When London threw its hat into the ring for the right to host the 2012 Olympics, very few believed it seriously had a chance. Competing against New York, Madrid, Moscow and the clear favourites, Paris, there was a belief that London was an outside bid with little chance of progressing through the first few rounds of voting.
Millions of pounds and thousands of hours were spent bidding over an eight-year journey. At stake is the prize of hosting the Summer Olympics with all the prestige and revenue opportunities this brings to the host city. The very public and complex bidding process means potential host cities are competing against other great cities in trying to win the votes of just 106 IOC members, under the scrutiny and spotlight of the world’s media. But what the London 2012 Olympic bid team put together was a masterclass in preparing and pitching.
In one of the most popular webinars The Win Academy has run, Win Academy Managing Director Martin Coburn and Ian Mackenzie, Executive Pitch Coach explore the winning bid for the London 2012 Olympics. There is a very specific psychology to winning and, as Martin and Ian demonstrate, the London 2012 pitch provides some of the best lessons in the gentle but intelligent art of pitching and persuasion. This workshop is packed with useful insights and these lessons and the associated disciplines can be applied to your own selling and pitching efforts at winning business at all levels.
What are your insights or takeaways from the London 2012 Olympics bid? What do you think the bid team did really well and why do you think they were able to steal the prize from under the noses of the other bidding cities who were clear favourites at the start of the process? Let us know in the comments.