Free Article - Great Ideas Dont Sell Themselves - Natural Training

8/12/2019 Free Article - Great Ideas Dont Sell Themselves - Natural Training

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1The Natural Training Company Ltd

Clergy House, Mark Street, Shoreditch, London, EC2A 4ERPh: +44 (0) 207 613 7830 | W: www.naturaltraining.com | E: [email protected]

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free sales resourcearticle: great ideas dont sell themselves

+44 (0) 207 613 7830 | www.naturaltraining.com | [email protected]


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why read this article?

This is an article about pitching new ideas to clients.

It is designed to help two different types of readers:

a. Creatives who sell: Includes Art Directors, Copywriters Web Designers, Creative Directors whoregularly have to sell their ideas to clients.

b. Salespeople who sell creative ideas: Especially those from industries including Advertising,Marketing, Public Relations and Web Design. Handy if you work with creative departments too!

Natural Training has developed a strong reputation for helping our customers from creative industries

to have a strong, business related impact when presenting.

I hope you like the article and I look forward to receiving some feedback to

[email protected]

In the meantime enjoy!

Kind Regards,

Matt Drought

Director


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great ideas dont sell themselves: by matt drought

Mike was a young, talented copywriter working at the same London advertising agency as me. Like all

good copywriters, he had developed a great working partnership with an art director in this case

Brett. I was in sales, and when providing speculative creative to clients in a pitch, I would usually seek

out Mike and Brett for their fresh ideas and striking designs.

Mike had developed a reputation for Ogilvy-style research, not just to find a unique angle, but to gainthe depth of understanding and strategic edge that impactful copy demands.

And to top it all off, Mike was seriously cool. He wore great clothes, drove a flash car and was seen at

the best London venues. One of our biggest billing clients loved him they called him Cool Mike and

the name stuck.

But Cool Mike had a serious, career-limiting flaw: he was useless at selling his own ideas. He was a bittoo cool. In a pitch he would mumble a few words, and the boards would be flicked across the table

to the client.

In many meetings clients were left to draw their own conclusions and make their own connection to

the creative. I usually had to fill in the blanks, which barely worked, because I didnt own the concept

and I wasnt talking from the heart. Besides, clients wanted to hear from Cool Mike in his 501s, not

me in my Marks and Spencer suit.

Mike hadnt realised one of the oldest rules in the book: great ideas dont sell themselves. He relied

too heavily on letting his work do the work. And sometimes it did, but sometimes it didnt. I reckon it

cost me about 10,000 in personal income to learn the hard way when I lost a pitch to a large

electronics client - with Cool Mike seeming to have lost the power of speech.

There was another team at the agency too John and Jessica. John and Jess produced some robust

work never with the flair of Cool Mike and Brett - but John and Jess understood how to sell. In fact,


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they would prefer to give away one of their children than let any sort of idea of theirs go unsold. John

couldnt stand it if he wasnt able to sell his own idea, and would go to extraordinary lengths to ensurethat you were on message, and that you presented his ideas in a way that sold.

John and Jess were talented, but they extended their talents way beyond their Mac: in front of a client,

they put on a show. In a pitch they knew everything else comes second to the main event, and the

main event is the creative.

How did they do it? One technique was to reveal their ideas slowly: seduction, not submission. Or inslightly cruder terms, if Cool Mike & Brett were flashers, then John and Jess were masters of striptease.

They would carefully tell the story before showing each board. Clients were on the edge of their seats.

They also presented as a team with a natural bond that only friends seem to have. John would finish

sentences for Jess, Jess would throw to him for an anecdote, and they would have a laugh.

But more than all of this, they built both rational & emotional arguments prior to showing the creative.

They would also tie the solution into the very real business objectives. John and Jess realised that they

were there to solve a business problem, not a creative problem. So they would paint a picture of therobust process they undertook to reach the solution, such as the many hours they had spent

researching. They would talk about the focus groups, the ideas that didnt make it, the late nights and

the flash of inspiration that fed the idea that built the words that created the ads that were on the

boards that they were about to show. In a moment, if you dont mind, Mr Client

And clients loved it. They were absorbed. The body language said it all invariably they were leaning

forward, nodding in agreement, smiling to learn things about their company that they didnt

themselves know.

I had the privilege of being on a major pitch with John and Jess four times. Before each pitch I wasnt

confident because the creative wasnt mind-blowing. But as it turns out John and Jess sold the ideas so

well that it didnt matter we won all four.

Ill never forget what one large European client said to me about why we won the pitch: In terms of

the actual creative, you werent even in the top 3. But it was the way you got therethat impressed us.


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With the attention to detail John and Jess showed to get to their idea, we knew two things: that next

time with our help the creative will be perfect, and we could really see ourselves working with them inthe future.

From that time on, my opinion of the creative role started to change. Yes the idea had to be strong,

and based on sound research. Yes it had to marry with the clients corporate vision and campaign

strategy. Yes, it had to look alluring. But more than all of that it had to be sold with verve by the

people who created it.

Because great ideas dont sell themselves.

From then on my relationship with Cool Mike changed. I still wanted to be him - with his purple

streak, his white Italian shoes, and his tattoo of Herv Villechaize.

But in my mind he had moved from Cool Mike to Mike the Cooler.

The Cooleris a 2003 movie starring William H Macy as Bernie Lootz, a perennial loser hired by a casino

to cool tables full of lucky gamblers by taking a seat among the rowdy throng and injecting his bad

luck like a virus.

Cool Mike in a pitch was a bit like Bernie Lootz just when the client should be at fever pitch, he took

the heat out of the deal. And when the heat is stripped from creative, sometimes all you are left with

is a board, a piece of paper and a bunch of words.

John and Jess turned up the heat right when it mattered most. They got the client into a fever pitch

state, by being convincing, passionate and well drilled in the face-to-face presentation.

It got me to thinking that you creatives really have to flex your personalities to be all things to all

people. You have to have an analytical bent, being perfectly happy to research for hours on end.


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You have to of course be creative to think of innovative solutions to problems, which sit at the brains

polar opposite point. You must also be expressive, able to communicate your ideas in a way that sells,just like John and Jess.

And finally, given that many of you work alone, you have to be driven as well, in order to push yourself

to find more work.

Its not easy, this creative game.

Which is why we are in the business of helping creatives do one thing at a very high level indeed: to

present ideas in a way that sells.

If you think that your ability to create a sparkling piece of creative is let down by your presentation

technique, then why dont you get in contact at [email protected]


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the natural training company ltdNatural Training started trading in 2005 with a simple proposition: fresh, relevant, practical training that works

with your natural personality rather than training which crunches against it. This means participants can relax in

the knowledge that their personal style is right for them. We simply add some tools and concepts that help

rather than constrict natural style.

Based in London and servicing the UK and Europe, Natural Training focuses on delivering group workshops and

personal coaching to start-up business right through to big name brands representing most industry sectors.

Formed by Matt Drought formerly of TMP Worldwide and Feena Coleman formerly of Goldman Sachs, Natural

Training now has over 1600 clients across all industries enjoying our practical, results-driven training.

Natural Training has 20 staff: six full time staff maintaining our superb customer experience, and fourteen

trainers all receiving excellent feedback. The Natural Habitat is in a beautiful converted church in Shoreditch,

London.

Natural Training is located in the middlefloor of Clergy House, part of a beautifullyrestored church and convent in ShoreditchLondon, a short stroll away from LiverpoolStreet and Old Street Station. NaturalTraining has a professional training room toseat 12.


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Free Article - Great Ideas Dont Sell Themselves - Natural Training