Creating a winning sales pitch is a challenge for many professionals. Whatever your product or service, you can be certain that your buyer has the advantage. The successful sales pitch is mindfully crafted in the knowledge that today’s buyer is:
– Information rich
– Time poor
– Very discerning
– Less tolerant
As if that isn’t enough, today’s buyer has:
– Highly skilled ‘gate keepers’
– Elusive decision makers
– Preferred supplier lists
– The economy excuse
Most people still don’t like to be sold to and experienced buyers have advanced in the skill of playing companies off.
The sales pitch isn’t easy today but a mindful approach can make all the difference.
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Set an intention
You have the most refreshingly innovative and exciting product or service on the planet. Nobody cares, unless they feel as excited as you do about it.
Building and delivering a sales pitch designed to simply sell is a flawed approach. Your audience won’t buy anything from you based purely on information and data. They need to connect with you emotionally too.
Setting a clear intention for how you want them to feel about you and your product or service is critical. Once you are clear on how you want them to feel, everything you say and show should revolve around that intention. Creating a mindful intention involves:
Empathy – Seeing things completely from your buyers point of view. Put yourself in their shoes and imagine what it feels like to be them.
Trust – Putting your buyers needs before yours or your organisations. Demonstrating your personal crediibility.
Curiosity – Giving your undivided attention and interest into how you can help the buyer.
Honesty – Remaining commited to the truth in every situation.
Belief – Having unfettered belief in your product or service and the difference it will make to your buyer.
Enthusiasm – Genuinely demonstratiing your passion for how you can help so that your buyer feels it.
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Show them the future
The purpose of a sales pitch is not to simply sell your product or service. The day of the routine sales pitch has long gone. Today’s buyer needs to be able to vividly envision the future of their investment.
The best sales pitch is focused on showing people what the future will look and feel like for them with your product or service. Use your time mindfully to take your audience to the future.
Don’t just tell them, show them what it looks like.
Paint a crystal clear image in your buyer’s mind. Show them a picture of exactly how your product or services will make their lives:
– Better
– Easier
– Happier
– More efficient
– Financially stronger
– Positiviely different
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Make every second count
Every second counts in a sales pitch. Prepare mindfully to capture and keep your audience’s attention, interest and curiosity.
If you’re lucky enough to be given 30 minutes for your sales pitch, aim to use no more than 25 minutes. Don’t start with the usual introduction and explanation of who you are. Instead, go straight to how you can help and the difference you can make.
Your audience already know who you are and why you are there. Once they understand the value you can bring to their business, they will want to know more about you.
– Forget about yourself. Make certain that the first thing you say if crafted to get your buyers full attention, interest and curiosity. For that to happen your first words have to be about them.
– Make them a compelling promise you can keep. Spell out the tanginble benefits and value you have to offer them including ‘the size of the prize’.
– Give them proof. Don’t just tell them, show them.
– Create a call to action. What do you want them to do exactly.
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Make it personal
You know everything about your product or service; the question is, how much do you really know about your audience. The best sales pitch doesn’t rely on generic assumptions and judgement. If you don’t know and understand your potential buyer you won’t be able to connect with them.
Call your audience long before your pitch; get to know them. Find out who will be in the room and what they care about. Ask them if there is anything in particular they would like you to focus on.
– Find out their names and study their LinkedIn profiles.
– Look closely at articles they have written, posts they have liked or commented on.
– See if you have any mutual connections and follow similar groups.
– Set Google Alerts for their company.
– Study their website.
– Review media reports.
Finding out all of this information on its own isn’t enough. Find something of relevance and value that you can refer to in your sales pitch.
Craft your sales pitch with a mindset of making everything you say and show personal to your audience in some way.
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Tell them a story
Storytelling transforms information and ideas into visual images and feelings. Don’t just give your audience the data, bring the data to life with a short, relevant and compelling story.
Find a rich story about how your product or story has helped others and help them to see themselves in the story. Powerful stories help us to connect emotionally and the good one’s spark action.
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Count on questions
A strong sales pitch is crafted through anticipating every conceivable question that your potential buyer could ask. That doesn’t mean you wait for the question to be asked. It means pre-empting the questions and building the answers into the sales pitch long before they are asked.
Step into the future by imagining that the sale pitch is over and its Q&A time.
– What will they ask you and how will you answer them?
– Find the five most challenging, awkward and stress inducing questions you could possibly be asked. It’s those five questions you really don’t want to be asked; the ones that would keep you awake at night.
Once you are fully prepared to answer those 5 questions with confidence and clarity you are ready to begin building your sales pitch.
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Be specific
There is nothing worse than being on the receiving end of a sales pitch which is:
– Fraught with jargon
– Vague and generic
– Irrelevant and unfocused
The effective sales pitch demonstrates quickly and unequivocally that:
– You know exactly who your audience are
– What problems, issues and challenges they face
– How your product or service can add significant value to them
– What success looks and feels like to your audience
– You understand what they care about
A sales pitch which is totally focused on these seven critical elements will result in success. Instead of investing your time and energy on closing the sale and overcoming objections as many sales professionals do, give your buyers the gift of the mindful sales pitch.
If you need help with your sales pitch:
– Book yourself onto a powerful public speaking course.
– Invest in some really good one to one public speaking coaching.
– Get yourself some excellent presentation training
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If this article has inspired you to learn a little more about how effective your presentation skills are you may want to take a look at our presentation training and public speaking coaching pages to see how we may be able to help you. You will also find a great deal of really helpful ‘free’ information in our Learning Centre.
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