The dictionary definition of the word overture is: an instrumental prelude to an opera.  Among many famous  ones are the overtures to Rossini’s William Tell, Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro and Wagner’s Tannhauser.  What all these great composers had in common was their understanding of the importance of engaging the audience’s senses from the outset, raising the emotional temperature and  building anticipation for the performance that followed.

Perhaps the commonest mistake I come across when coaching rehearsals is the complete lack of an overture. The lack of any opening that surprises or engages.

Too often the starting point is ‘a polite thank you for the opportunity, an introduction to the team members, the agenda for today and a reiteration of the brief (which the prospect already knows having written it).’

Whilst some of these elements may have a role, they are not an overture!  Like the great composers, be creative with your opening.  Use imagination and wit.  Consider a topical observation, a story from personal experience or a relevant piece of theatre.  Prepare it and rehearse it several times.

The great overture will achieve two things.  It will raise the mood and expectation of your audience.  It will raise the confidence and performance level of you and your team.

Incidentally, a further dictionary definition reads: opening moves towards a new relationship.

A new expression to replace ‘as dull as ditchwater’?  Alistair Darling’s  platform speech to the TUC on Tuesday  was  received in silence and apathy, with possibly four or, as much as four and a half seconds, of applause.

Quentin Letts in the Daily Mail described him as “standing as limp as a sweet pea in the rain”!

Clearly, Darling was on a hiding to nothing, with little of substance he could offer, but surely he could have put up at least token resistance by injecting some fizz, some attack and personality  into the way  he spoke?

There will always be pitches that don’t go as planned.  The scintillating solution that  wasn’t, the audience that was unreceptive, the brief misread and so on.  None of these are reason to be dull.  You may not win but pitching with energy, wit and enthusiasm can lead to a next opportunity. And you’ll feel better for it, darling.

I am not alone in saying beware of ‘death by powerpoint’. It is the seemingly inevitable first port of call for most presentations. It is inexpensive, efficient, easy to create, can be the basis of a leave-behind and, properly used, can aid communication.

For these reasons you find that at rehearsal, assuming one takes place, (mandatory  says pitchcoach!)  people automatically turn up, powerpoint poised. It’s only at the rehearsal, and not always then, that discussion  takes place on what would be the best form of communication to create impact.  And, surprise, powerpoint is not always the answer.

Two stories illustrate this. Some years ago, with a high quality powerpoint presentation, I delivered  a platform speech at a conference.  It seemed to go ok but it was blown away by the next speaker, a famous academic and skilled lecturer. He used a single scruffy acetate on an overhead projector ( remember them?)  and mesmerised the audience. It was the way he said it!  I felt foolish and lost the powerpoint habit.

Recently, I was involved in a pitch workshop.  One excercise called for six teams to take the brief, with 60 minutes to prepare and then deliver a ten minute pitch, using flipcharts or powerpoint. To add challenge, ‘rules’ altered at last second. One team only  was told they could not use any of their prepared visuals. It was this team that scored highest on the “communicated best” measure. They had no charts to ‘vampire ‘ them, and talked directly to their audience.

People buy people, not their charts.

One of the few people to thrive on being boring was, as captured on Spitting Images, snooker’s  Steve ‘Interesting’ Davis.  A successful pitch consultant, who advises clients on their  selection process, warns that their attention span is minimal during presentations. Despite this, one of the commonest errors is to be worthy, dull and boring.  Why is this?

Many reasons, of course. There is the natural inclination to show just how much hard, clever work has been done.  Or there is the temptation to reproduce everything that has gone into a lengthy tome of a document. Or a feeling of obligation to give everyone involved in the build up a role in the pitch.

All of these fall into the same trap . It’s not what you put into a pitch that matters. It’s what the audience takes out. A pitch is a performance and, however serious the subject, you are putting on a show that should deliver the content in a way that surprises, delights and engages the audience.

Sir Alan Sugar in an interview in the Daily Telgraph, post the Apprentice, commented on Gordon Brown who he seems to like. “His problem is that he is not an actor……..a serious person, who with all due respect is a bit boring, not that eloquent in his presentation skills”

In the same article he went on to say “….what a sad state of affairs that you need a showman to get someone to vote for a party”.

And to lead the successful pitch!

