Prepare a recommendation that proves you already know your prospect's market

Why use MIKA before a sales meeting?

In pre-sales, an agency often loses time in two ways:

• it prepares a generic recommendation, for lack of context;
• it already produces a lot before validating what the prospect is really trying to solve.

The risk is not only working too long. It is delivering a good presentation on the wrong problem.

With MIKA, the goal is not to give the impression that you have already decided everything for the prospect. The goal is to show three things from the first exchange:

• you understood their market and constraints;
• you know which questions must be settled before producing;
• you have a method to turn their data into decisions and an action plan.

A good pre-sales does not say: "we already have the answer".

It says: "here is what we know, here is what we must verify, and here is how we will decide together".

Start from what you already have

Before the call, gather the existing material, even if incomplete:

• website and sales deck;
• LinkedIn profile of the executive, marketing manager or salesperson attending the meeting;
• request for proposal, qualification notes or emails;
• product leaflet, catalog, price list or deck;
• sales data, product files or campaign results;
• client verbatims, field feedback, reviews or surveys;
• competitors mentioned by the prospect;
• relationship history if the account is already known.

Do not spend a day reformatting these elements. Give them to MIKA with a clear intent:

Use personas to calibrate the meeting

A call does not have the same goal depending on who is in front of you. The LinkedIn profile can help you understand:

• your contact's level of responsibility;
• their probable priorities;
• their business vocabulary;
• their growth, margin, production or distribution stakes;
• the topics they make visible in their posts;
• the teams and markets they seem to manage.

But beware: a LinkedIn profile gives signals. It does not replace direct validation during the call. Ask MIKA to prepare a reading of your contact:

MIKA can help you distinguish:

Prepare a call that moves the decision forward

The first call should not validate all your ideas. It should confirm the elements that condition what comes next. The five questions to prepare:

• Which result must be obtained? Not "run a study" or "redo the website". Look for the expected business result: grow a range, win back a clientele, secure a distribution, improve the offer or prepare a launch.
• Which target deserves priority? A market can contain several profiles of buyers, distributors or users. You must know which one becomes the starting point.
• Which decision is blocked today? Does the client need to choose a range, a market, a message, an offer, a commercial priority or a loyalty plan?
• Which proofs already exist? Sales data, history, field feedback, client survey, sales verbatims, catalog or portfolio data.
• What must not be assumed? A good pre-sales also shows your limits. If information is missing, you phrase it as a hypothesis to test.

Do not show only a market watch

A list of competitors, trends or screenshots is not enough to make a good impression. The prospect must see the path from information to decision. MIKA helps you turn what used to take several days of consolidation into a structured reading:

• market and categories;
• competitors and alternatives;
• segments and personas;
• trends and risks;
• product portfolio;
• sales data;
• client feedback;
• signals to verify;
• decisions to make.

The goal is not to pretend the research is finished in a few prompts. The goal is to quickly produce a first argued reading, then make visible the elements the client must confirm.

MIKA prepares a structure. The agency and the prospect validate the decisions.

What you must show during the meeting

To convince, avoid showing everything MIKA produced. Show only what helps the prospect recognize their situation and decide.

A reading of their portfolio or offer

Show how the existing data can reveal:

• the lines that carry the revenue;
• the ranges that grow or decline;
• the products to support, maintain, rework or stop;
• the data gaps that prevent a real decision.

A reading of their clients

Show that you are not only talking about products. You also seek to understand:

• why clients choose the company;
• what retains them;
• the frictions that slow down purchase or repeat business;
• the emerging expectations;
• the differences between segments or distributors.

A reading of the opportunities

Show opportunities as possible decisions:

• strengthen a family that confirms its potential;
• reposition a range that is slipping;
• build a campaign around a usage or a segment;
• evolve an offer from identified client needs;
• prioritize certain accounts, distributors or markets.

The example: the Poterie du Bousquet pre-sales

The Poterie du Bousquet pre-sales did not consist of producing an aesthetic presentation about pottery. It consisted of connecting several sources to go from a portfolio reading to a decision plan. The client's figures remain confidential: what matters here is the method.

A reading of the market and the competition

The consolidated market analysis set the scene before the portfolio: a mature market where share is won on value rather than volume; a competitive landscape in three families (premium manufacturers, lifestyle brands, importers), each strong on one axis and weak on the others; and the blind spot none of them fully occupies, the one the house can aim for: embodied terroir, an "indoor/outdoor" collection universe and B2B execution combined. Five B2B core targets were sequenced from the most agile to the most structuring: proof first, volume next.

A first BCG reading on the most promising sub-family

The recommendation started with a focus on this family:

• a star product clearly identified;
• a cash cow funding the rest of the range;
• two references to question;
• bubbles proportional to revenue;
• an earth-and-pottery visual identity to keep the reading consistent with the brand's universe.

The important point was not the matrix itself. It was the question it made possible:

"Which range deserves a commercial, creative or distribution investment, and which one must be reconsidered?"

A growth check by sub-family

From the sales file by sub-family, the reading was widened to the whole portfolio: the anticipated family confirmed as the star family, weighing close to half of the portfolio and growing while most other sub-families decline, and a historic range in sharp decline. This is the whole point of confronting the product portfolio with market trends: you see whether a range declines because it is under-supported or because its market is shifting, and the recommendation stops relying on intuition or on a single range.

