There’s a reason they call it “the art of selling” – not everyone can do it, and it takes a lot of practice to create the perfect sales pitch. There’s just one straight formula to getting it right and closing a deal.
What you can do as a great first step, though, is create that winning sales script for your pitch. A pitch is a small speech that you create that communicates the value and benefits of your product, to convince your customer to buy.
We’re not talking about coming across as a snake oil salesman. *shudder*
We’re just talking about how you put your product in front of your customers (metaphorically speaking) and convince them to buy it.
1. Defining the Sales Pitch
{noun} a talk or a way of talking that is intended to persuade you to buy something.
Here’s the catch as of the last decade– No one wants to listen to your lengthy monotonous sales pitch, especially if you’re droning on and on about your product. Literally, no one, unless you’re talking to someone too polite to show disinterest.
Your sales pitch needs to be quick, simple to understand, and should effectively communicate the benefit of your product so that you can create a spark of interest in your prospect and have them continue talking to you.
Essentially, your pitch is like the precursor to an interesting conversation you want to strike up with mildly interested people. You’re rooting for them to keep talking to you.
Essentially, your pitch is like the precursor to an interesting conversation you want to strike up with mildly interested people. You’re rooting for them to keep talking to you.
2. What Does a Good Sales Pitch Sound Like?
It’s easy to give you a set of dos and don’ts (and we’ll get to that shortly) but let’s first help you create a picture in your mind of how the perfect sales pitch should go.
A good sales pitch script for a pitch is:
2.1. Short
Ever heard of the term “elevator pitch”?
This best practice is where it comes from. The idea is that your pitch shouldn’t last longer than the time it takes your prospect to get from the ground floor to his/her floor (assuming the hypothetical situation that you are both in his office building, and you’re selling your product to him on his way up).
This gives you about 30 seconds to get your point across and create enough intrigue that they want to keep talking to you.
Of course, you won’t be in an actual elevator – this technique helps you keep your pitch short and sweet so you can hold all of your prospect’s attention.
2.2. Targeted to Whom You’re Talking To
Your prospect should feel understood and should find you relatable when you speak – if they can’t relate to what you’re saying, they’re going to lose interest in just a few seconds. It’s important that you understand their problems, needs, goals, and even way of speaking (is there any jargon it would help to slip into your pitch?)
2.3. Clear and Uncomplicated
In the 30-odd seconds, you have to make your elevator pitch (yes, it could be longer, but it’s not going to be an hour), you need to make sure you clearly state your product’s value proposition, benefits, and key differentiators.
Structure your pitch in a way that it’s clear for your prospect to understand the context, follow your train of thought, and absorb the product information you’ll be sharing.
2.4. Conversational
We don’t mean that you literally hold a conversation – not during the pitch itself, not until afterward. But your sales pitch shouldn’t be something you learn by rote and then rattle off in under a minute.
You need the right inflections, rhetorical questions, and colloquialisms that will make it seem more conversational and less like something you’re just being paid to get through. The second your prospect senses that you’re just going through the motions of it, they’re going to lose interest too – and you’d be surprised how quickly and clearly, they can surmise it.
2.5. Enthusiastic
Enthusiasm is contagious!
The more bubbly or energetic you are about your product, the more passionate you’ll seem about the solution you’re offering your prospective customer. That energy is catching – more often than not, you’ll find them wanting to agree with you and match your energy.
And it will leave them with a positive, upbeat feeling about your product, setting the right tone to carry the pitch into a conversation.
3. Crafting a Winning Sales Script
Crafting a winning sales pitch is a sales technique that requires a lot of preparation. The trick is to know what you’re going to say down to the T but come across as if you’re saying it off the top of your head – a bit like acting, really.
If you don’t prepare enough and instead improvise on the spot, you’ll find yourself adding a lot of details and words that are simply not necessary and end up muddling the message.
So, here’s how to get started on creating that sales pitch-
3.1. Know Whom You Are Pitching To
Knowing your customer is an important aspect of selling in any industry. You need to understand your customer inside out – what his/her business needs are, what keeps them from achieving their goals, and what influences their decisions. This helps you place your products in the right context and create a pitch that’s relatable for them.
It’s also a good idea to get a sense of how many people in their company are affected by the need and how much it impacts their business, so you get a sense of the urgency they have to buy.
3.2. Note Down the Essential Details
Put on your thinking cap and sit down with some pen and paper. You need to start by identifying the details that you want to communicate in your pitch. This is going to be more difficult than you expect because you need to stick to only what’s absolutely necessary.
As Mark Twain once famously said, “I didn’t have time to write you a short letter so I wrote you a long one.”
Here’s a set of questions to help you get started – you need to make sure you answer each of them in one sentence only.
What are your prospect’s pain points (that your product solves)?
What are the solutions to those pain points?
How much is your product’s value proposition?
What are the features/aspects of the product that allow you to provide the solution?
Are there any examples of how the product has helped someone else in a similar industry or with a similar pain point? (Yes, you’re still sticking to one-sentence answers)
What question would you like to ask your prospect? Or what would you like the next step to be?
3.3. Start Creating a Conversation
Ever had an imaginary conversation? Now’s a good time to have your first one; believe it or not, this is a sales technique you need. Take your answers from your notepad and turn them into a story – you can write it down.
A good way to start is with a question about your prospect’s pain points, stemming from your answer to the question ‘What are your prospect’s pain points that your product solves?’
