The Art of the Pitch Workshop

Occasionally, a great idea will sell itself.

The other 99% of the time, we have to find a way to persuade our audience that it is, in fact, a great idea.

That’s what we’ll be working on.

How do we get what we want?

What is it that we want?

A lot of the time, the audience has no idea.

So how do we help them understand us?

How do we organize a presentation

for maximum effectiveness?

There is no one right way to do this.

Be who you are.

Quiet and thoughtful.

Loud and rambunctious.

I don’t care. Just find your style.

And make it work for you.

Should I use PowerPoint, and if so, how?

It is critically important that we know our audience.

But it’s just as important that we know ourselves.

We’ll learn a lot about who we are over two days of presenting.

Because confidence is critical to being an effective presenter.

And a critical step to confidence is presenting.

So we’ll be doing a lot of that.

Have fun. It’s just advertising.

Selling great work is critical to your success, but so is keeping it sold.

Over an intense two day period participants will learn:

  • That we’re not there to “take the audience through our deck.”
  • The power of making an emotional connection.
  • The importance of story telling.
  • That virtually every meeting with clients or management is a “presentation.”
  • The importance of internal presentations.
  • Strengths of each person’s own natural presentation style, and how to use it.
  • The wisdom of hara hachi bu.
  • The concept of Ruthless Exclusion.
  • The importance of structure and how to achieve it.
  • The importance of rehearsal and how to do it.
  • How to win much more than you lose.

Additionally, the participants will develop the following skills:

  • How to defy convention and create the exceptional.
  • Effective personal presentation style which is individual, yet meshes well with other staff member styles.
  • Active listening
    • This skill is absolutely critical
  • How to present like the kind of team clients want to hire.
  • Analyzing the audience and fitting the presentation to their needs and expectations.
  • How to use many tools to provide punctuation, the secret to keeping an audience engaged throughout your talk.
  • How to craft an overall narrative and merge it with individual, personal stories.
  • Presenting smoothly with other team members: group “theming”; integrating content and style; planning transitions; dealing with hierarchical issues.
  • How to present over the telephone both individually and as a team.
  • How to make an ad for your ads—and your agency.
  • Presenting data-rich information, e.g., media or research.
  • Monitoring audience reaction and making presentation adjustments in mid-stream.
  • Handling questions, objections or negative responses.
  • How to close a presentation and win in the room.

  • If you want your agency to improve, hire Peter. It's that simple. Whether your goal is to be more successful at pitching new business or presenting ideas to current clients, Peter will tailor a workshop that allows your agency teams to master the art of persuasive storytelling and embrace the philosophy of hara hachi bu. 

    Expect to be challenged, critiqued, encouraged and inspired, all with the singular focus of making you and your agency teams better. Since we've been working with Peter, we've won two pitches in less than two months. Now that's what I call money well spent.

    Karen Kaplan, CEO, Hill Holliday
  • Peter is a teacher, leader and a Zen master.  His distinguished career as a founder and leader of a distinguished agency gives electricity to his teaching.

    John Adams, Chairman, The Martin Agency
  • Peter has a large mind.  He’s an advertising generalist whose intellect covers a lot of ground:  problem, conceptualization, strategy and presentation.  He is a fine teacher, no doubt because he is a perpetual student.

    Bill Westbrook, Vice-Chairman, Fallon
  • Thank you for totally screwing up my presentation style. It needed it. In just two short days, I truly learned a lot. How to grab someone’s attention. How to keep it. How to frame an ad for the ads, and how important it is prepare for a presentation. These are just a few of the many things I learned. Me and my future audiences thank you. 

    The workshop was great, and I really enjoyed every minute of it. Even the ones that were videotaped. Thanks again for coming in, working with us, and screwing up my presentation style to make me a better presenter. I feel it's working already.

    Brian Kalina Creative Director, DDB NY
  • StrawberryFrog boldly challenges the status quo. We think we know a lot about where the world's headed. It's also important to know that you can always learn something new. Peter recently worked with a group of our people, eh Frogs, from all the different disciplines within the agency.His training was a big help to everyone, regardless of their jobs.

    Which goes to show that you can teach a bold frog new tricks. In fact, I was in one of the sessions, and I saw improvement in the Frogs immediately. Because Peter understands our business and the people who work in our business, his teaching is particularly powerful.

    More than anything, Peter is a teacher who derives his greatest satisfaction from sharing his experience, expertise, and wisdom.

    We're going to have him back soon.

    Scott Goodson, Founder, StrawberryFrog
  • Thank you kindly for the wonderful workshop you held.  The information presented is a great stepping stone on the path to becoming a fine tuned presenter.  You break this down to be extremely simple, yet highly effective.  I can only envy those students who sit with you each week - a class I wish I was offered. Have a wonderful weekend as I trust your travels home went smoothly.  You have left a mark on Crispin and we await your return.  Thank you again.

    Ryan Eckert, Crispin Porter + Bogusky
  • I believe you have taught three training sessions for us now.  You have taught a wide variety of folks from account management, media, account planning, creative, IT and executive assistants.  I have received nothing but positive feedback on the training from everyone. 

    Even the skeptical folks who didn't want to participate, or who felt that couldn't be taught anything new were really glad they went through the training. I look forward to trying to get you back to the agency soon so that I can go through the course myself!

    Leslie Bee, Director of Human Resources, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners
  • Thanks big time for sending everyone's thoughts on presenting creative. This, with what you had to say, is real gold. Our folks did really enjoy the sessions and I'm sure a lot of the knowledge will stick. And if not, you can be assured I will remind them. That's not to say we are done. I hope we can get you back for another round in the near future.

