What Is a Sales Pitch?
A sales pitch is a message or script that talks about the value your business can provide. It is like the handover of a business card tailored to every customer. It sets the tone for the rest of your relationship with your prospect. This is why you need a sales pitch framework to help increase the chance of closing more deals.
A good salesperson can get the message across in a concise and compelling manner.
It’s also important to note that product pitch and sales pitch do not differ much in their meaning. While a sales pitch focuses on selling your business as a whole, a product pitch specifically focuses on a single product or service.
How to Make a Winning Sales Pitch
1. Do Your Research
The first step to building a kickass sales pitch is by doing enough research about your potential customers, their pain points, and how your solution can help solve their issues. Understand which buyer persona your prospects fit in, what their company does, and what goals they have to fulfill.
For instance, company X is your ideal prospect, and while researching, you discovered that the company suffered a huge revenue loss because its sales team couldn’t close enough deals.
The next step would be to understand how your product or service can help them.
2. More You, Less Me.
Customers are likely to dismiss your call if you focus more on what your company does rather than trying to understand their problems. Your ideal prospects need to know that you value them and do not want to sell your products just for the sake of it.
So a winning sales pitch is all about the customers and not you. Try to determine what value your product or service will offer them - What are the benefits they can expect from your product? Are they looking to increase their efficiency while reducing costs? Or, they are looking to automate their mundane tasks to save time and effort.
Buyers are likely to respond to salespeople who listen and offer value to them.
3. Be Clear and Concise
When you keep your sales pitch concise, you have more time to listen to your prospects and engage with them. Besides, the challenge of making your pitch clear and concise forces you to refine your speech and cut the fat out of it.
Speak with intention and always get to the point. Effective sales pitches communicate how you can solve their problems without bragging much about what your company does.
4. Tell a Story
Delivering a pitch is one thing, but doing it in the best way possible is another. Storytelling forms the foundation of your sales pitch. In most pitches, the salesperson and their attitude are what the customer remembers.
When you tell a story, the human mind automatically tries to visualize it and form a connection. It gives way to a certain level of understanding and empathy. A good salesperson uses emotions as part of their arsenal. They find things in common, use references, and make the customer feel seen and valued. This is where research proves invaluable. It helps you connect with your prospects on a deeper, more personal level.
5. Don't Hold Back
Always show the benefit of your product in a broader fashion. If you have services that complement each other or work as a suite, show them.
If you have a complicated or technical product, giving a live demonstration can help build trust amongst your ideal customers. It will help them understand your offerings and why they need them.
And while giving a product demo, keep your numbers and facts handy. You should prepare yourself with all possible FAQs so that you can easily answer them when a customer raises a doubt.
6. Always Be Prepared For Your Next Steps
Every sales pitch should have a clear call to action at the end. Even if the customer isn't ready to buy yet, keep the possibility of moving forward. Stay in touch, and request a follow-up meeting or a free trial.
7. Share Social Proof
In a successful pitch, the reps tell customer stories to ensure the sale goes through. Name-dropping is effective, so use it to your advantage. Be their go-to knowledge fountain. Connect with them on levels through factual statements and honest motives. Help them get to their goals in your own style.
The Sales Pitch Framework
A good sales pitch offers practicality and benefits. Let's crack a great sales pitch wide open to see the essential elements of a good pitch.
Start Simple
Getting a good introduction in your sales pitch is very important. A good introduction gets their attention, but an honest dialog will make them call you back.
Start with their problem. Work your pitch as a solution to the said problem. They will want to know more about you and what you are talking about. Successful sales pitches are never a one-way conversation.
Ask open-ended questions; otherwise, you might lose your prospect before they are even hooked. "Are you looking for a way to ____?" is a common but ineffective question because they are likely to say "no." Give them something to think about.
Customize It
The goal of a sales pitch is to get your prospect's attention. But who is a prospect? And how do we tailor a sales pitch that resonates to them? Do your research and personalize.
A prospect (or audience) is a person who is an interested customer who has not yet made the purchase. A sales pitch has to be customized to the prospect's needs and must clearly explain how your offering can help improve outcomes for them.
Use the Edge
Most of the time, a sales pitch is the first time a prospect hears about your company and what it stands for. Despite your best efforts, prospects may still be skeptical. Nudge them (in your best sales language) to do their SWOT analysis. Give them the edge.
Here are ways to make your sales pitch more interesting, successful, and GREAT!
Find a clever way to begin your proposal. Anecdotes or a personal connection works best. This could be a joke, a news story, or a fun fact. Lean into yourself, get into the details, and give them honesty. People trust those who are genuine.
Different Formats of Sales Pitch
Pitches come in various formats. Here are the top ones that are used across the board:
Cold Calling
Let me break a myth for you: cold calling isn’t dead. There was a time when cold calling was the only prospecting strategy used by salespeople.
However, today 48% of salespeople are too scared to make cold calls and dismiss it in the fear of getting rejected. The chances are the prospect has never heard about your product or service before, so you never know how the prospect may react to your call.
Cold calling is when you make an unsolicited call to someone to sell your product or service. It can be via calls or in person. During cold calling, you must be mindful of sequence and persistence.
Targeting the right audience and showing confidence while talking to them is crucial. You would be surprised to see how people can be easily influenced by others’ confidence in them.
