Managing the client pitch

Congratulations, you’ve got an appointment with a powerful decision maker who has the authority to contract your services. You’re probably wondering if you now need to start selling? – telling the client all the wonderful things about yourself and your service. Well the short answer is a definite – NO!

You see, this is not about you at all, it’s all about the client and their problems. Your credibility will not be established by your credentials but by your ability to understand their situation and make sensible contributions to the discussion that reveals fresh insight.

To structure the engagement, I use the acronym S.P.A.M.S, which stands for:

S – Situation

First prior to the meeting, research their situation, organisation and any topical news items that will allow you to open up the discussion.

Your early questions are all about understanding their world, position, relationships with other stakeholders and any constraints. Who are their customers? their suppliers? both internal and external. Look for actions that they have taken that provide context to their current problems.

P – Problems

Next you are going to turn on the fire hydrant by asking them about their problems. This normally floods out as a consequence of their current situation. Capture their problems and try to accurately record their language. This will provide important clues to their emotional priorities.

A – Activities

This is the most important step where you discover the implications of their problems. Ask the question: what does this problem stop you from doing? What activities or jobs does it impede? And what will happen if those activities don’t get done?

For instance, they might mention that the problem is low staff morale due to a recent re-organization. You should now be interested in understanding what activities are going wrong as a result of poor morale. Or what might go wrong.

It could be that poor morale is impacting the manufacture of light fittings and leading to a high number of defects.

M – Metrics

Start by piecing together the important outcomes or measures that the organization is looking to achieve from these activities. So for the manufacture of light fittings: the measures are going to be around: defect rates, production levels, and production costs. The important thing is that these metrics are measurable and prioritized.

S – Solutions

By now, you should have achieved a high degree of credibility with the client. Not only you, but also the client should have an improved clarity of their situation, problems and root causes.

However, refrain from offering up a specific solution at this stage. Instead, seek conceptual agreement for a possible approach. Try and understand their constraints by discussing some of the options. For instance, you have ascertained that they want to hit their production targets, but you could explore alternatives at this stage. Don’t assume that they only want to meet these targets by improving staff morale.

These explorations should reveal their preferred approach – what solution would they feel most comfortable with, or what could they sell internally.

Tags: client research, metrics, problems, solutions, Spams