Freia Muehlenbein: How to pitch to WIN
08/27/24 • 48 min
Winning pitches is tough.
Ghosting has become a common challenge, and even when you win, clients may be commissioning smaller pieces of the project rather than the full program.
But that’s only part of the struggle - crafting pitch decks takes a lot of time and energy. Surely there’s a better way than packing slides with your best creative ideas.
In this episode we tackle these challenges and introduce a strategic approach to pitching. The focus shifts from pitching tactics to showcasing value and ROI.
Joining us is Freia Muehlenbein, an agency growth consultant and owner of Be Reyt Consultancy. With over 15 years of experience in agency operations, Freia is an expert in the sales and pitch process, known for closing large deals.
Freia shares practical advice on:
- Developing a strong qualification process to truly understand your client's needs
- The concept of a war room and how it helps in crafting effective strategies
- Why prioritizing financials and ROI is more important than focusing on tactics
Follow Freia on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/freiamuehlenbein/
Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/
Sign up for Harv's webinar with Agency Hackers on productivity hacks taking place Thursday 19th September 2024: https://bit.ly/thehandbook24
Stay up to date with regular ops insights. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter.
This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system.
Winning pitches is tough.
Ghosting has become a common challenge, and even when you win, clients may be commissioning smaller pieces of the project rather than the full program.
But that’s only part of the struggle - crafting pitch decks takes a lot of time and energy. Surely there’s a better way than packing slides with your best creative ideas.
In this episode we tackle these challenges and introduce a strategic approach to pitching. The focus shifts from pitching tactics to showcasing value and ROI.
Joining us is Freia Muehlenbein, an agency growth consultant and owner of Be Reyt Consultancy. With over 15 years of experience in agency operations, Freia is an expert in the sales and pitch process, known for closing large deals.
Freia shares practical advice on:
- Developing a strong qualification process to truly understand your client's needs
- The concept of a war room and how it helps in crafting effective strategies
- Why prioritizing financials and ROI is more important than focusing on tactics
Follow Freia on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/freiamuehlenbein/
Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/
Sign up for Harv's webinar with Agency Hackers on productivity hacks taking place Thursday 19th September 2024: https://bit.ly/thehandbook24
Stay up to date with regular ops insights. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter.
This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system.
Previous Episode
Jenny Plant: Great Sales & Great PM - Can One Person Do It All?
Part of the remit of an ops leader is to ensure they’ve got the right people, in the right place.
In many agencies, account managers handle sales, client relationships, AND project management. However, this hybrid role often leads to trade-offs.
Everyone’s got their own strengths and preferences – and these responsibilities seemingly require very different personality types.
A great sales person might struggle with rigorous project management, resulting in issues like over-servicing. While an exceptional project manager might struggle with developing a sales pipeline, leading to stress, missed targets, and a shallow pipeline.
So, should these roles be separated?
We'll explore this with our guest, Jenny Plant. With over 20 years of experience in agency account management, Jenny founded her consultancy, Account Management Skills, to share sales training skills with account managers.
Jenny will share:
- The pros and cons of separating account and project managers
- What value agencies seek in their account managers
- How sales training can improve client relationships, retention and business growth
Jenny's website: https://accountmanagementskills.com/
Jenny's podcast: https://accountmanagementskills.com/podcast
Follow Jenny on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennyplant/
Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/
Stay up to date with regular ops insights. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter.
This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system.
Next Episode
Dan Timmiss: How to get your agency IT ready for scaling
As an Ops person, the role of IT expert is often part of the job. So how can you ensure your agency’s IT infrastructure is set up for scaling?
That's the focus of our discussion with Dan Timmiss, Technical Director at Kaizen IT Solutions. With over two decades of experience, Dan has helped hundreds of creative agencies optimize and manage their IT setups, from audits to complete IT overhauls and supporting scaling teams.
In this episode, Dan shares essential best practices:
- The importance of implementing single sign-on (SSO) and multi-factor authentication (MFA) for security and ease of access
- How cloud storage can complement on-premise servers if you have heavy media files
- Using mobile device management solutions like Jamf to manage your fleet of computers, including ‘zero touch deployment’ and easy on-boarding and off-boarding
- Seeking security accreditations like Cyber Essentials Plus, CIS Benchmarks or ISO 27001 to help secure contracts with global clients
- How newer services like MDR (managed detection and response) and XDR (extended detection and response) go beyond traditional anti-virus solutions to monitor your systems for threats
- Why to educate your team on ‘social engineering’ scams that could cause financial and reputational harm
Follow Dan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-timmiss-486ab517/
Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/
Stay up to date with regular ops insights. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter.
This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system.
The Handbook: The Agency Operations Podcast - Freia Muehlenbein: How to pitch to WIN
Transcript
Hi all, welcome back to the show. Before we get started, I wanted to mention that I'll be taking part in a webinar with Agency Hackers on Thursday, 19th September 2024. It's all about productivity in the workspace. I'll be sharing some tips that I've seen work really well to maximize a team's ability to do focus work and get into flow. I would love to see you there, so please sign up for that and get it in your calendars. Again, that's on Thursday, 19
If you like this episode you’ll love
Episode Comments
Generate a badge
Get a badge for your website that links back to this episode
<a href="https://goodpods.com/podcasts/the-handbook-the-agency-operations-podcast-632624/freia-muehlenbein-how-to-pitch-to-win-84566322"> <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/goodpods-images-bucket/badges/generic-badge-1.svg" alt="listen to freia muehlenbein: how to pitch to win on goodpods" style="width: 225px" /> </a>
Copy