As a salesperson, I know that the pitch is still one of the most important aspects of closing a deal. A good sales pitch can make all the difference between getting someone to sign on the dotted line or not. But what makes a good sales pitch? Here are my top tips:
What is a sales pitch?
A sales pitch is a short, but persuasive speech delivered by a salesman in order to persuade someone to buy their product. Ideally, a pitch should be delivered in under 2 minutes. A salesperson’s goal is to convince their listener that the product they’re selling is worth investing in.
A sales pitch is also referred to as an “elevator speech” because it should be delivered in the time constraints of a single elevator ride.
Most sales reps do not have the time or the attention span to give hour-long pitches. If they need more than an hour to clearly explain their product or service, they are probably doing it wrong.
Your elevator speech, or 30-second sales pitch, is a brief, concise description of what you have to offer. It should be delivered within the time it takes to ride the elevator from the first floor to your office.
A salesperson’s ability to deliver their message in a compelling and concise manner is essential to success. If you can perfect your sales pitch, you’ll likely have more opportunities to continue the conversation.
5 Components of a Good Sales Pitch
There are a variety of ways for salespeople to pitch their products.
However, when broken down, most good prospecting scripts have five essential elements:
1. The Open
The opening lines are the introduction. This is where you say hello, introduce yourself, and ask the person how they’re doing.
It’s great to meet you! We recommend using these conversation starters to break the ice before moving onto the next part.
Thank you for using our services.
2. Identification a need or pain point
Asking questions about a prospect’s work can help you understand their challenges and goals. By actively listening and empathizing, you can begin to see how your product could address the prospect’s issues in order to help them reach their goals.
Active listening and other empathy exercises will help you understand how your product can address the prospect’s issues to reach their goals. By fully understanding the prospect’s challenges, you can tailor your pitch to show how your product is the best solution.
3. Demonstration of value
When you’re trying to establish rapport with a potential customer, it’s important to be understanding and attentive to their needs. Only then can you begin to show them how your product can be the solution to their problems.
Mention how your product/service can help solve their issue.
4. Supporting facts
If you want your prospect to trust you, you should be prepared to back your claims up with facts and statistics.
To gain the trust of your prospect, be prepared to back up your claims with facts. Share positive reviews from past customers or highlight results that were better than expected. This will show your prospects that your product is worth the investment.
For instance:
On average, our customers save 37% a year on their annual maintenance bills. Similarly, sized businesses have seen a full return on their investment in only three months.
5. The Close
Now that you have seen how our product can benefit you and make your life easier, we would like to move forward with the transaction. This is the point where you say yes, and we finalize everything.
How to Make a Perfect Sales Pitch
1. Keep it short
A sales speech isn’t a typical business pitch. You won’t have slides.
When you’re making a sales pitch presentation, you don’t have time for a long, drawn-out speech with a complimentary pastry. Your listeners will be anxious until you’re sold on your offer. Keep your pitch short and sweet to get the most out of your sale.
2. It Should be clear.
You don’t have time to waste on small talk or talking about anything other than what you’re trying to convey.
Your pitch needs to be concise and clear. It has to make an impact on your listener right away.
That means speaking clearly and with purpose.
When you’re selling something, make sure you explain how it solves your prospect’s problems. Let them know how their life will be improved if they purchase your product. By doing that, you’ll increase the chance of making a sale.
3. Define your buyer personas
Paint a picture of who your ideal customer is. Give them an idea of who you’re selling to.
They want to know as much as possible about the type of person who will be interested in your product. Be as specific as you can when describing the type of person that buys from you, and why they would be interested in it.
4. Explain their problem.
Your target audience is only as valuable as the problems you can solve for them.
If you’re selling spreadsheet software that solves a problem that many accounting professionals have, you can discuss how difficult it can be to crunch numbers without certain features your tool has.
5. Describe how your product will address the needs you’ve identified
Now it’s time to talk about who you’re actually trying to sell to.
