Why you MUST learn to Pitch if you want to accelerate your career.

When I started my career, I wish someone had given me a list of all the soft skills I needed to master.

The early days of my career were spent perfecting the use of accounting software and Photoshop. It was all about the hard skills.

As I progressed in my career, I became aware that the real magic happens when you perfect the soft skills.

But which soft skills?

One of the big skills I advocate for in my Creative Career Level Up programme is Pitching.

Most people will be familiar with the term - especially in the Creative industry where it’s common practice for agencies to pitch for work. 

And yes, if you work on the agency-side in New Business, learning to pitch is a skill you absolutely must master.

However, I think, no matter where in our industry you sit, learning how to pitch will be a skill that accelerates your career fast. 

What is Pitching?

My deep insight on pitching came during my time at Nike.

During my years at Nike, we would often get agencies reaching out hoping to work with us. 

We'd meet with some of them to see if they could offer something different from our current roster of agencies.

I sat through many pitches over the years and there was one thing that always struck me.

The agencies talked a lot about themselves. 

But they never really talked about Nike.

Or more specifically, they never talked about what they could do for Nike if they were to become one of our agencies.

My Pitching Insight

Finally one day, an agency came into our offices who absolutely NAILED their pitch. 

What did they do differently to all the others? 

They talked about how they were the solution to the challenges we were facing.

Instead of talking about themselves, they talked about Nike. 

And how they could add value for Nike.

Unsurprisingly, we hire them as an agency on our roster.

The Pitch is about THEM, not about YOU

I realised I'd been thinking about pitching all WRONG.

My whole career I thought the pitch was about ME. 

But this agency showed me, the pitch is about the person or the company you are pitching to. 

It’s about THEM.

Once I understood this, I could see how it could be applied to many situations.

✅ Selling an idea to a Senior Leader internally? 

Position the idea as the solution to a problem they have.

✅ Interviewing for a new job? 

Sell them on the value you can add for them based on the things you know they need help with.

✅ Pitching for New Business?

Articulate how the work you do will perfectly solve the challenges they face.

It was all about positioning yourself or your idea as the solution to their problems.

Simple as that.

You are constantly pitching 

Once I understood how to motivate the person on the other end of the pitch, I started to see how it could be applied to so many different situations in my career.

I even started to see brief corridor conversations as a chance to ‘pitch’.

The results I got were incredible.

✅ I convinced the Sales Director to give me £1M to spend on an iPhone launch.

✅ I convinced a retailer to allow us to take over £500k worth of their media space for FREE.

✅ I convinced a Brand Director to give me a job in their team (even though I didn't tick all the boxes for the role).

Pitching transformed my career. 

And it is honestly one of the best skills you can learn if you want to start accelerating your career today.

If you would love help with how to Pitch and Position yourself for a new job, I have a mini course on my website that will show you EXACTLY how to do it. Check it out here.

But if you are looking to make BIG moves in your career, the Creative Career Level Up programme might be the right solution for you.