The sales pitch is defined as the attempts to negotiate and persuade someone to close the deal, finally leading to the sale of the product or service. In business terms, a sales pitch is usually the sales presentation designed to convince someone about a product or a service with the ultimate expected outcome being the sale of that product or service.
The sales pitch plays a significant role in deciding if the deal is going to close or not.
What is a Sales Pitch?
A sales pitch is vital to introduce a product or a service to the customers or audience who know nothing about it, or it is also a detailed description and a presentation for the audience who have already expressed their interest in that product or service. The sales pitch can be formal or informal depending on the product, the type of industry, the kind of audience, and the company selling the product or service.
These are also known as elevator pitches nowadays because the time of giving one-hour-long presentations and sales pitches are long gone. These days the prospect is in a hurry, and the sales presentation or the sales pitch has to be a maximum of one or two minutes in which all the ideas, benefits, including the price of the product, are summarised to convince the customer.
It should have a clear message and should explain to the customer why they should buy this particular product or service over competitions. The sales pitch should address the problem that the customers are facing and should provide a solution with the help of the product they should also be able to tell the customers what success will look like after the use of the product or the service.
Customers these days have access to information at their fingertips, and they can always go and compare your product or service with the available competitor products and get to know the difference immediately. The primary thing that sales pitch should address is how good is the product over the competition and how is it going to be useful for the targeted audience.
How to make Sales Pitch?
1. Account Prioritization
Understanding the accounts that you are dealing with is one of the first and foremost things that you should look for, while sales are pitching. The accounts and deals that you’re dealing with should be prioritized according to their importance.
It is seen that the top sales performing teams spend more time on analysis of the available data rather than working on every account. Rather than using the sales pitch for every account, it should be done only on selected accounts and for the deals about which you are positive.
Every account should be worked upon by the salesperson, but particular importance should be given to sales where there is a high volume of business or a possibility of regular business. This is why account prioritization is essential in Sales Pitch.
Using the Pareto principle of 80-20, that is 80% of your business comes from 20% customers and vice versa, the salesperson, should attempt to focus on those 20% customers and design a sales pitch suitable for them. Prioritize those 20% accounts or customers and spend more time with them.
2. Research
The sales pitch is much more than a simple sales presentation to the customer about a product. It is not the only negotiation on price deals but it is convincing the customer about the product and being a problem solver for him. Before pitching the customer, you have to understand the customer himself.
Prior research on the customer, his needs and wants, and his preferred brand of the product will help to perform the sales pitch more effectively. You can increase your chances of convincing and converting the customer if in-depth prior research is done. More than being just a salesperson, the customer looks for a solution provider that adds value to their business.
The sales pitch should focus on the customer as well as on the product. It should resonate with the customer so that he relates to the product at a more personal level. Knowing about the possible hurdles and the doubts which may come from the customer and preparing in advance is part of research before performing the sales pitch. Only with the help of research can the salesperson make a long-lasting impression and an effective sales pitch.
The product and the company will have a specific and standard message with the product. Still, it is necessary that during the sales pitch, and the message should be customized and tailored so that it reaches an audience in a specific way, which will appeal to him.
The product may not work as expected by using only the brand value of the company. The audience or the buyer should be able to feel the product as their own.
3. Account for all decision-makers
Not every time it happens that the person who is involved in the sales pitch is the decision-maker. You must get in touch with all the decision-makers if multiple people are going to approve the purchase. Sometimes the person you are presenting or pitching the idea is not the only decision-maker but there are other people involved in it who may not be present.
Getting access to them is one of the hardest things that the sales team faces, and On top of that, making relations with that decision-maker takes a long time. The higher the value or the importance of the product the more are the people involved in the decision-making process.
It is, therefore, essential to consider all the decision-makers involved in the process and convince them about your product or service via the sales pitch. Sometimes it is expected that a customized sales pitch is made for all the people.
4. Show them the future
Storytelling is not the only essential skill that is utilized in a sales pitch, but with the help of that skill, the skill must differentiate between vision and the current scenario in business. Using these skills of storytelling and including facts in them can drastically improve the chances of success for the sales pitch.
Making your audience think about the future is one way for a successful sales pitch. It should make the audience think about the differentiation point of your product and the competition not only in terms of price but also in terms of the advantages that it has to offer. It is not the audience who is going to tune themselves with you, but rather, your sales pitch should optimize with them.
The message should be clear and should show the possible future after the purchase of your product or service. It should solve their current problem and should appeal to them. Once the customers understand what they are getting and realize the value of the solution you are providing, then it’s a piece of cake from thereon.
This is why addressing the main problem of the customer is essential instead of explaining to him every single benefit of the product, which may not appeal to him. Design the sales pitch in such a way that it provides benefits to the customers rather than features.
Features are never the selling point of a product. When those features translate into benefits, that is when the user relates to the product and makes the decision of buying it. That is why tell features but explain interests to the customer.
5. Perception sharing
The salesperson should do his research and listen to what the customer has to say. After doing that, he is expected to provide a solution to the problem which the customer has. You should ensure that at every step, the salesperson is adding value. Sharing insights with the customers can always help to address the frequently asked questions and also warn the customer about a possible hurdle and the process to avoid it.
