Sales Pitches – How To Do It Right

Sales pitches are a crucial part of the sales process, and one that you need to get right!

Making a mistake while delivering sales pitches can mean the difference between closing the sale – and breaking rapport and starting all over again.

In this article, we’ll explore why so many Sales Professionals and Business Owners make mistakes when delivering their sales pitches, and what steps you need to include prior to delivering yours.

This way, you’ll have a more systematised framework to use, and close sales a lot more consistently.

Sales Pitches – How To Do It Right

The Old Method To Doing Sales Pitches

Many Sales Professionals and Business Owners follow an old school, ‘always be closing’ mentality when delivering sales pitches.

It generally looks like this:

• Meet with clients
• Build some rapport
• Deliver their sales pitch
• Handle objections
• Ask for the sale

This approach is outdated and won’t help your sales efforts.

The reason being, is that it’s missing several ingredients needed to close the sale with ease.

Read on below to learn what they are.

Premature Presentation

As per our article in Entrepreneur, many Sales Professionals and Business Owners present way too early.

They tend to give their sales pitches with the hope that something may stick, and that the potential client will potentially buy.

This is a lazy approach to selling, because you’re giving your sales pitches  to your potential clients without finding out whether or not they’ll actually benefit from your product or service.

Presenting prematurely hurts your sales because it positions you as a salesperson looking for just another order; versus someone who truly wants to solve their needs.

Your potential client base; particularly those who are buying high ticket, want to buy from a person they like, trust, and that prescribes an educated solution.

The older model to sales pitches and pitching goes into presentation mode without finding out the key reasons as to why you’re even meeting them in the first place.

Can you help them solve their issues? And why would you deliver sales pitches if you don’t know the answer to crucial questions first?

Are You Delivering Your Sales Pitches To The Right People?

The second issue with seeing every person as your potential client, is that you don’t know if you’ll be delivering your sales pitches to the right people – meaning; are they qualified to make a buying decision?

As the famous saying goes – “If you try to serve everyone, you’ll end up serving no one.”

Qualifying sales leads, and potential clients is an important part of the sales process, because it’ll ensure you’re having sales conversations with people who can actually buy, and you can actually help.

Many Sales Professionals and Business Owners make the mistake of spending their time, effort and energy delivering their sales pitches and having conversations with people they shouldn’t be.

When qualifying your potential clients, we recommend learning the following four points as early as possible:

• What is their budget?
• Are they a decision maker?
• Can you actually get them their desired outcome?
• What time frame do they need it delivered?

To learn more about qualifying sales leads, read the linked article below for more detail.

Further reading: Qualifying Sales Leads – A Step By Step Guide

What Needs To Happen Prior To Delivering Sales Pitches?

The secret to ensuring all your sales pitches are effective, is more importantly in your preparation work prior to going into prescribing a solution.

There are a number of sales process steps you need to correctly cover prior to going into ‘solution mode’.

These are outlined below.

Rapport

When you initially start your sales conversation (way before you think of delivering sales pitches), you need to develop rapport with your potential clients.

Many people think of rapport as friendly banter – how was your weekend, and how long have you been in your role?

It’s much more than that.

Rapport done correctly focuses on all elements of your communication. This includes:

• Your body language
• Tonality
• The words you use

Furthermore, how you dress will make an impact, and assist (or break) the opportunity to build rapport.

Related article: A Guide To Building Sales Relationships/ Building Rapport

Positioning

As previously mentioned – prior to delivering sales pitches or engaging in an in depth sales conversation, you want to be meeting with decision makers.

Not only will this help streamline the buying cycle, but it’ll also prevent the “I need to speak with” sales objection from coming up later.

In the linked article below, we outline the three questions you need to ask to get your sales positioning right.

Further reading: Positioning In Sales – How To Sell Effectively

Finding Pain

People buy for two emotional reasons – to avoid pain and move towards a desired state.

Without knowing what their pain points are and why they’re engaging with you in the first place, how will you know how to personalise your sales pitches in a way that solves their pain points and problems?

Pain points; in a sales context, are the things that cause discomfort to your potential clients in their business, day to day activities, and their everyday lives.

Everyone has different pain points, and they come in different levels of pain.

Pain points are generally based on different levels of pain; and the measurement for the level of pain will be based on your potential client’s perceptions, and what they categorise their pain points as.

When finding pain, ask questions that slowly go beneath the surface as to why they’re really wanting to buy.

The three types of pain points to discover are:

• Technical issues
• The impact on their business
• What’s the personal impact of the above

By going over their pain points and getting onto the same page in regard to what they’re trying to solve, you’ll be able to better deliver sales pitches by showing how each feature and benefit solves each mentioned problem.

Bridge The Gap

Finally, when delivering your sales pitches correctly – don’t make it about you, your business or your product or service.

Instead, demonstrate how each benefit of your product solves their mentioned pain points, and what it will mean when it’s solved.

People don’t buy features and benefits – they buy what it will mean when they own a solution.

Talk about their desired state, and how each of their pain points will be solved by investing in your product or service.

Doing so will help you deliver the perfect sales pitch.

Other tips include:

• Be visual
• Don’t just talk – ask questions
• Keep it short
• Get feedback
• Use proof and case studies

Further reading: 10 x Effective Sales Presentation Tips You Need To Use

Delivering Sales Pitches – Final Thoughts

Your sales pitches shouldn’t be premature, or be about you, your product or your service.

Effective sales pitches are about their pain points, their desires, and how your product or service will bridge the gap from where they are, to where they need to be.

When delivering your message, deliver it in a way as if you were prescribing a remedy.

This way, they’ll know what it will mean when they own a solution – because people buy outcomes and meaning, not products or services.

Want To Close Sales Easier?

Are you committed to closing sales a lot easier, and consistently?

If so, you should check out our self-paced and affordable online sales training program; The 5% Sales Blueprint.

It’ll give you everything you need to close sales consistently.

To learn more, simply click on the link below for more information.

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