“What is the most moving, compelling, and ultimately persuasive argument you ever heard? I’ll bet that very few people think of an argument they heard in a conference room presentation.”

During his phenomenal twenty-year career in advertising, Jon Steel has won more than ninety percent of the new business he has pitched, winning multi-million dollar contracts from clients like Nike, Sony, Pepsi, Porsche, and Hewlett-Packard. Now this professional “pitching coach” for one of the world’s largest marketing communication conglomerates shares his secrets. Steel explains how you really create presentations that win hearts, minds, and new business. He also draws on intriguing presentation examples from the real world—including the O. J. Simpson trial, Bill Clinton’s presidential debates, the speeches of Sir Winston Churchill and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and even his own marriage proposal to his wife.

Steel identifies the “presentation crimes” committed every day across the business world and the pillars on which all successful presentations are built. He discusses audience psychology, the importance of listening, and how to use real-world examples to make points more powerfully. Perfect Pitch covers every aspect of the pitch process, from assembling a presentation team to rehearsals and the preparation of compelling leave-behind documents.

A must-read for advertising and sales professionals, this book is a should-read for anyone who makes pitches of any sort—from sales professionals to Realtors who list and sell houses to business executives who want to seal deals. The book ends with an inside look at London’s successful dark horse bid for the 2012 Olympics—a perfect pitch.