A number check before defending them

The BCG matrix slide was checked line by line against the source file, and all figures validated. One methodological reserve stayed visible: the vertical threshold of the matrix could be computed as a mean or a median. This point was not hidden, because it changes the reading of some products close to the border.

Do not try to make method limits disappear. Show that you can identify them before they become a board objection.

A satisfaction survey linked to the personas

The analysis of a panel of responding clients added a client reading to the portfolio: a high average satisfaction, a segmentation between promoters, passives and detractors, the sales relationship as the main reason for choosing, friction points from coded verbatims, product needs for 2026 and 2027, and a 90-day action plan.

The most useful work was the slide linking verbatims to personas. Each learning was presented as:

• CONFIRMS: the client feedback confirms an existing hypothesis;
• REFINES: it adds a useful nuance to an existing persona;
• ADDS: it reveals a need or a segment that was not visible yet.

Digitizing the brand identity: from planogram to design system

The pre-sales closed on the most concrete part: showing that the house's identity can become operational digital assets. A merchandising kit designed as a professional portal (planogram by surface, starter packs, ready-made labels, golden rules for reception) that lets a distributor set up a corner in half an hour; and a v1.0 design system (colors and materials as tokens, typography, components, accessibility, ready to hand off to developers) that locks the brand's visual voice. For an agency looking to calibrate a presentation, this is the argument that changes the conversation: the recommendation does not stop at findings, it shows how far execution can go without betraying the brand.

A hypothesis is not a conclusion

A solid pre-sales must not pretend a diagnosis is final before working with the client. Present your hypotheses as propositions to test. Use this format:

We observe [fact or signal].

We think it may indicate [hypothesis].

We must verify [missing proof or data].

If confirmed, we recommend [decision or action].

This format protects your credibility. It shows you can turn a signal into a working lead, without over-interpreting the data.

The hypotheses built for Poterie du Bousquet

Four hypotheses structured the restitution, each with its data, its verification and its decision.

Hypothesis 1: the star family must become a growth priority

What the data shows: the family weighs close to half of the portfolio, grows while the whole declines, and stands out as the star family of the BCG reading. Hypothesis: this family could be the most relevant one to concentrate part of the commercial development, highlighting and growth efforts. To verify with the client: real margin by sub-family, production capacity, seasonality, distribution constraints, the accounts carrying this growth, the potential of new variants or markets. If confirmed: build a development plan for the family, with goals, priority accounts, sales pitch and highlighting material.

Hypothesis 2: the portfolio needs arbitrations, not only new launches

What the data shows: a minority of growing sub-families, an overall declining portfolio, a historic range in sharp decline, some lines classified as dead weight in the matrix. Hypothesis: the problem may not only be launching new references; it may be necessary to clarify which ranges to support, maintain, reposition or retire. To verify: profitability by sub-family, storage costs, production constraints, distributor preferences, residual stock, the precise causes of this range's decline. If confirmed: prepare a portfolio review with explicit decisions: invest, maintain, relaunch, simplify or exit.

Hypothesis 3: the sales relationship is a differentiator to structure

What the survey shows: the sales relationship dominates among the reasons for choosing, and the verbatims reveal expectations and irritants. Hypothesis: the sales relationship is already a perceived advantage, but it may be insufficiently formalized in the offer, the sales tools and the client follow-up. To verify: the practices that really make the difference, the relationship quality gaps between accounts or areas, the recurring irritants, the moments when the service promise is most fragile. If confirmed: turn this relational advantage into a commercial protocol: follow-up, restocking, request handling, support content and satisfaction indicators.

Hypothesis 4: the survey must guide decisions, without being over-interpreted

Limit to keep visible: the sample is small, raw counts are more useful than ambitious extrapolations, and the recommendation indicator relies on a satisfaction scale: it must be presented as an indicative indicator, not a standard NPS. Hypothesis: the observed verbatims and trends are enough to orient the first priorities, not to settle major portfolio decisions alone. If confirmed: launch a 90-day pilot, then progressively enrich the client feedback base.

The market hypotheses: indoor/outdoor and export

The presentation closed on two expansion hypotheses, drawn directly from confronting the portfolio with market trends. Indoor/outdoor: moving from the garden to a brand that also lives indoors clearly widens the addressable ground, de-seasonalizes the activity and justifies the premium; to verify before investing: the collections' ability to hold an indoor use (formats, finishes, deco distribution). Export: a real growth driver but one to sequence, in the proof-first, volume-next logic: execution competitors already deliver beyond France on price and availability, the house can only enter on value; to verify: the markets where the terroir story carries, the accessible B2B channels and the logistics cost. Two possible decisions, not conclusions: each awaits its proofs.

Present the hypotheses in your restitution

Use this table during your meeting or in your proposal.

Validate the decisions before pricing the mission

At the end of the call, do not only ask: "Would you like us to send you a proposal?" Propose a next step tied to the hypotheses discussed:

We propose to turn these first readings into a decision diagnosis. We will validate the portfolio priorities, the personas, the available proofs and the 90-day pilot before producing the activation plan.

Propose what comes next: the 90-day pilot

In the Poterie du Bousquet case, the next step was clear:

• create a "90-day pilot" appendix;
• identify a short list of priority accounts;
• include for each one the revenue, the potential, the satisfaction score and the main irritant;
• define the actions, owners, indicators and decisions to track in steering committee.

This appendix however required the client file with the scores. It therefore had to be presented as a next step conditioned on a missing piece of data, not as an already finished deliverable.