📣 Please note, these events are for Agency Hackers’ members only.

If your agency isn’t a member yet, get in touch with Anne.

“I felt like sales wasn’t for people like me.”

That’s how Danny Fontaine, IBM’s Head of Experiential Sales, felt at the very beginning of his career.

He tried to improve by reading every sales book he could get his hands on, but nothing stuck.

It wasn’t until he started exploring the role of human connection in sales that he had a realisation that changed everything: a pitch is not a PowerPoint deck. It’s any method you can think of to persuade someone of your idea.

“You’ve got one hour in a room with someone. And after that, the material never needs to be seen again. So what can you do with that hour?” says Danny.

He began to incorporate bold, disruptive, and even playful techniques into his pitches, and clients started to listen.

Right now, as pipelines weaken and pressure builds, many agencies are responding by pitching more often and moving faster. They’re reusing decks, turning to automation, and hoping something lands. But Danny believes that’s a false economy.

“Automation is brilliant for repeatable tasks, and a pitch should never be a repeatable task. Pitching is the most creative thing you do. You don’t have to follow the brand police or the company rules. You can just make someone care.”

In this session, Danny will share:

• A simple way to decide when to pitch and when to walk away.
• Why most pitches fail and how to avoid the same mistakes.
• How to swap dull decks for story-led, emotional moments.
• Real examples of joyful, low-budget pitch ideas that actually won work.
• Why pitching is the most creative thing you do and how to fall back in love with it.

If you’re burned out from endless proposals and starting to think automation is the answer, this talk is your reset button.