Then string together the answers to the remaining questions in a way that sounds natural and conversational. This is when you include rhetorical questions, keep a warm tone, and use colloquial words or industry-specific words. The more relatable and warmer your pitch, the more receptive your prospect will be to it.
Keep only about 20% scope for improvisation – you don’t want to learn the sales script so thoroughly that you get lost if you forget a word, but you also don’t want to leave everything up to the last second.
3.4. Practice, Practice, Practice
Start by standing in front of the mirror and pitching to yourself. Once you have the sales pitch script down pat and feel confident enough, come together with your colleagues and, only if required, friends or family to practice the script you’ve written in the earlier step.
Practicing with colleagues will likely be the most rewarding, as they can respond and ask questions in ways similar to the prospective client. This is where you’re likely to face the toughest conversational challenges.
If there are any gaps in your pitch or obvious holes in your story, your colleagues will be familiar enough with your product and point them out.
You might ask yourself – is this really necessary? I’m a sales professional, not a theatre professional. We’d recommend you try it out for a prospective client or two before you look down on the idea – it never hurts to be prepared and, in your case, the stakes are high!
3.5. Tweak and Adapt
Put your sales pitch to the test with a prospective client. Once you know what you have to say, you’ll be thinking less about what your next word should be and more about how the client is receiving your pitch, how he/she is reacting, and whether you need to be doing anything differently. Then, you can change tack on the spot.
We also recommend going beyond that, going back and going over the conversation and the pitch, and analyzing what went well and what didn’t. Then, you can make adaptations to your pitch that will help you better convert the next prospective client.
Creating a winning sales pitch is definitely not a one-shot effort – it’s a process, and the best sales professionals have honed their skills and approaches for years.
We live in a multi-platform world; gone are the days when your sales pitch was only reserved for your carefully scheduled sales call or meeting.
Plenty of prospective clients will interact with your brand on multiple platforms before you manage to get on a call with them. They’ll look you up on Google, check out your social media pages, and browse through your website before that 5 pm Zoom call you manage to schedule with them.
That means that you’re “pitching” to them way before you can even get down to your sales script. You will probably need sign-offs and execution from other departments here – your marketing team and company leadership, for starters – but it will help your one-on-one pitch be more successful.
Here’s how to make sure your brand is being pitched the right way no matter where your prospects discover it:
4.1. The One-Word Pitch
If you had to drill down the essence of your company and offer one word, what would it be? That is the one-word pitch. Apple’s one-word pitch, for example, could be ‘innovation’. This forms your brand essence and should come across every single platform and in every single sales script – either in Word or in visual (or both).
Your social pages are like one big pitch, but even just putting careful thought into the descriptions and profiles goes a long way – these are the social media version of the “first impression”.
Your social profile content should reflect the same value proposition you’re including in your sales script, along with a sprinkling of brand personality (cue the social media expert).
For more on social media and maintaining a digital presence, read the blog.
4.3. The Email Marketing Pitch
Whether you’re sending out a cold email (we don’t recommend it, but we acknowledge that it’s commonly done), or reaching out to a newly registered lead, the impression you make is going to be a lasting one.
Enter your sales pitch. The pitch starts right from the subject line and concludes in the Call-To-Action that you add in the body. To track the effectiveness, you can check the Open Rate and Clicks metrics.
4.4. The Call Pitch
This is what you will prepare for and use your sales script for! The call pitch requires that you prepare and plan for the conversation that will take place.
4.5. The In-Person Pitch
The in-person pitch requires your sales script, and you have to also consider the added layer of in-person interaction. You need to take into account body language and values such as punctuality and physical appearance. All of these contribute to the pitch you’re making.
You also need to make sure that you value your prospect’s time. Create an engaging presentation to share with them and ensure that they come away feeling positive and enthusiastic.
5. Sales Pitch Best Practices
There are a few things you need to keep in mind…
5.1. Sell a Solution, Not Your Product
This sales tip is the holy grail of sales techniques – we’d be surprised if you haven’t come across it before. Your prospect is looking to fix a problem, and you’re there to solve it with your product. Bonus points if you manage to make them go “Wow” when you present your solution.
5.2. Know Everything There Is to Know
You need to be an expert on the industry, problem, and solution. Your prospect should feel as if they are talking to an expert who knows exactly what they need – that’s when they will trust you to give them the right solution (and product).
5.3. Educate Your Prospects
When you are extremely informed (see earlier tip), you need to share that knowledge with your prospects. Educating your prospects will keep them riveted to what you have to say and build trust in you.
5.4. Position Your Features as Answers
Your prospect has a problem. You have the solution, and the features of your product are the answers. Tell your prospect how the features help them fix their problem/do a better job/do more. Your features should be the key to getting the solution they need.
5.5. Use Psychographic Cues
There are certain cues that help you sell faster. One such cue is social proof, where you point out the many people who have benefitted from your product and how (enter casual name-dropping skills).
Another one is FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)- where you create some sort of urgency for them to make a faster decision. This helps eliminate those serial procrastinators.
And you’re ready to go make that sales script and pitch!
Put a little bit of effort into all the groundwork and you’ll find that your pitches are better quality and bring in better results.
Along with a sales pitch, a sales CRM will help your sales team meet its targets. Interested in taking your growing business to the next level with Kylas? Sign up here for a free CRM trial to learn about how our sales CRM software can help you be more productive.
