Pitch perfect

When it comes to pitching and panel reviews most firms will have clear processes in place, which business development teams will refer to before, during and after meeting with prospective and existing clients. However, it is often the 'soft' skills and personal attributes of business development individuals that can add real value to the mix, and such skills are nurtured at international firm Baker & McKenzie LLP. By Jamie Wallis.

I recall sitting in a business-development team training session a couple of years ago and the heading on the opening slide from one of our internal presenters read ‘Why we secretly enjoy proposals’. It seemed to me that this was pretty accurate. It’s not necessarily something that people tend to boast about enjoying, but there is something unique about working on a proposal in comparison to a lot of the work we do in our roles. The pitch will have a clear outcome, you are working to absolute, set-in-stone deadlines and you engage with the partners and associates on something that is very real and tangible to them. Of course the work itself can also be very interesting and challenging and finally there is the glory and recognition involved when you are successful.

So what is it that we don’t enjoy about them then? Well, whilst you want the opportunities to tender to come into the business, it can become monotonous when it feels like you or your team is becoming a ‘pitch factory’. It can be frustrating as you put a lot of time and energy into it and try to run the process in a structured way, only for partners and associates to keep it low down their priority list until the deadline date creeps ever closer. Then there are the late nights, where you might feel like nothing more than a glorified administrator – chasing people for their comments and then having to type them in to the document because nobody else is around. And perhaps worst of all, working on a pitch that you don’t expect to win.

You can probably identify with some of these frustrations, or indeed have others, but what can be done about it? After all, surely if you follow the ‘text book’ approach that many of us will have been taught, you can’t go far wrong.

Well, yes and no. Of course, you need a process and a clear outline to maximise your chances of being successful, from properly assessing the opportunity through to helping the team rehearse for the meeting or presentation, through to the proposal debrief. The central business-development team here at Baker & McKenzie gets involved in cross-firm pitches and panel reviews and, I’m glad to say, we take a key role within these. Having a process is something that we take seriously. There are several steps laid out, we have it posted on our intranet site and encourage the lawyers to adhere to it. But there are a number of skills required to bring this to life and to ensure that the role of the business-development team is not one of just co-ordinators or typists, which is a fact that I think people often overlook.

So, when I was asked to write this article, I decided against discussing the ideal process that is required and to focus more on the attributes and softer skills required to add real value to the proposal process.

What attributes do we bring?
Experience
Many business-development teams, especially those new(ish) to the business, build their reputation on the support they provide on pitches and proposals. Some partners don’t need to write pitches or go through a formal pitch process very often, so we can share with them the experience we have gained elsewhere. You shouldn’t underestimate the power of telling one partner of a particular approach that another of his colleagues has taken – it usually gets their attention.

Independence
Even if it is a key client of the firm who you know well, you are still in a position to ask independent, objective questions and challenge the partner's thinking. Thinking through potential questions before challenging the partner might seem an obvious point, but when you are running from one thing to the next it is not always easy, so do ensure you are fully prepared.

Client research
Use your business analysts or library service to provide you with some research on the client and their industry. Then, just as importantly, use it. It’s all to easy to take the research, read it and pass it on to the partners. Where you can add real value is by interpreting the data and providing them with some key highlights or particular insights – areas that they might not have considered yet.

Common sense
Continually ask yourself, and where necessary the proposal team, ‘What’s important to the client?’ not ‘What do we want to tell them?’

Leadership
Make sure you position yourself alongside the lead partner as project managing and leading the whole process. If it means you organise the team meetings, then fine, but don’t just fall into the background and take all the action points. You can do this by preparing properly and working with the lead partner outside of the wider team meetings. When you pull the proposal team together at the various stages make sure you have an agenda and that you circulate key action points and those responsible for these shortly after the meeting.

Feedback
At Baker & McKenzie it is rare that the business development team doesn’t conduct a thorough de-brief with the client (whether we’ve won or lost). Our partners have no problem with us doing this and recognise the independence that we bring. After we have conducted the debrief, we are discrete with how we use the information, as individuals are often named. As well as informing the managing partner and marketing partner, the lead partner is informed and we agree with them a course of appropriate action. General themes are regularly consolidated though and we share those amongst a wider audience and use them as a strong point of reference and evidence as to how clients prefer things done in a certain way.

All of the above might seem obvious, but without utilising some core soft skills, you will not be able to demonstrate the above attributes.

