Some business owners rely on their products or services to sell themselves and avoid sales pitches like the plague. Others may be lucky enough to benefit from cross sales to existing customers and recommendations from satisfied clients and trusty contacts. But at some stage or another most business owners and senior managers will be called upon to make a sales pitch of some kind or another – in fact at the most basic level – everyone needs to make a sales pitch to get themselves a job.
And taking this example you only have to think about the shifty teenager turning up for a Saturday job interview straight from school – with shirt hanging out, muddy trainers, dirty hair and no idea what to say as they introduce themselves with – ‘me mum says there’s a job going here’ to realise there are some simple do’s and don’ts in any sales pitch.
A well organized and thought through sales pitch should be in the communications armoury of every business. After all it is just another method of promoting your products and services to potential customers.
Whether you are involved in a formal sales pitch or tender process – what those in professional services laughingly call ‘beauty parades’ – or less formal opportunities to ‘sell’ you wares when you meet prospects at a business lunch - the pitch must be simple and direct, and illustrate how your product or service can benefit the customer and meet their need.
Start with the Product or Service You might think the greatest challenge is where to start – but that’s easy – with your product, service or offer. What is it that you are selling? Or maybe it’s not so easy – because if you’ve thought to yourself – oh well – I sell accountancy services or I’m a web developer – then that’s not quite what I mean.
You need to think about things from a buyers’ point of view, think about the advantages and benefits of what you offer to them – not just what it is that you do. For example a good accountancy service might save a client money on their tax bill, might provide advice on how the business can expand without over stretching itself financially – and a professional web developer could develop a website which facilitates on-line sales – which could save a client money in sales costs, open up global market places and allow things like test marketing at minimum cost. You really need to think about what’s in it for the potential client.
Do Your Research The big advantage of making a formal pitch is that you normally have time and opportunity to research your prospective client. That means finding out things like:
- What business they are in, how they do business, what they sell, where they sell, who they sell to – all of these pieces of information start to build a picture of your client and help to identify the trigger points you can use in your sales pitch.
- What their business priorities are – and how you can help meet them.
- Which alternative suppliers they might be considering – and how you compare with them...
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