There’s An App in This Blog Post That Will Help You Win Your Next Pitch

Prior to Ideasicle X I was the EVP Director of Business Development at Arnold Worldwide. I did nothing but pitch for 7 years and I learned a thing or two about the dynamics involved. And since then I’ve consulted with agencies helping them sharpen their approach to new biz. So for fun I isolated the variables of a pitch—the big five—and worked with Grok AI to develop an app to bring them to life.

The five key variables: Responsiveness, Relationship, Brand Tone, Strategy, and The Big Creative Idea. Get these right, and you’re golden. Miss one, and your pitch could be in the dirt. That’s where WinWiz comes in.

This interactive tool lets you slide through the five variables, tweaking each one to see how it impacts your pitch odds in real time. Think your strategy’s a 10 but your client relationship’s a 5? Well, that client may not see that strategy as a 10 (even if it is). Slide those dials and watch the odds adjust, with instant feedback on what to fix. Maybe you need to listen harder to client feedback (Responsiveness) or tighten up that brand tone. WinWiz doesn’t just guess—it shows you exactly where to focus to boost your chances.

Why trust it? I’ll tell you a story. When I was pitching at Arnold we were pitching the University of Phoenix. We had a great relationship with the clients, an absolutely killer strategy, and were told by the client all we had to do was finish and we’d win. Well, we lost. And we lost because we presented Budweiser ads to a University. We got the tone of the advertising utterly wrong. I never made that mistake again.

And now hopefully you won’t either. Brand Tone is one of the variables I don’t want you to forget like I did. Give it a go.

WINWIZ

Master these 5 key variables to boost your pitch odds.

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Are you listening? Responding overtly to client feedback builds your relationship, sharpens the strategy, and makes the creative work buyable.

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Strong chemistry with the client boosts how they perceive everything else (strategy, creative, etc.). Alone, a good relationship is not enough to win, but without it, forget it.

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Getting the brand tone right is critical to nailing the strategy. Discuss tone with the client to ensure you're not presenting beer ads to bank clients.

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A profound strategy can significantly boost your odds, even if the creative idea isn’t perfect. But a poor strategy guarantees poor creative.

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It's hard not to hire an agency with a big creative idea. Mistakes with the other variables will affect just how big this idea can be.

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Will Burns

If you need help with your next pitch, or with your new business materials in general, give me a call. I’ll review your RFPs, presentations, and approach, and provide recommendations to increase the odds. If we need Ideasicle X, we can turn that on as well.

More on consulting practice for agencies.

CommentaryWill Burnsnew business, pitch, advertising