Perfect Pitch: The Art of Selling Ideas and Winning New Business

I still remember how much I liked Jon Steel's previouse book (Truths, lies and advertising)and I was sure his new work would be very helpful again. I'm now on page 100 and I can only say 'thank you Jon for sharing with us so much good advice'. I'm in the media advertising business for more than 20 years and I make presentations -PowerPoint presentations- to new business and clients every week. I enjoy so much reading Jon's explanations about rights and mistakes in his own presentations and those from others he have seen or participated. I would like to ask his publisher to rush for a Spanish translation of this great book. That would allow me to impose the requiered reading of Jon's book for all my planners. It's funny to see that the author makes, at least until page 100, not many comments about the media director's part of a presentation. I can assure you Jon, presentations about media plans (off and online) need urgent help from you. Too many times we almost kill our audience with nonsense charts plenty of numbers and very, but very boring stuff. And, I love media planning, being absolutely sure that also in our field things can be explained in a interesting, surprising and entertaining way. Just today I had a big presentation to a national food advertiser in Spain and during the presentation I was consciously thinking about Mr Jon Steel's advices. If it comes to a success, I'll let you know. Thanks again for having invested your time in showing us the way.

I am always on the hunt for new book on preparing for and delivering great presentations. ]This one had a slow start but then fired on all cylinders. The initial case studies were to long winded and in my mind out of character with the message of the book. But in the guts of it was a great read. Once I made it 20% of the way through I couldn't put it down.

Though I usually find these kind of business books dry and dreary, this one was a delight to read from the very first page onwards. Jon has a great sense of humor, and this infuses the book with character. For the most part, the advice relates to any business -- indeed, to any life situation. Midway through, a couple of chapters became a little slow moving (probably I just didn't feel they applied to me) but the rest was rich with insight and wisdom. The examples given are from real life, and this makes them enjoyable to uncover while allowing the reader to mentally explore how he or she would handle the same situation in their unique setting.

It's a hard book to pigeonhole, as you can tell from the other reviews. It's quite applicable to people in agency life, but it's by no means an ad-person's book. If your life involves coming up with creative ideas and convincing other people to buy into them, it's very worth your time. Yeah, there are some tangents, most are diversions to make a point. Every 10-15 pages I tagged things I want to return to later to put to use. Lots of good thought-starters about what to do (and perhaps more importantly what to leave out) to get people excited about your ideas.

I was looking for a book on new business and pitching for a while and this was the only one that really got my attention. There are many useful tips on client relations and pitching as well as real life examples on the topic. It's easy to read, entertaining and well written. It's not a textbook on how to do pitches, rather one that stimulates your mind and generates ideas on how you should do it next time. Exactly what I was looking for. Great value for all account managers / client services direcors out there looking for some inspiration for their daily job.

Jon writes in plain simple English on what makes presentations mind numbingly boring and what genuinely stand out. Read this book and take these lessons to heart.Common mistakes include:PowerPoint presentations overflowing in text.People reading directly FROM the slide overflowing in text.Monotonous and obviously scripted speaking.What makes presentations great:Speaking TO your audience and not leaving them utterly clueless.A well rehearsed pitch does not sound like a script. A presentation should transform into an informative and persuasive speech.

Ok, so if like old war stories of the day when this author was on top of the advertising industry then this is your book. Otherwise it has no real useable content and will teach you nothing except the art of Bs'ing. I found the author over indulgent in how great he was. Not sure why they published it. Not sure any of it would apply to today at all. Please keep your money.

This book was a really engaging read. While Steel does claim that the book is essentially his personal method for putting together a fantastic pitch, anyone can learn a lot about the process and ways to refine their own pitches. I also really enjoyed how adamant Steel was about practicing pitches and his creative insights on how to gain inspiration. This book is a great resource for anyone that wants to share an idea, not just for advertisers.

