Let’s start at the very beginning.
What makes a good sales pitch?
Contrary to endless data-heavy slides that no one will remember an hour later – an effective ‘elevator’ pitch is as simple as ‘two minutes’ of compelling conversation that sparks curiosity. You do not need to tell your prospect about everything you can do for them all in the first conversation. The perfect sales pitch should leave the prospect wanting more.
It is important to remember that the attention span of people in this tech-driven world is ever-shrinking. So Rule No. 1, keep it short.
1. Target the decision-maker
Next, you don’t want to focus your two minutes on someone who can’t move things forward. So make sure to identify the right decision-maker for your targeted account. The right account intelligence platform can help you out here, by automatically providing a comprehensive analysis of decision-makers and positions of influence within the target company. These platforms can even give you access to data like their job role and responsibilities, professional history, educational background, interests and hobbies, social media profiles, and even contact details.
2. Anchor your pitch in data
Your prospect has likely been pitched to multiple times before. After a while, claims of bettering your business and sales begin to sound spam-like or downright dubious. If the prospect has made purchases in the past that did not pay off, it is going to be even more difficult to persuade. To drive home the benefits of your product or service, use quantitative evidence as an anchor for your pitch. Use a strategically-placed anecdote, statistic, or testimonial. If the voice of this evidence is a customer instead of a sales rep, the social proof will persuade your prospect to trust the product a little more.
3. Make it about them, not you
Selling is as much a psychological process as it is an operational one. Once you have found the right person to pitch your product or service to, create the space for a two-way dialogue. This enables a steady flow of network building, understanding pain points, and putting the spotlight on your client instead of on your product.
Try this. The next time you have a phone call with a prospect, instead of starting with an opening line that’s all about you – pose a question about them.
A few examples could be:
- What is a priority for you right now?
- If timeline and budget were not constraints, what would your ideal next step look like?
- What do you like best about your current system? What would you like to see change?
- What benefits would give you adequate value to shift suppliers?
Rehearse good openers but listen carefully to converse. By paying attention to subtle buying signals, you can identify how proactively interested your prospect really is. Don’t forget to also add conversational snippets of data that he or she is leaning toward or finds value in.
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