10 Top Tips for tissue meetings

10 Tips for New Business Success

Tissue meetings are all about the opportunity to test your thinking and learn about your client and get under the skin of their brand. Here are some best practice tips to ensure you maximize this time.

1. If there isn’t a tissue, demand one:

More opportunities for feedback and collaboration will help you get to a better response and it gives the client a better insight into what you’d be like to work with.

2. Learn how brave the client is:

Use the opportunity to gauge how brave or safe the clients want to be by making sure there is a spectrum in the initial concepts you present.

3. Don’t go in with too many routes:

Be confident in your best ideas. Allow space for discussion. Less is definitely more when it comes to tissue meetings.

4. Keep the team consistent across all pitch meetings:

The clients will be meeting so many new faces at each agency and they will want to hear from the team working on their business.

5. Get under the skin of the brand:

Visit the stores, buy the products, see the factory, speak to the staff. Demonstrate passion for their business.

6. Treat it like a pitch:

Make it feel special and use the time to build relationships - but make sure you go one better at the next stage.

7. Get creative when collating feedback:

Think creatively about how you present the ideas and how you elicit constructive comments. Not all clients are experienced at feeding back on work, so find innovative ways to capture responses from everyone in the room.

8. Look for opportunities to generate discussion:

In a virtual world, look for ways and tools to make the process of tissue and discussion, interactive – breakout rooms and collaboration tools like digital white boards and Google slides are all useful starting points.

9. Validate your thinking:

Use different types of research to validate initial strategic thoughts and foundations for the creative territories.

10. Share the limelight:

This is the time for your strategist and/or your creative lead to shine and connect with the clients. Think carefully about the role for each agency attendee, and make sure that each team member has a clear role. Most importantly of all, listen to the clients’ feedback and demonstrate where you have done so at the next stage.

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Last updated 01 May 2024