The Client Who Fired the Whole Deck

Noor Fasi: This is The RightUp. I'm Noor Fasi. My guest runs a branding studio that hasn't shown a slide to a client in years, and it started with a pitch that was over in four minutes. Daniel Mercer, welcome.

Daniel Mercer: Thanks, Noor. Four minutes and ten seconds. I checked.

Noor Fasi: Walk us through it, minute by minute.

Daniel Mercer: Minute one, introductions, all fine. Minute two, our first slide, the market overview. Minute three, the client's chief executive closed her laptop.

Noor Fasi: That's a sign.

Daniel Mercer: It's a very clear sign. Minute four, she asked the question that ended it. She said, you've shown me forty slides about my own company. When do I see what you think?

Noor Fasi: What did you say?

Daniel Mercer: I said, it's on slide twenty two. And she said, then we should have started there.

Noor Fasi: What did you change afterwards?

Daniel Mercer: Everything about the order. We walk in now with one idea, printed on one sheet of paper, and we talk about it until they either lean in or push back. The research still exists. It just waits until someone asks for it.

Noor Fasi: And you've never gone back to slides?

Daniel Mercer: Not once. A few clients have asked for a deck afterwards, for their own board. We make them one. We just never lead with it.

Noor Fasi: Daniel Mercer, thank you. That's The Client Who Fired the Whole Deck, on The RightUp.