It’s one thing to possess the information necessary to impress a prospect. For agency development reps, however, it’s equally important to turn that information into action.

Gathering the information necessary to impress prospect’s comes from asking the right questions.

Once you’ve done that, however, you need to find the best way to build and deliver your story within your pitch.

What is “your story?”

Your story is the plot line that explains who you are, how you understand your prospect, and how you can combine those two to create a cohesive, ever-evolving partnership with a prospect.

But there’s a lot that goes into that…

It’s important to always prioritize your prospect’s buying process, and focus on how you can help them achieve their growth goals.

Whether you’re researching for, preparing, or making your pitch, you should always keep the focus on what your prospect needs and how you can help the situation.

Delivering the right story to a prospect allows you to take all of the work you’ve put into learning about them and turn it into an observable action.

To do so, however, a development rep would need to know what to pitch, when to pitch, and how to make the pitch as digestible as possible for the prospect at hand.

Know What to Pitch

In knowing what to pitch, the idea is to build your pitch around the right talking points.

Let’s say you’re pitching to Nike…

Instead of simply pitching yourself and your own capabilities, it’s important to pitch how you specifically fit into what Nike is doing. What is Nike interested in?

Not everything your agency does is going to be relevant to a prospect.

Look into how your prospects are spending their money and what kind of ads they’re running. Include these formats in your pitch, but also highlight areas they could be missing.

For example, if you know that Nike runs integrated campaigns, and that they have spent a lot on high CPM ads, then include high CPM ads in your pitch.

Be an avid student of their latest efforts. Is Nike advertising a new product line? Use that in your pitch, as well.

This is an opportunity to show that you are constantly adapting and learning. Furthermore, it’s an opportunity to pitch to a part of their business that, perhaps, they’ve yet to fully optimize.

Look into which products Nike is devoting the largest share of wallet to. How are they advertising these products? Is there anything you can add or improve?

Nike is clearly already convinced that these products are worth investing heavily in. That’s half the battle. There is money on the table if you can provide additional value to their marketing efforts.

Know When to Pitch

Delivering the right kind of information is obviously essential, but timing is crucial. Even if you provide a great proposal, if their budget is already spent, it may be for naught.

By studying when your prospect spends the most across platforms (print, digital, TV), you can figure out the best time to make your pitch.

If you are pitching an integrated strategy, for example, you may note that Nike’s overall spend across digital, TV, and print peaks in Q4 (TV Q1). Leverage that knowledge in your pitch.

Pitching at the right time, will allow you to prove that you are student of Nike and their competitive market.

Make it Digestible

To make your pitch digestible, you must speak the prospect’s language.

At every step during your interaction, regardless of what you’re pitching, speak specifically about your prospect’s products, their advertising patterns, where they’ve advertised, and how you can help.

Each prospect has a unique story, with unique challenges and goals.

Make sure that the story you are telling Nike is Nike-centric. It should be a prospect-specific pitch. One that you couldn’t use for anyone else.

The pitch that makes the most sense to your prospect will be the one that shows how you can address their wants and needs.

By efficiently building your story and weaving it into the existing story of your prospect, you can better prove your value in a potential partnership.