Now, you have to explain to them why they should purchase your product.
What can you do better than your competition?
Explain how your product/service will solve their issue. For instance, if you’re offering accounting services, explain how your bookkeeping service will make their paperwork less time-consuming.
6. Explain what success looks like with your product
When talking about your benefits, make sure to emphasize how it will help your customer on a larger level. For example, you can discuss how your accounting software allows your accountant to spend more time with their clients or their family. By focusing on how your products benefit your customers, you can make a sales pitch presentation that is both unique and beneficial.
Show how your product benefits your consumer.
Your company’s elevator speech should be a short, succinct summary of what your business does, who it does it for, and how it does it. This isn’t just something for salespeople.
Every employee in your company, from the receptionist to the CEO and every salesperson, should memorize your 30-second sales pitch.
Examples of Great Sales Pitches
Need some inspiration for sales pitches? Take a look at these effective, customer-focused, and concise examples of a sales pitch.
1. Merck
Merck is a global leader in the healthcare industry because of our long history of innovation. We have been inventing new medicines and vaccines for over 130 years, always striving to improve the lives of people around the world.
Our mission is to save and improve lives, and we are constantly working to find new ways to achieve this. We are proud to be a trusted partner in the healthcare industry, and we will continue to work hard to earn that trust every day.
If you were a healthcare provider, such as a doctor or hospital, or a pharmaceutical business, such as a drug manufacturer, you would likely be persuaded by this kind of sales pitch.
By highlighting its long, storied history, and connecting its work with its overall mission, the pharmaceutical company, Merck, convinces customers that it is a trustworthy and reliable business partner.
In doing this, it’s able to resonate with its target audience.
2. Gap Inc
“The company, which sells clothing, accessories, and personal care products, operates more than 3,100 stores in 90 countries.
We always look for ways to serve our subscribers and customers well, while generating value for our company.
While best known for its line of clothing and accessories, the GAP brand also owns a number of other brands, including Old Navy and the Banana Republic.
When trying to pitch to potential shareholders, the company emphasizes its strong position in the market and reassures them of its stability as a long-term play.
3. G2Crowd
At G2Crowd, we publish our reviews in real-time, so our users can get the most up-to-date information possible. We also give our reviewers the freedom to write their reviews however they want, so you won’t find the same tired, boring, and generic advice that you’ll find elsewhere.
At g2, we understand the importance of staying on top of the latest tech trends. That’s why we provide business pros with the information they need to make smart decisions about their IT. With our guidance, they can keep their businesses running efficiently.
By noting what frustrates or angers customers, you can demonstrate how your service can remedy this frustration. This reframing of a customer’s problem demonstrates that you can provide the solution.
This is an excellent way to rephrase the customer’s issue.
When they talk about how you’re being directed by industry pundits or people who have never used the product, they point out the glaring gap between what you actually need and what you’re given.
Amazon’s review system allows users to write reviews of the products they’ve purchased. These reviews become essential resources for other users.
4. Van Jones
As a highly sought-after public speaker, businesses and other organizations should seriously consider hiring him. He’s known for his ability to connect and communicate with people of all backgrounds.
In this speech to companies and organizations looking for speakers, I emphasize my expertise — then highlight that the reach of my message applies to everyone listening.
In a similar manner, you can leverage the reputation of your brand to stand out from the competition, then address any objections that your prospects might have about doing business with you.
Here, he emphasizes that his talks will resonate no matter your political leanings, and that regardless of your political affiliation, his talk will be relevant to you.
5. Edward Jones
Investing is not just about making money. It’s also about what you can buy with it.
Design a brighter future for yourself and your loved ones. Or design a more peaceful and harmonious future for all of us.
Our sole mission is to help you accomplish your goals.
When creating your sales pitch, focus solely on the needs of your potential customer. Don’t mention anything about yourself or your company.
This is an example of a company sending an email that tells the consumer exactly what it does while telling a story.