For example, Sharing insights from the experience that you have seen another customer will help the present customer to make the decision faster and also to understand the possible hurdles that he may face. This will also increase the trust of the customer on the salesperson and will make sales pitching easier.
A good sales pitch is the one in which the problems of the customers are accepted, acknowledged, and a solution is provided. You should ensure that even if your company is offering only one product, the pitch should appeal to the unique challenges that the customer is facing when you are performing the sales pitch.
The message should be about a specific solution or a product feature that the customer will benefit the most from and which will solve his problem.
6. Overcoming the hurdles
This step is to be visualized during the research before the sales pitch. You should ensure that the message source the customer problem and also addresses the probable objections that may arise during the sales pitch from the customer. Most commonly, the sales objections are categorized into four types, which are budget, authority, need and time. The sales pitch should be done in such a way that it addresses all four of the hurdles and also offer solutions to them. There may be a possibility that the customer already has a product that is similar to your product.
In such cases, it is essential to differentiate and make your product stand out from the existing one. If the customer does not have a budget for this product, then a possible solution should be provided by the salesperson in his sales pitch. Apart from the ones that you have already prepared, there may be more objections and your sales pitch must address all of them.
If such a complaint does arise which is not covered in the sales pitch, the salesperson should make every attempt to provide a solution to it. Handling objections is the second most important thing necessary to close the sales deal after the sales pitch.
7. Hearing and Listening – know the difference
You must listen with an intent to understand rather than hurrying and replying. Do not think of the sales pitch like a question and answer session rather more like a healthy conversation or discussion. If you understand, correctly you will be able to help the customer with not only his existing problems but also the possible problems which may arise in the future of which he was not aware.
This will be only possible if the salesperson is listening and understanding the problem and not only hearing and replying without understanding. The development of soft skills is essential to convert prospects to customers. Listen to what the customer is trying to say and ask him again if you understand it correctly. Listen to their speed and tone and the volume of the customer so that you can make an initial judgment about his feelings.
Prompt them with open-ended questions when you want a discussion. Sometimes the standard sales pitch script needs to be modified according to the customer. Keep checking and rechecking that you understand with the customer. Have follow-up questions that are thoughtful to the customer and respond by asking the right questions. Adjust your sales message according to the need of the customer so that it sounds promising an attractive to him.
Rather than making it a formal business presentation, you can make it a casual discussion without pressurizing the customer to buy buy and buy. It may happen that you had come to pitch a product of a higher value but after understanding the needs of the customer, you come to the conclusion that a lower value product is more suited for the needs of the customer.
In such cases, even the customer appreciates that the salesperson has been more of a solution provider rather than only a business person.
8. What next?
Instead of waiting for the customer to tell you what is to be done next, you should provide him with a call to action, which takes the deal ahead. Even if the customer is not ready to purchase, make sure that you keep him on the prospect list and move forward with him or follow up with him after a small pre-defined period.
The customer is not going to make the call to action but the salesperson should help him make the call to action proactively. Rather than customer directing What next, the salesperson should define and move the customer ahead. Of course, this should be done with all due respect to the customer.
Example of Sales Pitch
Following is an example of a Sales Pitch of an insurance company.
“Have you noticed the increasing frequency of car accidents? As per the recent reports by the traffic department, there are more than 25000 deaths by accident every year, and more than half of them are simply victims who are neither overspeeding or breaking any traffic law. They are simply at the wrong time and place.
Opt for ABC accidental insurance.
We are not only simple, unique, and affordable, but also we are the safest.
ABC accidental Insurance. Stay Safe.”
Analysis of the example
The above-given example uses many essential rules of the sales pitch.
- This pitch starts with a question, which is known as an elevator pitch. It is a closed-ended question that often ends with a yes or no without evoking a lot of thought from the customer but helping him to deep dive in the conversation efficiently. It is attention-grabbing.
- The pitch uses numbers and facts, which increase the credibility of the pitch. Using facts and figures is essential to give a formal touch to the sales pitch and also to make the customer aware of specific events of which he may not be aware.
- The sales pitch doesn’t go on for a long time, but it is kept short with a small story. This story is kept accurate to the facts and is engaging for the customer.
- The sales pitch adds an emotional touch at the end. It addresses the primary question of the target audience that why should they go for accidental insurance if they never violate any traffic rules.
- It highlights benefits to the customer in straightforward language by the use of minimal words, which explain that the insurance process is simple, the insurance features are unique, and in terms of price is affordable. But after that, the pitch also adds value to the customer, saying it is safe.
- The pitch ends with a tagline, which shows that it cares for the customers.
- Be aware of the language and grammar that you are using in the sales pitch. It should be respectful but direct addressing to customer.
Using one or many of these can help you prepare an excellent sales pitch, which will help you to close a sales deal. Try to make the sales pitch short and stop it from turning it into a sales speech. You should also be ready with the follow-up questions that may arise from the customer after this name to this Sales pitch.
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