My First Pitch

I went to my first pitch this week - I was nervous, of course, but it seemed to go well.

Walking out from the prospective client's offices, my boss asked me how I felt the pitch went.

I told that I thought it was a good pitch. It was a short notice meeting and I had spent most of the day before putting together the pitch docuement, under guidance, so I knew the brief and our related strengths well. The actual presentation went smoothly and we answered all of their questions well. My boss naturally did most of the talking - he knows how to pitch and can sell the company and its services better than anyone. I played my part, largely relating to online communciation and media coverage, which I probably know more about than my boss, and the prospective clients seemed impressed.

Then I asked how my boss felt it went.

He said that he wasn't sure if he wanted to work with them.

Now, this was a surprise to me. True, the guy who would decide whether to hire us or not was more interested in his blackberry than what we had to say. But as a new employee on the first rung of the ladder, I'm still in the mind set that our consultancy needs to get as many clients as it can, so that money keeps coming through the door and, most importantly for me, that my bum is still behind my desk next week and my pay cheque keeps coming at the end of the month (Ah, capitalism - don't you just love it?).

Our company has a good list of clients and a great working relationship with them all. If a potential client doesn't fit in with this, then our reputation could be damaged, especially if the PR side of things doesn't go well. Todd Deffren raises a similar point over at PR Squared.

My first pitch was important because they should be easier from now on as I get more practical experience. But even though I would like to think that we got a hire from my first pitch, I feel that I've learnt a more valuable lesson this time from not getting the client on our books.