The Proven Method for Turning a Great Marketing Idea into Client Gold

Have you ever given management a great marketing idea or strategy and got turned down?  In our industry, it happens more often than you think.  It is something that goes with the territory.  It might have been the way you sold it. Available resources often come into play.  Your proposal could have been too far outside the box or outside of the comfort zone management prefers to live in. 

The bottom line is your idea is in the firm dumpster and you move on to other things.  However, something happens when you debrief the client after losing this major project. The competitor who was given the assignment happened to use the same idea or strategy that you had pitched management on and failed.

You could go back to management and tell them your idea won the project.  But telling management “I told you so” won’t do anything positive for your standing in the firm.  You have to drill down on the client’s decision to choose the competitor.  What was it about the strategy that your firm was lacking?

How did it improve their strength in that pursuit or minimize their weaknesses?  Did they apply more resources to the pursuit than your firm?  What did they bring to the presentation that your firm neglected? Asking the right questions in a debriefing leads to the honest answers you need to improve on your next pursuit.   Your idea or strategy was the steak you believed the firm needed to win this project and others.  The competitor brought the sizzle to their implementation while showing the client the steak.

Solomon told us in the Old Testament that “there is nothing new under the sun.”  Marketing services professionals can believe their ideas and strategies are unique, but industry competitors live in the same universe where ideas are the currency they use to keep food on the table.  When you have something with a new twist that might be unique, you need to transfer your passion to the management team.

We need to go back to management’s comfort zone and your living outside of the box.  Your passion is a good thing and probably the reason you are a trusted member of the team.  You must tread lightly when working to get management to expand their comfort zone.  Understanding the balance between risk and reward is critical.  They saw the steak you gave them with your idea but they needed to hear the sizzle in order to justify the risk. If the balance is not right, you will get burned by the sizzle.  Every marketing strategy has to be client-centric.  When management hears the sizzle they are visualizing how it will sway the client.  You believed your idea was the best way to help the client and win the next project.  Management didn’t see it that way.  In the end, the client did.

Here are four keys to winning management approval for your marketing ideas and strategies:

1.       Keep the client’s needs in the center

2.       Qualify your firm’s services with solutions to the client needs.

3.       Highlight the sizzle (client hot buttons) and marinate the steak (don’t slap yourself on the back).

4.     Create a bold assessment of resources needed, including pre-proposal actions, proposal documentation, and presentation talent and props.

Some trainers will talk about client pain points. Some will emphasize client personal wins. When you keep the client’s needs in the center you focus on the above as well as the needs of the current project you are pursuing.  In order to win the project, you have to connect all of these. To one degree or another, your idea/strategy probably did that.

The bullet points you could use in presenting your next idea to management could include:

·         Client is risk adverse and this approach reduces his risk

·         A successful project will result in a promotion for the client

·         The project has four highly sensitive issues (successful solutions to previous clients)

·         Our competition includes…

·         There is potential for $1 million profit and a long term client

You proceed to tell the management team this pursuit will use X services which reduces the client’s risk, creates a successful project and we have completed X projects with the same sensitive issues. History tells us our competitors will do…..

Up to this point we are talking about standard operating procedures for any marketing professional. The resources needed for the presentation now become the critical point in selling this idea. Do you need to build a model or create a video showing your approach?  Who needs to be on the presentation team?  Do you capture client statements on video as you document your approach navigating the sensitive design issues?

It is not the time to get bogged down into the details but to paint the big picture of how important this project is for the firm.  Your passion in filling in the big picture will ultimately expand management’s comfort zone before you tell them the dollars it will take to pursue this project.  If you have done the presentation right, that question might not even be asked.