What skills do we need in addition to having a clear and trusted process?
Verbal and listening skills
For example, we all know that is important to engage with the potential client during the pitch process and usually they will welcome your questions. Our roles should not be restricted to pulling out a frequently-asked-questions sheet. Encourage the partner to involve you in the conversation with the client – after all you’ll probably be writing the document, so it makes sense to be involved and hear it first hand. Based on experience, you will often interpret something in a different way to the partner, which can not only lead to an interesting debate, but helps to challenge assumptions.

Persuasion skills
From the questions you ask the potential client through to the words that are written in the document, you will often need to convince the pitching team to take a certain approach. Indeed, on some occasions persuade the team that it is not a genuine opportunity and the chances of winning are very slim. This is where you need to ensure you have done your thinking and that you are not just trying to be awkward or smart. Give reasons for your views and draw on the experience of yourself (or other members of your team) to support your recommendation.

Diplomacy
Partners and associates are proud of their skills (and rightly so), but for some of them, the whole pitch process does not come naturally. For example, challenging and editing the words they have written can cause some to take it as a personal affront but you know that the content they have produced is too technical. Skills in diplomacy are pre-requisite in this situation.

Written skills
Ensure the document is written in a persuasive and not overtly sales style. I’m sure you’ll all be familiar with the mantra of ‘benefits not features’, but it’s another thing sticking to that when the pressure is on.

Enthusiasm and passion
Sometimes you will need to be the one picking people up and cajoling them along. This can often be the case when you gather the team together. Remember, the pitch team will be juggling their billable time, moving from one project to the next. You might well be living, eating and breathing the pitch you are working on and are likely to have given it a lot more time and thought. That’s not to say they don’t care – it’s just that they haven’t focused on it as much as you. So, remind them of the opportunity and ensure you utilise their time in the best way possible.

Be challenging
If you don’t think someone is pulling their weight, challenge their role on the team (with the lead partner) or higher if needed. Being part of the team shouldn’t be a ‘nice to have’ for partners or associates – they need to embrace it.

Be organised
At the outset of any proposal endeavour you need to set out a clear timetable of what you need to do and use this in the first discussion with the lead partner and subsequently the wider team. It doesn’t always get stuck to, but it does put the significant milestones into people’s heads.

Don’t be a hero
This is not all about you having to do all of the work. Even if you are the only business-development resource available, it shouldn’t be down to you to do everything. Delegate relevant tasks amongst the team, including trainees and secretaries where possible, and try to engender a team ethic.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that by doing all of the above you won’t still be subjected to a few late nights or hurrying along the print room on the day it is due in, but I do think the role that the business-development team plays will be enhanced and take you well beyond a glorified administrator.

And what of the future for proposals? Of course, we all know that in an ideal world, we’re all that close to the client that they don’t bother putting business out to tender and our appointment is a mere formality. I don’t believe that however well positioned you are, it is possible on business-critical mandates and panel appointments, that you can bypass or stop the process. So it is obvious they are not going away. There is plenty of evidence from clients we talk to and research in the market that many organisations are looking to slim down their panels and we all know how buyers of legal services are increasingly looking for more value (and by that I don’t just mean discounts) from their legal providers. The tender process will only become more competitive, more streamlined and more professionally run. All of that means an increased role for business-development teams and the challenge for us all is to ensure that we continue to add value above and beyond outlining the process. An undoubted part of this is ensuring that we don’t treat the proposal process as a one-off piece of work, and at Baker & McKenzie we are working hard to ensure that our key account, client feedback and targeting programmes are all are integrated into the way we all work. This helps to ensure we are involved in proposals for existing clients at the outset – even helping to shape how they run the process – and making sure the messages from ongoing feedback and dialogue are heard and that our responses to proposals are tailored appropriately. ?

Jamie Wallis is senior business development manager at international firm Baker & McKenzie LLP. He can be contacted at jamie.wallis@bakernet.com

Sidebar

Invitation to tender:

Assess the opportunity;
Acknowledge and thank.

Scoping and proposal preparation:

Select core team and have a team meeting;
Client research and analysis;
Engage in dialogue with prospective client, preferably face-to-face;
Consider core messages and differentiators;
Prepare proposal document;
Check back against initial invitation to tender.

Post proposal:

Submit and ensure client has received it.

Presentation preparation:

Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. Ensure all attendees have a role to play and consider difficult questions.

Post presentation:

Follow up;
Maintain appropriate level of dialogue.

Proposal debrief:

Win or lose, ensure a debrief takes place promptly.