’s head. So they haven’t been approved, either. The practice group’s story, the team’s CV’s and many of the references are also out-of-date. What to do? Most pull an old pitch out of the closet and rework it. But is that really pitching to your client? And is it going to achieve the desired result?
If you’re winning pitches this way, you can go on doing it, of course. But it doesn’t sound very efficient, does it? And for us, your firm’s business developers, it’s a process that is going to get old real fast. Because we want to be able to advise you right: proactively, and with the right substance – the substance that gets results for your firm. That’s what motivates our practice, and that’s what partners come to us for.
Let’s say, as their business developer, you’ve got four hours to put a pitch together. If your process is the inefficient one described above, you’ll spend at least two hours tracking down your commercial content and putting a first draft together. Then, your document will go around to all the attorneys, who are all going to put their two cents in, because the content isn’t complete and hasn’t been approved… So you lose more time massaging all that into a somewhat coherent story. You see where this is going, right? A race against the clock – maybe late into the night – to produce a final document that everyone is more or less happy with. But guess what? That didn’t leave you any time to put together your commercial content! All you’ve been doing is herding cats.
If you are able to implement this more efficient working method, you can be using that four hours completely differently – to check the commercial side of your proposal, to really come up with material advising, and to deliver the product on time and with no stress. After all, isn’t that what we’re all after? You’ll see that you suddenly find yourself in a position where you are really adding value to your partner group – not only providing a service, but able to challenge in all the right places.
Do you want to carry on this conversation about ways to improve your pitch process? Or about how to create a commercial content database? We’re ready to talk..
