How to Successfully Pitch Design Concepts (and Get Them to Say "Yes!")
I am and have always been an introvert. I’m the type that is grateful for the modern world because I can order a pizza through an app on my phone instead of making an actual phone call. It takes me a while to open up, and speaking to new people or presenting to a crowd is my idea of a nightmare.
When I was a student in high school, the art room was a place you could be with like-minded individuals and most of the time, little interaction. You could just pop on your headphones and make things. In college, the idea of a critique was terrifying, but at least you knew you and your classmates were in it together.
Then you get a job and all of a sudden there are no classmates or critique “best practices.” You’re thrust in front of decision makers, oftentimes the people that decide whether or not you’re getting paid that week, and you’ve got to convince them that you’ve got the right idea. Often, the expectation is that you’ll take a bunch of disjointed information and distill it into something remarkable. I mean, you’re the creative one, after all? Except time after time the feedback is less than stellar, or they just don’t get it, or they think it would best if we just “did what we did before.”
How do you pitch your ideas and get buy in? Two things: your concept and your approach.
The Concept
In order to get buy-in from your client or your team, you need to have a solid concept (or 2). That’s the hard part that designers continually work at day in and day out. But a phenomenal concept doesn’t appear out of thin air, and it isn’t a spark a genius. You can develop solid, strong concepts by following a few key principles:
Research the hell out of your assignment. This applies to any project you’re working on. It doesn’t matter if you’re pitching a brand identity, a theme, or any kind of idea. You need to know that project as well as (if not better than) your client. And track and document the research you do. Regurgitate it to the client and walk them through your thought process. You can start to build trust once they understand the knowledge you’ve obtained researching the project.
Listen to the client. I’m going to assume you’ve had a conversation with the client, or at least received some kind of brief about what they are hoping to achieve with the project. Listen to it. You’re going to have some immediate ideas about what you think your best approach is, but always question if that direction aligns with what’s being asked for. If not, it’s not the right concept.
Simplify it. I tend to design with a lot. A lot of colors, a lot of text, a lot of imagery. And then I end up with something that’s too into my own head and will take hours to explain to a client. It’s too much. Editing is just as important as creating. If you throw stuff together like I do, make sure to simplify it as far as you can before presenting it to the client. If you can’t get it in a second, it’s already lost.
The Approach
Just as important as developing the right concept, is using the right approach. There have been many times where the right concept has been passed over because key information was lost, or the client just wasn’t absorbing the information well enough. By approaching your delivery strategically, you can prove just how valuable your insight is. A few key things to focus on when pitching your concept are:
Present your concept in person (or as close to in-person as you can). Sometimes in fast-paced environments, or when dealing with remote clients, it can seem impossible to get the time to present in person. Make it happen as often as you can, even if that means a video or conference call if they can’t be in the same room. If you deliver artwork or concepts via e-mail, they are going to judge it without the context of the research and reasoning you’ve developed along the way. Additionally, you lose control of their experience. There’s nothing worse than getting someone to look at something out of context after having a bad meeting or getting off a stressful phone call.
Build up to the visuals. Before you show them any artwork, walk them through what they are about to see. This is a technique that not only helps build credibility on the design before they even see it, but also helps get the client into the right frame of mind before digesting the artwork. Building up to the visuals can include a debrief on the research you gathered, verbally describing visual elements that they are about to see and why they tie back to the research you’ve done, and repeating back the debrief or direction they provided you so that they know you were listening.
Only involve decision makers. We’ve all heard the saying “too many cooks in the kitchen”. When presenting an idea or concept, it’s critical to present to the key decision makers only, the people who have a final say on approval. Including others that are not directly involved with the project can derail the focus of the project and introduce challenges or questions that are not relevant to the original scope. Additional attendees may also generate doubt where the decision maker may have otherwise felt certain in their choices. If a client insists on having “a second opinion”, try pitching to them first, gain their approval, and then bring in other resources later by letting them know it’s already been approved.
Obviously, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to pitching that will get you an approval every time. But by weeding out external factors, building concepts based on research and logic, using that research as evidence on the foundation of your design, and sticking to the key decision makers, you can find that the success rate is a lot higher when presenting the work that you do.
Now, I’m off to go text somebody for a pizza.