The Materials You Need to Pitch
Lesson 7 from: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Pitching Clients and Getting SalesPeter Corbett
The Materials You Need to Pitch
Lesson 7 from: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Pitching Clients and Getting SalesPeter Corbett
Lessons
Class Introduction
17:56 2Who is Peter Corbett?
07:31 3The Importance of Preparation
12:25 4Finding Your Value Proposition
12:41 5Business Model Canvas Example
16:07 6What is Your Service Mix?
09:45 7The Materials You Need to Pitch
06:37 8Prospecting: Boiling the Ocean
10:29Prospecting: Build a Barrel
17:10 10Prospecting: Surgical Approach
11:51 11Prospecting Tools That Work
13:59 12Marketing Tactics For All Freelancers
18:22 13Scoping Your Work
27:09 14Project Proposal Example
18:41 15Sample Concepting Proposal
09:56 16Integrated Program Example
03:25 17How To Close The Deal
20:22 18Operating Your Business
11:19 19How To End Your Client Project
10:52 20The Art of Upselling
06:51 21How to Get Referrals
06:41 22Bonus Material Recap
07:51Lesson Info
The Materials You Need to Pitch
So this is the most exciting part, right? I get to design the logo of the business, I've got a nude design studio, I get to make the moleskin with the custom, burnt-in branding, I get some pens, and a flash drive and all this other stuff. That's not what this is about, right? And I see a lot of people get confused thinking that, oh I need to make all of these materials to sell the, what it is that we do, and I'm so busy making the materials for my company, I don't have any time to go talk to perspective clients, and by month two, I'm wondering why I don't have any business and I guess I should quit. Now I'm gonna go live with my parents, or get a different job. So it's not about the materials, and I'll promise you I will show you. So for those design snobs, this was the first logo of my company that I designed in Illustrator using a 3D emboss or something, I don't know what I was thinking, and with a font from the '80s. Not sure it fully projects, like, digital savviness, or future vis...
ion or whatever, and when I put this up, I literally, the reason why, I got fired on a Friday, I launched the company on the Monday. I'll tell you why I did that. Got fired on a Friday, got very drunk that night with my friends, woke up Saturday, didn't feel that great. Sunday I was like, well I better figure out what I'm, what story I'm telling to the people that know me. On Monday, and I didn't want the story to be, Peter got laid off, I wanted the story to be, oh, Peter launched a company. So I was like, I gotta figure out the name, I gotta get a website up, I gotta make a logo. So I did it all on Monday, or sorry, on Sunday, and I launched it on Monday. And so I launched this, my friends were like, that's horrible, no one's ever gonna hire you, you're stupid, why are you doing this? And I was like, well, I don't think they're gonna hire me for the logo. I really don't think they're gonna hire me for the logo, and my job wasn't selling brand identity services in the onset, thankfully. If that is the core of the business, please don't make that logo for yourself in the beginning. And then this is some marketing material from the first year. I think I was at an event and I printed out these little flyers from Vistaprint or something like that, so this is interesting. If you look at the left-hand side, again, ugly logo. I actually love this logo, I just love it. It's not used today, it's been designed away over the years, and we've shortened the name so you just reference it as ISL if you like, but look at this cloud of words on this flyer on the left-hand side. If this is not indicative of the fact that, like, I didn't know what people might want and I wanted to make sure that they knew that I could possibly do lots of things so that I possibly would not starve and die, this is the indicator, 'cause when someone picked this up, they're like, oh, cool, alright well they do web design, that's great, web development, why is that different? I don't know, is it different? Are these two different things? Some people think of them differently. Oh, influencer identification, oh experience, all that, right, so I wanted to make sure that of someone picked this thing up, they knew that I could do these things. The right-hand side, what I think is so interesting, it does start to, so it's the backside of the flyer, right? This starts to crystallize what it is that we do, and it's literally what we do today. So this, connecting online and off, with content, is exactly what we do, so I'm fascinated by the fact that, eight and a half years ago, I had chosen at least the right approach to the world at the highest level. Maybe I didn't need to do the, like, big, word-cloudy service schmattering over here, but it gave me confidence that someone would literally know what we do, so, yeah. People aren't gonna hire you because you know how to download Vectr, Illustrator icons and throw them onto a flyer. They're gonna hire you because they trust that you can do a great job. They can see the work that you actually did for your clients. So it's not about, does the agency's flyer look good? And mind you, I wouldn't encourage you to make a flyer. Maybe eight years ago, a flyer, maybe it's because I came from a concert production and promotion background, where flyers were like, a real thing. So it's not about sitting and designing your materials all day every day, however, you need some. So if you're launching, let's say, I don't know what day it is. I never know what day of the week it is. Let's say, it doesn't matter, let's say you got fired today, sorry, or congratulations I would say. Congratulations, you have been fired, or you quit. You're going to start a new business three days from now. What I would probably do is I'd go to Squarespace immediately, I'd set up that website, I would make the world's simplest logo. Maybe not the 3D embossed with the pivot perspective turn with a font like I chose, but that logo, and I'd set up my social profiles, and that's about it, and I'd be able to do that in about three or four hours and you got a business. And now you've got your, you signed up for Google Apps, you've got your custom domain email, and now you can email people and say, I started the business, right? But, if you take the other approach, which is, well I'm gonna spend about a month writing a, you know, brand guidelines for this new, incredible digital agency or VR company I'm creating, you know what happens over the course of that month? I eat your lunch, not I, someone else does. Maybe I, I don't know, I do, somebody does. So you miss that opportunity. So the idea is like, get that, I get to use? No. Just get that stuff done. Get that stuff done. get that, get that stuff done as soon as possible 'cause you just need to go talk to the world. I would encourage you, I also, I'll say one last thing. I am the master of typos, I type so fast, and I get over 500 or 600 emails a day. People have not not hired us because of the fact that I don't know where to put a comma. Right, so people get fixated on, like, oh my God, but the grammar on the homepage, and you're like, ugh, who cares? I mean you should care, but it shouldn't be primary, like what actually is, I think, more valuable, is to get something out there, let the world know what it is that you may do for them, and the get focused on their problems, not your own internal marketing BS.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials
Ratings and Reviews
Bonnie Aunchman
Peter & Creativelive - I loved, loved this class! I would HIGHLY recommend. The class is extremely informative in content and has great document samples you can use. I will implement Peter's advice and practices immediately! (Loved Peter's teaching style!) Thank you! :)
a Creativelive Student
I had the great privilege of being in the studio audience for this class and had a phenomenal experience. Peter shared not only great insights and experience but templates that I've already started implementing in my own business. His experience and approach towards working with clients really resonated with me and my business partners. I specifically encourage you to find the section and write down word for word what he says when a client says "well, I don't know what our budget is, we want you to tell us". I've already used his approach of responding with "oh, it's a million dollars :-)!" and using that to open the conversation. It get's results and the answers you need to put together an aligned proposal. On being an audience member the staff at CreativeLive was kind, clear with instructions and made sure we always knew what was expected of us. I encourage you to apply for a class and experience it first hand. As a bonus, their office and catering was phenomenal.
Che Pilling
Peter Corbett is a very clever man, I appreciate his honesty and creative thinking. This course is amazing for people who are in a process of setting up different areas of their business. I can also see how it would benefit business owners/managers who want to review their processes. Corbett is a very engaging speaker and his communication is excellent. Fabulous course, A+.