How to Win a Pitch

I borrowed money to win this pitch - RM20 to be exact - and to this day, I'm not sure if I actually paid it back!

It is 19 years this month, from the day that I set up Aspire Consulting and the successful pitch that launched it all.

On the line was a consulting and training project worth a year's compensation in my last senior role. I was sat outside this boardroom waiting my turn to pitch and had arrived an hour earlier. I knew beforehand from an insider, that the evaluation committee were hard as nails and very sharp with their questioning.

What I did not know was:

1. I was pitching on the same day as 5 other shortlisted companies
2. Mine was the last pitch of the day (when everyone is likely to be tired and at their most irritable), and
3. They were behind time which meant a longer than anticipated wait

At this point, there was a group in there making their pitch and another team in the waiting room with me (all 3 of them decked out in matching suits complete with waistcoats??). The waistcoats studiously ignored me after giving me a cursory glance and a half smile. Being a one man band at the time, they must have assumed that I was there for an interview.

I wasn't eavesdropping but I recognised a sound pattern from the meeting room. It was this: First, the monotone of someone presenting followed by an interruption of one question and then a couple more other questions of other people. This sounded like a room of judges each wanting to assert dominance over the other. This was followed by silence and then a hesitant, tentative reply - the hyenas circled and the prey had been snared!

They emerged from the room about 10 minutes later looking a little downbeat but tried to look confident at seeing their competitors in the waiting room. Then the waistcoat guys stood up to be shown in. I went: "Good luck guys" which seemed to throw them slightly off-balance. I contemplated going out to get a coffee but decided against it. I mean, what if things went so unbelievably wrong for the waistcoats and they were shown the door after 10 minutes and I was nowhere to be found? These situations tend to make you imagine unimaginable scenarios. In the event, the waistcoats emerged after an hour looking proud and confident. And then it was my turn......

The pitch itself was straightforward but the questions were sharp, as expected. One of the questions was a genuine curve-ball that I did not have an answer for and I said so. I did however, share with them what I would do if I did not know the answer to something that participants asked me about. Looking back, I think I treated that pitch pretty much as I would when facilitating a group.

Anyway, a little over an hour later, I was at the car park looking to exit when I realised that I had forgotten my wallet! Mind you, this was in the day of manual car park booth attendants. I re-parked and made my way back to the meeting room where the group were now evaluating all the presentations. I knocked on the door, went in and addressed the person who seemed to be the most senior in the group:

"Sorry for the interruption but can I borrow RM20 from you to pay for parking? I forgot to bring my wallet." Two of them reached for their wallets evidently surprised/amused at the audacity of the request. I thanked them as I left and said: "I'll pay you back if I win the pitch."

To this day, all of them who were on that committee have become and remained my close friends.

Pete Pereira and Helen Langhammer specialise in Leadership Transition programs. These are designed to help a new team leader and his/her team get off to the best possible start in working together by aligning them on potential issues of conflict. To learn more send an enquiry to:

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