Pitch to win: How to improve your law firm's pitch success rate

26 Oct 2012News

Clare Adshead-Grant reveals how to significantly increase your law firm's ?pitch success rate

Four things you will learn from this Masterclass

How to decide whether to stop or go
How to check if your pitch kit is in order
How to ensure the pitch process runs smoothly
How to create a good impression of your firm

Pitching is a process. It has a start, a middle and an end – hopefully a successful one! It has a number of steps that, if carried out in best practice style, can have a significant effect on your success rate. How do I know? Because I’ve done it. In my role within a magic-circle law firm, we increased our pitch success rate from 35 per cent to over 80 per cent. In this article, I’m going to tell you how we did it.

The process

Figure 1 details the typical pitching process and the steps that should ?be undertaken for each pitch received.

Figure 1: A typical pitch process

Stage 1: Pre-pitch scoping

Research to identify opportunity
Ring/meet key contacts to register interest

Stage 2: Pre-qualification

Review the pre-pitch scoping data
Evaluate and qualify the opportunity
Make the stop/go decision

Stage 3: Receiving the invitation

Alert key team members
Respond to the client to accept/decline the invitation

Stage 4: Pitch team and planning

Decide on the pitch team and lead relationship partner
Conduct research
Relationship and pricing review
Bid planning meeting
Pitch plan and timeline

Stage 5: Production of pitch document

Plan and write pitch
Review and proof document
Printing, production and submission

Stage 6: Presentation

Receipt of client presentation instructions
Presentation planning meeting
Preparation of presentation tools
Coaching and rehearsals
Client presentation

Stage 7: Notification and feedback

Negotiations and clarification
Obtain feedback
Client debrief meeting
Internal pitch team debrief meeting

Some pitches are more formal than others. For some, you will be given days if not months to respond, and some may have several stages to them. The key is ?to carry out these stages and flex them to a greater or lesser extent depending on the situation.

This article will highlight the main elements which have more of an impact on a successful pitch outcome. If you concentrate on these, you will increase your pitch win rate.

Create a dialogue

Having received the opportunity, what do you do next? Acknowledge receipt to the sender. All interactions from this point forward will be forming an opinion in their minds about your firm and your approach to client service.

Did you respond in a timely manner? Did you acknowledge receipt? Have you made contact to clarify anything?

View the pitching process as your opportunity to increase your relationship with the company. They have just provided you with the perfect excuse to contact them and continue to have a dialogue with them.

Even if you decide that the opportunity isn’t for you, how you handle that refusal will influence the impression being ?formed of your firm.

Be selective

The stop or go decision is fundamental. For firms with the right skills and an existing relationship with the company, the decision to pitch for work is clear. However, in those cases where the process is an impersonal one, it is not always so straightforward.

Pitching takes time and effort. It ?costs thousands in fee-earner time for a relatively simple pitch. If you don’t have a realistic chance of winning the pitch, then don’t go any further. This is one of the ?key elements in getting your pitch ?success rate up.

It is always worth taking a step back before committing to the process, to consider whether there is a realistic chance of your firm winning the work. This is a difficult judgement call, but it is something that you need to address before starting to compile your response.

Will doing the work for this client give you opportunities to widen the relationship or to sell additional services later? How important is it for you to win this work strategically?

Be more selective and put more effort into those opportunities that you really believe you have a chance of winning.

Be engaged

You can’t fake engagement (unless ?you are a budding Oscar nominee).

As the lead partner or stakeholder, you must gather and cajole the troops and inject some enthusiasm for the potential project. There is nothing worse than working on a pitch for hours and days knowing that the person leading it isn’t interested and doesn’t care.

If you have evaluated the opportunity properly, then there is a fair chance that you will win. Ensure you put aside some time so that you can give it your full attention.

Check your pitch kit

Is your pitch kit in order? A well-structured pitch kit can save you hours of time. It doesn’t need to be complicated, although there are some software solutions on the market that can help.

Essentially, you need to look across your organisation and pull together all the pieces of standard wording that describes all areas of your firm and services. These might include:?

descriptions and deal lists for each service line;
your conflicts procedures;
how you manage complaints;
your management structure;
value-add services;
pro bono/charity work; and
corporate social responsibility.

?You don’t need a complicated system – just a well-organised group of Word documents that everyone can access but only a few can amend. This way, central control of the tone of voice and messaging is maintained.

The content and structure of the document will depend on the material you have been asked to assemble during the process and on the key messages that you want to convey.

Below are some standard elements to include, but do ensure your document addresses the specific requirements set out in the invitation to pitch.

