If practice doesn’t make perfect, it certainly makes your pitch focused, efficient, and memorable. More importantly, writes Andrew Murray-Brown in Nailing the Fundamentals: The Value of Rehearsing, practicing before a client meeting can mean the difference between winning and losing:

“It is often in rehearsals that a team’s chemistry, so vital to a client’s impression of who they will hire, is formed. It is also through this process that a team can refine its message to be crisp, on-point and effective.”

Murray-Brown’s post offers an eight-point checklist that will help you turn your pitch into a new piece of work. Read it, and start practicing.