After recently bringing Catherine in to train our team at Street Agency we were keen to get her on to the podcast to share her wealth of experience on the show and to have a deep-dive conversation on presentation and pitching. This episode isn’t just about how to polish your pitch deck to convert more sales; this is a mini-masterclass in how agencies need to communicate with more confidence, influence and authority in pitches, presentations and everyday agency life.

Recent research found that 67% of pitches are lost because of softer factors over and above harder factors. So why is it that agency teams often spend days, if not weeks, slaving over the content of a presentation but give so little time to improving the softer skills that can give them that much-needed edge over the competition, not just in pitches, but at every stage of the business development process?

This is definitely an episode that you’ll want to listen to with a pen and paper as you are going to want to take notes for this! Allison has over 24 years of integrated agency experience working in client services and business development roles so this is an experienced expert at the highest level of her field.

In this episode you will hear:

• Tactics of pitching with authority
• How to present yourself and your offering better over (the now dreaded) Zoom pitches
• What elements of body language are consciously and subconsciously saying
• Key things to remember whilst pitching

Links & References

Katie Street: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiestreet/

Catherine Allison: https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherinea/

Word on the Street is sponsored by Tanba, The Agency New Business Academy, is a brand-new initiative aimed at equipping agencies of all sizes with the knowledge, content, partnerships and opportunities needed to accelerate agency growth by optimising their new business 'engine'. Tanba is an on-demand and affordable solution for agencies looking to upskill their team via training courses, content and insights delivered by our panel of industry experts, leaders, and partners.   

The academy is all about empowering agency teams to get noticed, attract opportunities, increase conversion rates, and reduce the costs associated with the sales process. Visit https://tanba.io/ to find out more and start empowering your agency. 

“There are a lot of people for whom the thought of going back to presenting face to face is utterly terrifying.” - Catherine Allison [10:01]

“It’s about having the confidence to being who YOU are” - Catherine Allison [11:18]

“An audience remembers the peak of a presentation and the end” - Catherine Allison [19:08]

“I would challenge everyone to step away from the script” - Catherine Allison [28:11]

“Text on a slide; the simpler the better, the less the better” - Catherine Allison [32:02]

“What they discovered is that there are certain body language positions that resulted in more successful outcomes to those pitches” - Catherine Allison [35:44]

“We think we’ve got to be in this broadcast mode, tell them everything!” - Catherine Allison [42:37]

“After 18-20 minutes we reach cognitive load, when we are watching something virtually” - Catherine Allison [44:18]

“There are 3 aspects of speech that really matter when it comes to influencing decision making” - Catherine Allison [53:53]

“If there’s only 1 thing you take away from this, please, please let it be…” - Catherine Allison [56:03]