We all know the old adage ” a picture is worth a thousand words” and yet when it comes to preparing presentations it’s too often a case of words, words, words with the occasional visual as an afterthought. They  can either take the form of endless points crowded on one chart or an endless number of uninspiring charts with a few ‘bullet’ points.

Both approaches can be pretty soulless. They are sometimes the result of laziness where a narrative document has been condensed into powerpoint format. Or, they act as a security blanket for the nervous or unprepared presenter. Some may read the charts word for word, (with the audience almost certainly reading ahead). Others, even tougher to follow,  go off chart to be ‘interesting’  and lose the audience altogether.

A handful of imaginative visuals, with a few words, can turn dullsville into communication.

Two arresting front covers this week sparked off this observation. The Spectator has a cartoon-style illustration of Boris Johnson careering along on his bike, with passenger  David Cameron hanging on for dear life. The words, scarcely needed, “full speed ahead to number 10″. But who will get there first?

The other is a classic Private Eye. A picture of Cherie Blair, flanked by Richard and Judy, all three with the trademark Cherie grin and the speech bubble “I stabbed Gordon in the book”. Brilliant.

Most pitches call for a response to a brief in the form of a written proposal, followed by a presententation to the key decision takers. Typically, the proposal is developed by the appropriate experts and specialists  working night and day to deliver a great result.

So far so good. The common error, however,  when it comes to deciding who will present  in the final  shoot out, is to assume these same people should, and/or deserve  to present . Not so.

What matters is not the input of these people but what the audience ‘takes out’, what is their emotional response, on the day, to the presenters as individuals and as a team.  The casting decision must be lead by   understanding of the audience dynamics and the  need to be ruthless in casting the team that will perform best on the day.

Some ‘rules’.  Don’t outnumber the client by more than one;  your leader must be seen to lead; the team  should be  a balance of interesting, contrasting individuals rather than  a collection of experts.  You are seeking the reaction that ‘ we would enjoy, and be stimulated, working with these people and they clearly get on with each other’.

 The London 2012 Bid team cast for impact when they included  thirty youngsters in place of VIPs;   ex-prison officer Ray Lewis is interesting  casting by Boris that suggests he will  not be afraid to surround himself with personalities.  Could Obama, if he wins, select Clinton as running mate? That would be interesting casting.

Most pitches are, by definition, competitive and most will call for a response to a brief.  To compete we must, and do, rise to the challenge set focussing our efforts on developing substantial proposals- strategic, technical, creative- that we believe will be better than those of our competitors.

They may be ‘better’  but  judging on ‘technical’ merit will be almost impossible unless you come up with an unbelievably better or cheaper solution. Given that your competition will have been chosen because they have similiar track records this is pretty unlikely. In practice, the people on the receiving end will attempt to evaluate on  rational grounds  but will usually end up with two or three  candidates  where their  judgment, however later justified, is based on style.

Despite knowing this, and we do, learning from our first nervous interview, we still spend disproportionate amount of  the available time, effort and resource, on the substance of our pitch, often at the expense of style. Typically grinding out a, hopefully improved, solution right up to the last minute, before thinking about what really matters, how the pitch will resonate. how it will be received.

The solution to this pit(ch)fall is simple. Recognise it.

Recent and current examples include Paris, whose 2012 bid was substantially the best but ‘le style’ , arrogant and lacking empathy, lost it for them.  Gordon Brown, undeniably a man of substance but weakened by his style.  Ken and Boris,  both with individual flair but one the fresher and hungrier. and boiling up in USA,  Obama the one with style but losing it and Clinton, the one with substance, but finishing with style.

In the world of theatre rehearsal is fundamental to delivering  a great performance.  On first night and every other night. And, of course, the rehearsals are assessed and directed for audience impact by a director, not one of the paticipating actors.

Pitching in business also calls for performance, usually for one ‘first’  night not a run, but success on that one night could transform your business.  Everyone pays lip service to rehearsal being a good thing but in practice most resist it. The stated  excuses are usually predictable:

‘ we are waiting for one last bit of material/information’

‘ so and so is tied up in client meeting’

‘ the document needs some revisions’

‘rehearsals waste my  nervous energy’

‘CEO (avoiding it) says go ahead without him/her’

And so on with the result that if and when it happens one desultory rehearsal takes place late, on the evening before, when everyone is tired and there is no time to  make any significant  changes.

Any other well worn excuses?