Here's a great sales pitch example you could use if you were cold-calling a prospect:
"Hello! This is Mark from XYZ Co. I researched and found out that your organization is struggling with high call drop rates. We offer a call center solution that has helped our previous clients increase their customer satisfaction rate by 20%. Is this something you'd like to discuss?"
Once you gauge their interest, you can take them across your cold-calling framework.
Be confident, polite, and empathetic. Show a genuine interest in understanding their problems, and provide appropriate solutions to ensure maximum success.
Emails
Sending sales emails is a great way to introduce your product or service to your ideal prospect. But you must keep your emails short and concise, covering your customers’ pain points you are trying to address.
Studies have shown that sold sales emails with approximately 300 words have shown a substantially higher response rate than emails of 100 words or fewer.
Communicating via email can help establish credibility and nurture your prospective clients to make them interested in your product or service.
The Elevator Pitch
Harvard Business Review says Hollywood screenwriters take 3-5 minutes to deliver their pitch. But producers know if they are interested in the first 45 seconds of the pitch.
In today's world, time is of the essence. Sales pitches should be concise, delivering specific value attributes and advantages. It shouldn’t be more than what it takes for an elevator ride, i.e., not more than 20 seconds. This is why we call it an 'elevator pitch.' The best sales guys know exactly what to say, to whom, and how fast.
Here’s a good example of a G2 Crowd Elevator Sales Pitch –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWsBPJZYrBw
Practice is key here to get the pitch down to 30 seconds. Personalize it, and have your own narrative and style of delivery.
Types Of Sales Pitches
The One-Word Sales Pitch
This is arguably one of the hardest pitches. Try and summarize your entire pitch into one word, which becomes the organization's core identity.
This one word encompasses your brand. It carries the weight of your entire organization. One word for all your values, products, and all-important mission statements.
A very relatable example is Google's 'Search.' It's a clear, central idea that carries an important message. Now, if you think of the word 'search,' you're bound to think of Google.
The Question Sales Pitch
This is where you ask open-ended questions to your prospect in an attempt to understand their problems. This ensures that customers do not get the opportunity to say ‘no,’ and at the same time, you can better engage with them.
When you engage with your prospects, they feel heard and get more interested in knowing how your product or service can benefit them.
Besides, when you get on a deeper level, they might even talk about the hurdles that are keeping them from buying your product. Let’s say you are trying to sell a sales playbook. How do you open your sales pitch? Here’s one way to do it –
“Are your salespeople struggling to reach their quota? We have a tried-and-tested sales playbook that can guide reps through all parts of the buyer's journey and actions.”
As the conversation progresses, you can uncover more about your ideal customer’s pain points and better understand their needs.
“Is the product too expensive for you? Why did you choose the competitor’s product over ours?”
The Subject Line Sales Pitch
If you are sending cold sales emails, you must immediately grab your recipients’ attention with your subject line. If the subject line doesn’t pique their interest, they might not even open your email.
The sales email subject line should appeal to the client’s emotions and not just logic. In essence, make the first line of your sales pitch so intriguing that it grabs your customer's attention.
Some good examples of sales email subject lines are:
Yatra
Here’s how Yatra, an Indian online travel agency did it. Their subject line hits right to the core. A person looking for a vacation would love someone to arrange things for them so they can just relax during their holidays.
CoSchedule
CoSchedule provides tools for marketers to help them keep their work and resources organized. In this example, they rightfully capture their prospects’ attention by creating a sense of urgency. The recipient would be enticed to open and see what they have to offer.
The Twitter Sales Pitch
You don’t have to pitch your product or service on Twitter. Rather it means how you can word your sales pitch if you only have 280 characters to work with. This will help you remove the redundancy and get straight to the point. Think in terms of what product features or benefits you would like to emphasize while communicating with your leads.
The Pixar Sales Pitch
Salespeople need to be good at storytelling, and what better framework for that than PIXAR? According to Pixar, every story can be split into six sections -
Once upon a time, ... (enter audience persona)
Every day, … (enter their problem statement)
One day, … (enter an ideal or likely solution)
Because of that, ... (enter advantage 1)
Because of that, ... (enter advantage 2)
Until finally, ... (enter problem resolution leading to a reinvigorated organization)
Is a Follow-up Sales Pitch Always Necessary?
If you fail to follow up, you can lose up to 80% of your potential sales. Whether you are pitching your product via phone calls, in-person, or emails, you need to follow up – only the duration of the follow-up would differ.
For instance, you should wait between two and four days to send a follow-up cold email. Sending one in 24 hours would just come off as needy. However, if a prospect has shown interest in your product while conversing over the phone, you should follow up within 24 hours via email.
Here’s a classic example of a follow-up email -
And they followed up with another one.
You shouldn’t follow up only when the prospect isn’t a qualified lead.
Next Steps and Goal Optimization
Once you convert a customer, the next step is to ask them for a referral. However, it’s important to ensure the customer is happy and satisfied with the services. Sometimes, customers might be uncomfortable answering such questions and might not react in a good way. In such cases, the sales rep should not pressurize them and still thank them for their time and for choosing your product or service.
Conclusion
Sales pitches are one and plenty. They are, however, only a framework and a pathfinder. The sales tools at your disposal and your life experiences are the biggest assets to work your sales magic. A concise and short pitch with thoughtful details can make a significant impact on the customer as well as your goals.