Executive summary (why us?)
Key issues (what do they want? – understanding the client’s needs)
About us (how we will do what they want? – our approach and service relationship)
Practice overview
Credentials (why we know how to ?do it)
Team (who will do it?)
Fees (how much will it cost?)
Conflicts

Consider value adds

What does ‘value added’ mean? From the client’s perspective, it is services, information and knowledge that is offered to help with a business problem or offers something extra to the team. From the firm’s perspective, you might think it means that the client wants something for nothing.

Remember that a value add is worth nothing if the client doesn’t want or need it.

Here’s a real-life example of how banal some firm’s offerings are: “You will be added to our database and receive invitations to our seminars on topical issues [yawn!] and we have an extranet [double yawn!!]”.

Think about the client, the team they are running and their industry sector. What would really make a difference to their working lives and really help them?

Offer something tailored to them ?and they will see that you are going ?the extra mile and appreciate it. It is another opportunity to stand apart from your competitors.

Focus on content

A picture is worth a thousand words – well, not in all cases. Having a glossy, flashy document with lots of graphs and pictures added to poorly-constructed content just makes it look nice.

It is much better to use the dtp (text setting) time to focus on answering the questions asked, and to make sure your expertise and enthusiasm shines through.

Check for interest

I once read an international law firm pitch document that had 56 pages of deal lists. You have to trust that, if you have been selected to receive the tender opportunity, the client believes you have the expertise and capabilities to carry out the project. Bombarding them (or padding out your document) with pages and pages of deal lists will achieve nothing apart from sending them to sleep (if they bother to read them at all).

Much more interesting is using case studies. These are really underused and ?will set you apart. A case study can ?give a flavour of what it is like to work ?with your firm.

To give an example, I developed a case study using an international corporate restructuring deal. First, ?I interviewed the lead partner. Then, ?I interviewed the lead partners for ?each of the five disciplines involved.

Based on my notes and some desk research, we ended up with a case study which could be sliced to demonstrate a number of scenarios – international working, team/project management, firm/client relationships and individual practice group perspectives on managing an international deal.

This case study was recycled on numerous occasions and always featured positively in pitch feedback sessions.

Rehearse and test

Best practice is not to meet your team for the first time in the taxi on the way over to the client – please don’t laugh, it’s happened on several occasions to my knowledge. If you get the opportunity to meet and present to the client, make sure you rehearse with the complete team.

Do the rehearsal in front of a couple of people taking on the role of the client. Make sure they test the content you have put in the pitch document. Also, ?get them to ask you the questions ?that you don’t want the client to bring up. This means that you’ll have already thought about them and your answers ?will sound credible if the client actually asks them.

In addition, make sure the team you take along includes the people who the client will be talking to on a daily basis. ?The role of the lead partner at the presentation is to make introductions, ?keep the flow of conversation going ?and ensure that everyone in the team makes a contribution.

Project manager’s checklist

Confirm participation.
Find out the name and address of the assessor and the number of copies needed.
Confirm the delivery method (whether by email and/or mail [hard copies/disk/USB]).
Check software compatibility (which version of Word or Excel to use).
Check for limits on document size, if being emailed.
Notify all internal stakeholders by sending out a ‘decision to pitch email’ and a copy of the PQQ/RFP.
Run a conflicts check.
Establish and communicate the timeline and milestones to all internal stakeholders.
Diarise an initial pitch planning meeting and subsequent catch-up meetings to discuss development of content with the lead person.
Prepare labels/covering letter (if appropriate).
Identify any additional marketing materials that might enhance the submission. But, be selective. An effective pitch focuses on answering the questions asked, tailored to that opportunity. Volumes of generic material will not add much and may be an unwelcome distraction.

Ask for feedback

Pitching is a process. It should not be ?a static one, nor should it be rigidly followed in every case. It should evolve and change over time. The most important catalyst for this change is feedback from prospects. They will let you know what you did well and where you need to improve. A debrief should be carried out whether you won or lost and by someone connected with the pitch (i.e. they have some background knowledge), but not the lead partner. Business development managers, marketing managers or senior partners are ideally placed for this role.

How not to pitch

Half-hearted attempt. If you decide to pitch, then put everything into it. There is nothing worse than working on a pitch where you know the team aren’t engaged.
Cut and paste. Don’t be tempted to take the last pitch done for that sector or practice area, make a copy of it and then update it. It won’t save you any time because you’ll still have to adapt it and it won’t be tailored to the company.
Stalking horse. This is the term used where a pitching opportunity arrives unexpectedly from a random source. It probably means that the company is putting out tenders in order to get quotes to lower the fees of their incumbent advisers.
Just because you’ve been asked to. You shouldn’t put time and effort into something just because you have been asked to do it. If it really isn’t your area of expertise, it will show up in the document. Say not and put your efforts into activities that will provide results.

Clare Adshead-Grant is a consultant ?with over 15 years’ business ?development experience within ?law firms (www.calista.co.uk). She is the author of Managing Partner report Pitching to Win.