    Larry Stone, Stone Ward
  • I can say that I've heard nothing but positives about the work you've done here. I think a key positive is that you don't take a "cookie cutter" approach, but rather, you work with people from where they're each coming from and help them develop their own natural styles. Another key strength is that you truly "get" what they're presenting and you understand their day-to-day work, so you bring a lot of credibility to the workshop.

    The general STRUCTURE of most presentation workshops is the same (some combination of lecture/discussion about presentations, videotaping, feedback, etc.)  The key difference is finding a FACILITATOR who can really connect with the participants, is able & willing to provide candid feedback, and creates a "space" in which people can people can really internalize the learning.

    You've proven to be such a facilitator with Burnett planners. 

    Molly Stewart, Leo Burnett
  • Peter is an extremely valuable person to provide Presentation Skills Training. We could see the difference in presentation styles in attendees from one day to the next. He is a very engaging speaker who made every minute count. Everyone walked away with tangible and meaningful ways to upgrade their presentations. 

    I have consistently heard that Peter’s training was by far the best training we have ever offered at the agency.  Even several months after the training, the insights and tools provided are still fresh in people’s mind and regularly being put to use.

    If you want to be more effective in selling in big ideas, you need this training.

    Nicole Milojevic, Director of Human Resources, Brunner
  • Peter Coughter brings experience, clarity and insight to his workshop. He also has perfected the right balance between theory and practice making the workshop both productive and entertaining. Hiring Peter has already proved to be a return on investment.

    PAUL LAVOIE, CHAIRMAN, CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER, TAXI
  • Peter has a masterful way of unlocking individuals' presentation potential. He provides valuable perspective and tangible recommendations that have had an immediate and lasting impact on my organization.

    Christine Fruechte, President, CEO, COLLE+McVOY
  • Just wanted to thank you again for your inspirational and extremely effective presentation skills seminar here at Erwin-Penland. I haven’t been thanked this much since we had big bonuses to dispense, so folks obviously felt like they benefitted greatly. You have a terrific way of breaking the ice, making people feel comfortable (all while making them nervous as shit) and most of all, making them learn. I look forward to the time when you can come back and do some more cool stuff at our agency. Thanks again. We really enjoyed having you here.

    Andy Mendelsohn, Executive Creative Director, Erwin-Penland
  • I have hired Peter Coughter on multiple occasions as a teacher and trainer for our content management department at CP+B.  I’ve known Peter for several years and decided to try his workshop with our staff.  The first session was so successful that Peter was asked to do four subsequent ones here in Miami ultimately coaching over 50 employees over the course of a year.  

    Peter's straight forward approach and real-life examples were quite refreshing to an audience who are often suspicious of an industry touting ‘consultant presentation coaches’. He brings valuable credibility and honesty to time-crunched executives who can use his teaching immediately.  I highly endorse his program and would recommend it to anyone looking to add some speaking acumen to the skills of their investment-level employees.

    Jeffrey Steinhour, Managing Partner, Crispin, Porter + Bogusky
  • We have had over 100 of our senior and mid-level people go through Coughter's presentation workshops.  The results have been impressive. He knows the business.  He also knows how people in the business think, act and learn.  Even more importantly, he provides great insight and guidance as to how listeners of a presentation will react. What makes Peter particularly effective is his workshop is anything but cookie cutter.

    The unanimous feedback from our employees is that his remarks, comments and directions are very specific and relevant to each individual.  He identifies and builds on their strengths. Rarely do we now prepare for a presentation without someone saying, "Have we Coughter'd it?"  That is the best endorsement of all in terms of the impact he had with our company.  Peter Coughter is excellent!

    Peter G. Krivkovich, President & CEO, Cramer-Krasselt
  • We have invited Peter Coughter in to Y&R NY on several occasions to work with all of our talent – from Executives to Juniors, and from Account Management to Creative. Peter has been a tremendous asset in coaching our guys on every aspect of Presentation. He’s helped build up their experience, and most importantly, their confidence.

    He works both in group and private one-on-one settings, so as to focus both on team dynamics and individual needs.  Upon occasion we have had Peter join us at rehearsal stages of presentation – and his input has been enormously valuable.

    What I’ve found quite impressive about Peter is that he is exceptionally intuitive.  He can offer assessments on individual strengths and weaknesses above and beyond how it relates to their presentation prowess.   He is a wonderful consultant to work with as he truly understands the needs, challenges, and opportunities of both the company and the individual.

    I would absolutely recommend any organization engaging with Peter to put together a plan to further develop presentation skills of your valued employees.

    Tony Granger, Global Chief Creative Officer, Y&R
  • I believe that helping its people develop great presentation skills is arguably one of the smartest training investments an agency can make. And I'm not aware of anyone else who can deliver that better than Peter. He's simply an amazing professional, who masters the art of helping people achieve their best form as presenters.

    We were very fortunate to having them minister his presentation skills workshop for two dozen of our best people, and they were unanimous to say they had their minds blown by it. Although most of our team is fluent in English, they have it as their second language. But our concerns that it could be an obstacle were unfounded. The improvement was noticeable and immediate. They became more confident and prepared.

    Rodrigo Maroni, Head of Strategic Planning, Wieden + Kennedy Sao Paulo
  • We put our most senior, seasoned folks across all areas from creative, strategy, account and digital through Peter’s course. Going into it, some were cynical, some optimistic, some with previous training bias, some good presenters, some not so good.

    Coming out of the program, all felt inspired, confident, energized and Enthusiastic. They also felt that what they learned was tangible, practical and applicable to their jobs and lives. The overall response blew me away -- no matter the size, scope or state of your agency, Peter's influence will have an enduring positive impact.

    Peter McGuinness, President, CEO, DDB Chicago

Advertising is about persuasion. 

And that’s what The Art of the Pitch Workshop is all about.

peter@coughter.com

804-357-0897

© 2020 COUGHTER & COMPANY