“We have definitely seen a marked improvement in our pitch success rate”
Managing Director, Financial Communications Consultancy, London
Description
This bespoke training is for teams who are preparing for a pitch presentation. The emphasis is on three areas – answering the brief; bringing your ideas to life, and ‘performance’ (of the individuals and the team). Input can be given at any stage of the preparation process.
Research
Early in the preparation process, Jayne can be of value in ensuring that the team has thoroughly researched and understood the ‘audience’. This means considering each member of the panel to ensure that your content is relevant to them and that it is delivered in a way which will engage them directly. They are not a homogenous group and should not be treated as such. Similar attention needs to be paid to the competition. What do you know about them and their strengths and weaknesses? What are they likely to be offering? Why might they win the business? Why might they fail?
Thinking
Once you have worked out how you’re going to answer the brief, Jayne’s role is to challenge the thinking; to test the ideas; to play the role of the panel to see how robust the thinking is. At this stage guidance is also offered on structure (eg do you always have to start with a creds slide?); the ‘choreography’ of the presentation, pace, variety of content, the opening and the close. Attention needs to be paid to visuals (the deck should not be driving the process), handouts, props, case studies – all the tools which can be used to bring the ideas to life. Here also is the time to consider the make up of the team – will they resonate with the panel? Do they properly represent your brand? How will they compare with the competition?
Performance
When all content issues have been resolved the run-through and rehearsal stage can begin. Jayne’s role here is to help each individual to ‘shine’ as brightly as they are able and to ensure that the performance of the team inspires confidence and trust. Jayne will film rehearsals and review the performance with the team so that lessons can be learned and improvements made.
Training format
The number of sessions and the timing of them will be agreed with you, according to your needs, availability and the timing of the pitch. Jayne can be brought in at the beginning of the process, part way through or just for the rehearsal phase. Knowing the time pressure which agencies face during this period, she offers a high degree of flexibility and can usually be available at short notice. Typically, she works with agencies three times in the run up to a pitch.
Benefits
Involving a trusted ‘outsider’ in your pitch preparation introduces more rigour and discipline to the process. Jayne applies a fresh pair of eyes to your pitch and a valuable external perspective (teams are often so close to the content they can no longer assess it objectively). Her highly practical guidance on some of the ‘technical’ aspects of a pitch (choreography, slides) encourages teams to avoid old, stale habits (tweaking the deck you’ve used before!) and try a new approach. Her ‘performance’ tips for each member of the team will bring benefits long after the pitch is won.
The trainer – Jayne Constantinis
Jayne is one of the most sought-after trainers in the business, whether she’s helping pitch teams to win new business; delivering one-to-one speaker training for a corporate CEO or celebrity athlete; preparing lawyers for a webinar or working with an individual on confidence/personal impact issues.
Jayne’s training draws on a unique mix of experience and expertise - reporting/presenting business news on BBC World television; fronting corporate programmes for blue chip companies; facilitating/speaking at live events; live continuity announcing on BBC television and writing for newspapers and magazines. She started her working life in corporate and financial PR and spent several years in-house, managing a law firm’s corporate communications.
Her BBC Television series on Mexico was nominated for a BAFTA; voice-over credits include Sony and Channel 4 and she has written for Condé Nast Traveller and Good Housekeeping. She studied journalism at the LCP, has an acting diploma from the Royal Academy of Music and a Modern Languages degree from Cambridge.
What makes Jayne’s training particularly valuable is that she continues to work regularly as a voice over artist, presenter and corporate comms consultant, alongside her training work.
Add to that Jayne’s exceptional people skills and you’ll see why clients find her to be “inspirational”, “invaluable”, “empathetic” and “effective”.