“The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.”
– Vince Lombardi
The first presentation is the first impression. You only get to do that once. It sets the stage for the meeting and expectations with the client. I talk about framing conversations in the sales process which is about setting up the criteria for selecting a service partner that favors Tahzoo. We are always the boutique alternative to the big guys, so clients need to evaluate all the vendors on what makes us different in order for us to win. If the presentation is written correctly we are subtly suggesting to the client that those criteria are more important criteria for selecting a service partner. At the end of the day, our clients are betting their credibility and career by selecting Tahzoo.
Often, I am asked why does Tahzoo have such a fancy client list? I mostly demure to good fortune, that our service offering is unique and that we are grateful for the opportunity to service our clients. It is a canned response, not unlike what you get during an interview with professional athletes after a big game. What it belies, is the tremendous amount of hard work and dedication that we put into pitching and winning in the big leagues.
We have been transforming our brand and the quality of our presentations over the last year. Kudos to Don, Bryan, and Kyle for all their hard work and effort to make that happen. We do a lot of different kinds of work at Tahzoo. There is no one size fits all presentation of capabilities that we can standardize for each opportunity. Every client has a different business challenge to overcome and how we go about making them successful is different. We need to tailor it so that we can properly set the stage. This takes a lot of coordination between the business development team, delivery team, and the creative team to ensure we are Pitch Perfect. It’s hard work. It takes patience and good communication between teams. I’ve never experienced a sales pursuit that didn’t include a fair amount of arguing about the win themes or approach. Having a strong opinion at Tahzoo is table stakes, remember our values “We believe in the market place of ideas”, however, we still need to get to consensus and execute.
With the expansion of our partner strategy, the diversity of our service offerings, and that we are pitching work on three different continents, our pipeline is growing rapidly and the demand for presentations is increasing. The team is really coming together and I am pleased with our results. The fact that we could turn a world-class presentation around in less than a day is a testament to the hard work and focus on execution across teams. A big thanks to John Kottcamp for dropping everything he had to do yesterday and “owning the deck”.
Let’s go be great!
Brad