When it comes to new business pitches, muddling the nuts and bolts stuff - the basics - is where most agencies get beaten by their sharper competition.

But how to improve?

Start by reading the following brief excerpt from "The Perfect Pitch," a by-the-numbers guide to developing successful sales presentations. At the end you'll find information about how to request a copy of the entire flyer for yourself.

Never stop learning about how to persuade more effectively - it's the essence of our business.

All the best,

"The Perfect Pitch" is a to-the-point flyer listing imperative guidelines for creating successful sales presentations. Every agency should have a copy to refer to when putting together any kind of significant presentation, especially new business pitches.

With their permission, here are a couple of excerpts from Cresta's presentation guidelines.

From #5 Teamwork Works

• Assign roles. There should be someone who leads the presentation, someone who takes notes (anyone, except the leader), and someone who is assigned to watch for negative signals and has a way of communicating them to the leader. Everyone should have a specific piece of the presentation, no matter how small. People who just sit and take up space make prospects nervous and it appears disrespectful.
• Never, ever, ever disagree. If someone on the team has made an awkward or incorrect remark, find a way to fix it without appearing to contradict. Anything else, just glide over. The prospect will never remember an incidental less-than-elegant remark, but he/she will never forget a team dysfunction.
• Stick to the roles. Don't allow anyone to throw off the timing, the message or the ambiance of the presentation. If you have a monopolizer who is not the leader, fix it beforehand or don't invite him/her to the meeting.

From #6 Marketing Support Materials

Generally, if you are presenting to more than three people, the information is detailed, the presentation will be longer than 15 minutes, and/or graphics are important, we recommend PowerPoint support.

• Keep the deck as short as possible, roughly two slides per minute is a good rule of thumb.
• Bullet points - no paragraphs unless you are reviewing a final copy statement.
• Always, always customize the first and last slides to your prospect. If you use the corporate logo, make sure it is correct to their brand standards.
• Never read slides, always follow the order of the points on the slides.

From #11 You Came to Sell Not to Present

We have seen and heard countless great presentations that did not result in sales. So, unless this is a meeting of the Toastmasters Club, the object is to get the business; to change a prospect into a client. If you spend all of the time at the meeting worrying about whether you and your team are making a good presentation, rather than whether you're connecting with the prospect and his/her needs, then the prospect will shake your hand, tell you what a great job you did in explaining your service and that will be that.

So, move the meeting through the selling process - from acknowledging needs through a description of your relevant services, to a summary that shows you can help achieve the objectives, to an expression of how passionately you want to work with the prospect, to asking for the next step in the process.

That's just a taste of Cresta's counsel. The booklet covers many more areas you'll probably find helpful.

But of course you know all this stuff, right? Sure you do, but our experience has been time and again agencies blow these kind of basics. You simply can't be reminded of them too often.

To request a copy of "The Perfect Pitch" visit The Cresta Group or call their Chicago office at 312.944.4700.

Tell 'em Joe sent you.

OK, there might not be much call for this but if you ever need to decode a Latin phrase, or want to insert a little richness a bene placito in an RFP, consult Latin Phrases. Do they even teach Latin any more? It sure helps if you're in the word business. Which we all are.