6. Thrivent Financial
“We help you manage your money, plan for retirement, and invest wisely. We don’t just focus on your money, but on your life as a whole.”.
(But it can get you there.) Our financial planning services can help get you to where you want to be. We take time to get to know you and what’s important to you, and we provide the resources you need to take action.
The financial services company, Thrivent, focuses on helping clients achieve their financial goals by working with them to create a bright financial future.
You can improve your pitch by focusing on what your prospect can achieve by doing business with you.
7. HubSpot
With an all-in-one sales and marketing, customer service and CRM system, you can focus your time and energy on building your business, rather than trying to juggle several tools.
Because ‘the customer comes first’ should mean that ‘the business comes second.’.
Next up is our very own sales deck. It quickly explains what we offer and the benefits it can bring to both your prospects and customers.
Don’t waste your time or your customer’s. Get to the point quickly. Your customers are busy and don’t have more than 2 minutes of free time.
A sales-pitch should be short and sweet, as you don’t want to waste your prospect’s time. You also want to qualify your prospects, so that you can focus on those who are most likely to buy.
8. Vidyard
With video, you can personalize your pitch to potential customers. With features like recording and sending, you can make sure they know you’re thinking about them even if you’re not in the same office.
Video emails are an awesome way to communicate, and with vidYard, you can quickly and easily create them. Perfect for salespeople who don’t have a lot of time, or for marketing professionals who want to make an impact.
Vidyard has found that video is a great way to personalize a sales pitch.
Their sales pitch is persuasive because it targets the pain points of their ideal customer (sales reps who dislike email), and emphasizes their competitive advantage right away.
They don’t just provide this service, they “make it possible for companies to make remote sales” — and that makes a huge difference.
Competition can kill your deal, which is why you should always include it your sales pitch.
9. LISNR
With this in mind, they set out to create a better way for devices to communicate with each other using sound.”LISNR’s founders believed that ultrasonic audio was better and set out to create a device- and platform-independent solution that would use sound to communicate. Their product is an improvement over traditional methods because it is more efficient and effective.
They believed businesses shouldn’t have to pay extra for expensive equipment or software to make communication more seamless.
The creators of LISNR explain on their website how their company began, as well as what they hope to achieve.
This adds a deeper meaning to the product, making more than just a buy but more of a contribution to a cause.
10. Xactly
We make it easy for sales teams to automate and manage their commission process. For many companies, this means moving away from Excel or homegrown systems.
Xactly’s advantage is we’ve been cloud-based for 10 years. This enables us to anonymize data, which helps you make decisions by allowing you to leverage multiple data sets.
The “me monster” is when you talk too much about yourself.
The benefits of using Xactly are many. For one, it can help you get rid of your outdated, manual, and inefficient processes. Secondly, it can help you get more out of your workforce.
Why Are Sales Pitches Important?
Even though potential customers are coming in more informed, it’s still important to spend time educating them via the pitch. Your role is essential in this process.
As such, your pitch is the perfect opportunity to create an in-person value exchange with the customer. Your sales pitch is important because it will be one of the first interactions that a potential customer has with your company.
This makes it a great opportunity to expand on what they might already know about your company. In addition, this is also a chance to establish an in-person value exchange with the customer.
Your sales pitch is a perfect opportunity to create a face-to-face interaction with your customer.
And it’s an opportunity for prospects to get the answers they couldn’t find from an online search. An effective sales pitch is a two-way street that allows both parties to add value. It’s an opportunity for sellers to learn more about their customer’s pain points, requirements, and expectations, while also giving prospects the chance to get answers they may not be able to find through an online search.
And it’s a chance for your prospects to get answers to their questions that they couldn’t get from a simple online query.
Conclusion
Sales pitches are still important because they help close deals. A good sales pitch should be clear, concise, and persuasive. It should also address the needs of the customer and explain how your product or service can solve their problem. By following these tips, you can improve your sales pitch and increase your chances of closing more deals.
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