TRP 236: Pitch Perfect: How to Win the Beauty Contest with Terry Isner

In this episode of The Rainmaking Podcast, host Scott Love speaks with Terry Isner, founder of Jaffe PR, about how professionals can stand out in high-stakes pitch meetings and beauty contests. Terry shares insights on why traditional sales pitches fail and explains that buyers already know a firm’s expertise before the meeting. Instead of focusing on credentials, firms should prioritize building connections, demonstrating authenticity, and showing why they’re the best fit for a long-term partnership. He emphasizes that engagement, creativity, and emotional connection are key factors that set winning firms apart.

Key topics include how to structure a pitch for engagement, ensuring that every team member has a voice rather than relying on a single partner to lead the meeting. Terry also discusses the importance of storytelling in pitches, using real-life client success stories to create memorable, relatable, and impactful presentations. He shares strategies for making pitches interactive and dynamic, avoiding static PowerPoint slides, and leaving prospects with a lasting impression through creative branding elements. Additionally, Terry introduces the concept of emotional marketing, explaining how personal stories, humor, and vulnerability help build trust and differentiate a firm from competitors. This episode provides practical strategies for professionals looking to transform their approach to pitching and dramatically improve their win rates.

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This show is sponsored by Leopard Solutions Legal Intelligence Suite of products, Firmscape, and Leopard BI. Push ahead of the pack with the power of Leopard. For a free demo, visit this link:

https://www.leopardsolutions.com/index.php/request-a-demo/

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A marketing philosopher, brand consultant and dynamic speaker for the legal industry, Terry M. Isner is known as “the empathy man” because of his humanistic approach to business strategy. Whereas many business professionals overlook compassion as part of the branding equation, Terry believes humanism is essential to a firm's success in today’s socially conscious environment. As Terry says, “If humanity gets left out of the board room, nobody wins.”

In the world of legal marketing, Terry fulfills a niche as a business strategist with an extensive background as an award-winning creative director and artist. This unique mix of creative and analytical thinking makes him more likely to set trends than follow them. In fact, Terry often draws inspiration from other industries to formulate new approaches to legal marketing, PR and branding. He also stays current on the latest trends in technology to devise ways to leverage innovation to advance brands.

Terry’s philosophical approach to business is just that – a philosophy. Bringing concepts such as creativity, inclusion and compassion into corporate culture is a reflection of the world we live in. Firms that fail to be cognizant of such issues risk damage to their reputations and devaluation of their brands. Terry helps preserve brand equity by helping firms adapt to these changing times and sharing their unique stories in creative ways across multiple channels, including print, digital and social media. He also uses his passion and expertise to empower marketers to be effective agents of change within their own organizations and help drive their firm’s sales, branding and culture.

Increasingly, employees desire an employer that emphasizes a culture of diversity and compassion. This trend is accelerating as significant generational shifts ignite change in the workplace. Terry specializes in helping firms maintain a cohesive culture and navigate generational change through creative internal campaigns, unique team-building activities and community engagement opportunities that foster camaraderie at all levels.

Links:

https://www.jaffepr.com/our-team/terry-m-isner

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharingtmi/

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