My Best Pitch - May 2007

Lan Chile, the national airline of Chile

What was the brief?

At the time, I was running a crisis communications consultancy service for the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in Geneva, Switzerland. LanChile were looking for a global crisis communications programme, to include an audit, rewriting their crisis manual; training for the CEO, top management and frontline managers and regular exercises around the network.

What was memorable about the pitch?

A colleague and I flew down to Santiago overnight via Madrid - almost a 20-hour journey from Geneva - and arrived with just enough time to clean before the pitch meeting at 9am. Our first mistake was leaving the printed handouts of the presentation in Geneva. The second was flying down without checking what power adaptor we would need to charge our laptops in Chile. In walked the CEO and his entire executive team and sat down expectantly...only for the laptop to splutter and die, and the screen to go blank. Fortunately, I had done our standard pitch so many times that I had it memorised almost verbatim, so I managed to laugh off the technical hitch and continue from memory.

If the pitch was successful what feedback  did you get from the client as to why?

Their head of strategic development told me later over several glasses of wine that it was the best pitch he had ever heard.

What were the client's metrics on success?

Designing a robust crisis communication structure, procedures and strategy which would allow them to communicate rapidly and effectively with all their stakeholders in an emergency.

What were the results?

LanChile became one of our most valuable and most enjoyable clients.

Is there anything you could have done better?

I made the flight down to Santiago many times over the next few years, but never again made the same mistake. The moral of the story is that if technology can let you down, it will do - and that carelessness almost cost us a lot more than just a wasted journey.