Rookie errors ruining your pitch and reputation

Unfocused, too long, generic boilerplate responses and irrelevant content.

Time and time again, industry research concludes these are some of the most common views clients and procurement specialists have when asked about what they think about the pitches they are presented with. It is clear that distinctiveness is still lacking when it comes to client pitch documents, with clients feeling they have been sent a standard law firm brochure as opposed to a focused pitch with specific applicability to their requirements.

Your law firm may be a perfect fit for the client, and the problem is not that your firm can’t do what the client wants, but that you are not presenting your expertise in the most distinctive way possible. Is your Law Firm better than your pitch?

Here are a few examples of rookie errors that clients said put them off pitches they received:

1. Boilerplate content

2. Too many marketing sections irrelevant to the tender

3. Lengthy CV style experience presentation

4. Too much focus on previous triumphs for other clients

5. Indistinct client focus

6. Failure to engage from the start

7. Over emphasis on the firm not the client

8. Lack of client industry understanding

9. No fee clarity

10. Hard to read and out dated material

The key to a successful tender is preparation; where the lawyers have done detailed research into the client’s needs and have reflected this in their pitch document. Making a good first impression is crucial, but style over substance will not win the tender. However, with the amount of time required to generate multiple pitches, it is easy to see why many law firms or their business development teams fall in to the trap of sending generic company sales brochures that don’t distinguish themselves.

Pitching software you already know how to use.

We understand the importance and value of a law firm’s time and have found a way for high-quality, branded and consistent marketing and business development documents to be created in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint.

PitchPerfect automates the creation of these documents through an add-in for Microsoft Office. Available in Word and PowerPoint, PitchPerfect connects your branded templates to your approved content, stored in a single content library (in Microsoft SharePoint).

PitchPerfect is built to your requirements, ensuring your firm’s internal language is used to make adoption easier, and retaining your brand’s unique content and design.

Through automating the process of creating pitches and other supporting documents, PitchPerfect gives you more time to focus on tailoring the pitch to meet the specific requirements of your client or prospect.

See how it works

Key features and benefits

1. Create design quality proposal documents quickly and easily

• save time and allow more focus on creating a unique pitch tailored to the prospect

• increase the marketing team’s value by transforming them from being document assemblers to strategic thinkers

• differentiate your firm from others with the speed and quality of your documents

1. Customisable tracking and analysis against active and historic pitches

• understand areas to adapt for best practice to help improve the success rate

• analyse win rates by region, practice, sector or fee earner

• review performance, and profitability

1. A variety of pitch templates built uniquely to your firm's branding

• ensure firm wide consistency

• retain and apply formatting and styles for all your content

• can be maintained and updated internally

1. Works directly in Word, PowerPoint and Excel

• familiar and easy to use by the business development teams but also by fee earners and secretaries

• reduce training time and resistance, as no need to learn a new system

• flexibility and ease-of-use as any other Word or PowerPoint document

1. A centralised content management system in MS SharePoint or Office 365

• ensure everyone is always using up-to date and approved content, preventing silos and inconsistent information

• automate the process of managing content through workflows and version history tracking

• structure and tag all content including experience, capabilities, quotes, images and biographies

1. Synchronise with other systems such as CRMs, websites and experience management systems

• avoid duplication of effort

• maintain content in the most appropriate system

• ensure a seamless process of content management

1. Logic-based, configurable searching of all content

• refine searches to ensure most relevant content can be easily found

• manage large volumes of diverse content including text, images, graphics and PDFs

• respond quickly to RFPs

1. Accessible by any user, anywhere, on any device

• facilitate collaborative and agile working

• enable fee earners and key people to access content and documents at crucial times

• ensure only current and approved information is used

1. Assign tasks and deadlines

• seamlessly collaborate firmwide

• keep track of responsibilities and deadlines

• manage and review all tasks in one place

If you would like further information on PitchPerfect you can download our brochure here or request a demo, alternatively contact us on 020 3743 9626 or make an online enquiry here.