Out of The Pond #16

Just Enjoy The Ride: Trusting Your Pitch Process

Winning isn’t everything…it’s the ONLY thing. This is often a mantra I’d recite to myself internally when I needed to dig a little deeper or find that extra gear throughout an RFP process, working at breakneck speed to hit that deadline and be ready for showtime (is it just me or does it feel like we’re all cramming 3 months’ worth of work into 2.5 weeks for every opportunity out there these days???). Yes, I love winning, yes, its ended in the odd argument and no, I’ve never taken it easy on a younger family member in any form of competition (must be hereditary as it took me about a decade to finally beat Dad in Table Tennis one school holidays – another story for another day).

Everything was always happening so quickly for me – receive brief, analyse, plan of action, execute – that I couldn’t get my head above the parapet to get a better (and more strategic) perspective on my approach to RFPs. While so many of our New Business family (and I would call it a family as it’s full of quirky/cool people that each bring something different to the table, you have to be to get yourself stuck in this caper) in the UK unfortunately had a tough year in 2024, this was not my experience, instead a pipeline that was full and shooting out opportunities thick and fast thanks to a brilliant Sales team – Partnerships Marketing was booming.

I was getting to the point where the only thing that was driving me was doing whatever it took to get the result I wanted and ultimately if I didn’t, it was having an impact on not just my professional life, but my personal as well – things needed to slow down.

Recognising this was truly the turning point that allowed me to demarcate success for myself in a new and exciting way, I turned away from results (though still important or you might find yourself out of a job) and began to focus on process.

“How was I evaluating the psychology of the client? What was the true meaning/purpose behind the brief and not just the words on the page? Where did I see this opportunity heading in 3/6/12 months’ time for the business?”, were just a couple of the questions I was able to ask myself to help reinvent the way I was approaching RFPs, taking a birds-eye view of what was at stake and not just ticking each box of criteria as I saw it on the page. I became so much more focused on the way things came together and what I could do for our team (who are f***ing brilliant by the way), knowing it would ultimately end in a better final product – months down the line and it certainly feels like the proof is in the pudding with a swag full of wins?driven by process to KO 2025 with a bang.

I spoke about winning at the top of this article and how I’d often define that for myself purely based on the outcome of a pitch process. I can now appreciate my “out of the pond” moment was realising how important my/our process is throughout these opportunities and not just the result, because that’s where all of the growth happens – making the absolute most out of the elements I can control and being as prepared as possible to deal with those that I cannot.

A friendly reminder to myself and us all that it’s the triumph of the journey and not always the destination where we truly win (and yea, we can all still admit we don’t mind the view from up here as well).