This is a very good book. As relevant today as it was when it first came out five years ago. In fact, having read it, I'm actually gutted I didn't buy it when it was first released. In my opinion, it's a book that's going to be relevant for a long time. If I could only get one point across in this review, it's that everyone should read it; because despite its title, this book isn't just about pitching for new business. It's about pitching anything - a new idea to your manager; yourself at an interview; a presentation at a conference. Whatever industry you're in, whatever size company you work for (and whatever role you have), or if you're self-employed, there is something in this book for you.Broadly, it covers:*Why presentations fail*Why to focus on just one point*Planning*How to be more creative and more productive*Psychology (but in an easy/non-academic way)*How to avoid ruining a great idea (and examples of how great ideas have been ruined in presentations).*Teamwork and responsibility*How to leave your audience wanting more*The perfect pitch - an analysis of the London 2012 Olympic bidThe author writes with a refreshing style - almost as if you're having a chat with him in the pub. There is no jargon or convoluted sentences (a hallmark of similar books) - this is as straight-forward as a book can get. Many authors of this genre over-complicate the topic they discuss and their books tend to be padded with unnecessary waffle and end up reading like an academic paper. Rest assured, this book is not like that. In fact, it's nice to see someone actively having a pop at the corporate buzzword bingo that seems to inflict our workplaces and who can cover the psychology aspect of pitching in plain English.Steel uses examples many of us know and/or can relate to in addition to his personal experiences to illustrate each and every point he makes - from the time he met Steve Jobs; Bill Clinton's presidency campaign; Winston Churchill; to the infamous OJ Simpson trial. If you're worried that this is another ad man with a huge ego who will simply go on about all the great meetings and people he's met to show off, then you needn't be. Each point is made succinctly and you'll be nodding your head in agreement as you go through the book - Steel has a wonderful knack of using famous examples to get across everyday business situations - but in a way that makes you either think "Yes, I've been there/seen that before" when things haven't gone well, or "Now I know how to be more successful when I pitch".Each point is only made once, there is very little (if any) repetition and it's nice to read a book without having to learn 20 new "guidelines/tools/laws/rules" at the end of each chapter. My only criticism would be that in some places the book does go on a bit longer than necessary (I felt the chapter on team presentations was certainly dry and seem padded out), but this was made up for by an excellent final chapter on the London 2012 Olympic presentation.All in all, an excellent book and one that I will refer to time again. Highly recommended.

I bought this book because I saw it recommended by Steve Harrison in How to Do Better Creative Work. Steve's recommendation carries a lot of weight to me. It also helped that I already knew Jon Steel's Truth, Lies and Advertising, and learned a lot from it.I must say the book doesn't keep all of its promises. It is presented as a guide for preparing any kind of business pitch. I don't think reading it will be harmful if you typically pitch, say, small construction contracts with local companies, but I doubt it will be immensely useful in that case. If, however, you work in advertising, as I do, you should definitely buy it.As one of the book's main strengths is the author's skill in illustrating his points with great stories, most of them coming from his experience in some of the best ad agencies in the world, reading them is totally worthwhile if you belong to the same universe. The very process of planning and creating the campaigns is described here with much more depth than it would be necessary if the real subject was "the perfect pitch" in general - for any business, not only advertising.Also, it may be frustrating for the average reader that all the examples suppose a wealth of resources in preparing the pitch that most individuals or companies can't even dream of. Having your whole company working on a pitch for months, shooting lots of videos or creating a hollywood-style setting in a hotel room is something you can afford if you are aiming for an automaker's global advertising, but not in many other cases.That said, I'm not complaining. This is a great book and I recommend it. I just think it won't be as interesting for people outside advertising as it is for me.

Written by a man who doesn't like business books this is a brilliant guide in better communication, writing presentations and selling ideas. If you don't need to do any of those things then I'd still recommend reading it. It's smart, warm, funny and full of great stories about a life in advertising. He quotes a brilliant range of ideas from the speeches of Churchill to the defence at the OJ Simpson trial which all make it more memorable and interesting.

I bought this for a gift for my partner not knowing he had just ordered it himself. Anyway, he loved it so much that he didn't want to pass it on to our daughter as he would have done (they are both into the same thing) so they ended up with one each. They both loved it.

If you give presentations personally or professionally this is the only book you need to buy. It is complete and full of wisdom and advice. Jon Steel is such a legend in advertising circles and one of the few who actually has a lot of common sense.Nothing ground breaking in here just absolutely jam packed full of useful and actionable advice.