Do you need a sales pitch? Have you ever needed to give one, but found yourself at a loss for words?
The lack of powerful sales pitches is actually a top reason why many small businesses fail. So, here’s your chance to learn how to win at persuasion!
In this blog post, we’ll cover: what a good sales pitch looks like, why giving a great sales pitch matters, and 9 examples of awesome ones so you can see what they look like in action.
Let’s get started!
Table of Contents
What’s a Sales Pitch?
A sales pitch is when someone tries to get someone else to buy something. The salesperson tells a potential customer (lead, prospect) about a product or service, and everything it can do for the customer, and then tries to convince the customer that it’s worth spending their money on.
A sales objection is when a sales pitch doesn’t work because of some issue that the customer has with buying the product.
For example, if someone was trying to sell me an expensive laptop computer, but I only had enough money for a cheaper laptop, then I would have put up an objection to the sales pitch.
Every sales pitch has to incorporate a strategy to address sales objections. If sales objections aren’t addressed, the sales pitch will not succeed, no matter how well the product or service is presented.
A sales objection could be that the price of a product is too high.
Another sales objection could be that the customer doesn’t like the color or look of a product. Yet another sales objection could focus on some feature of the product that isn’t to the customer’s liking.
As a salesperson, how do you still succeed at selling the product or service? Well, that’s why you must first understand the anatomy of a winning sales pitch.
Elements of a Powerful Sales Pitch
Though sales pitches vary from one seller to another, they are all common in one aspect — their end goal is to pitch sales for a certain idea, product, or service.
But it isn’t necessary that all of them convert into sales.
Even as you deliver your wonderfully crafted sales talk, the potential customer is always wondering whether this product or service adds any value to their life, career, or business.
So, what’s the magic formula behind a perfect sales pitch? How can you make yours more effective, more successful?
Here are a few essential elements to make your sales pitch more compelling:
1. Get Visual
Did you know that about 40% of all people respond more to images than just plain text?
If you are delivering a sales presentation to a marketing team, it should be liberally sprinkled with images and/or videos. You can get your images from Google, Flickr, Fubiz, Unsplash, or any other platform you like, but do use appealing visuals.
2. Become a Storyteller
Some of the best salesmen have been great storytellers.
Efficient business storytelling is about presenting your sales pitch in a simple yet engaging way. Did you know that 65% of all successful presentations are delivered in the form of stories?
Great storytellers humanize their sales presentations with real-life anecdotes and stories that warm the hearts of their listeners.
One great example of storytelling is telling your audience how you started your company (your Eureka moment). Another example that you can share could be how you arrived at an idea while you were doing something very inconsequential, e.g., cleaning your teeth or brushing your shoes.
The more relatability or human-ness your story has, the better it will work with your audience!
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3. Focus on Solutions
Let’s face it, your audience has gathered in that swanky conference room to find solutions to their business problem. Is your sales proposal solution-focused?
While storytelling is important, what’s even more so is how can you solve the problems of your customers. What is your ultimate value proposition?
Let’s take the example of Airbnb which identified three problem areas for travelers — price, accessibility to the city and local culture, and ease of booking.
To solve these problems, this hospitality company came up with a solution that was easy to implement and was a win-win for travelers and accommodation providers alike.
Airbnb encouraged locals to put their houses up for grab, thus helping travelers get a real taste of the local life while also finding cheaper accommodation options than hotels.
So, how does this logic translate to your sales presentation? Here’s what you can do:
- Don’t provide too many solutions to confuse your audience. Boil it down to the real problem, and elaborate on the solution confidently.
- Propose a solution that is simple and easy to understand.
- Has your solution helped others too? Show your audience some examples of success. Testimonials are great influencers.
- Quantify the benefits that your audience can get from the product or service, and mention specific numbers.
Read also: 10 Elevator Pitch Examples to Convince Anyone in 30 Seconds
4. Answer the ‘How Do I Believe You?’ Question
Most probably, your audience will raise the question: How & why do I believe you?
To get past this bottleneck, you need to make sure to include several testimonials in your slide deck. These testimonials should support all your claims.
You may have quotes from industry leaders supporting your product or others who have used it.
Unless you show that your product has been accepted by a lot of people, you are not likely to make much headway. Allow your earlier work to speak for itself.
Some of the best sales pitches aren’t made by the salesperson but by your customers. You should always encourage your customers to leave a review or feedback for your products and services, and use these positive reviews in your sales pitches.
Also, what happens if your product fails to meet the expectations of your customers? You need to be clear in your sales pitch about how willing you are to return the payment or provide a valuable substitute.
5. Questions, please!
A great sales pitch is never about a product alone, it is always centered on the audience and their problems.
While delivering your sales presentation, keep asking questions and encourage your potential customers to share the issues they’d like to get addressed by your product.
Even if your product or service does not address every issue the customers may have, you can always use this knowledge to improve your product and promise the customers that new features are in the pipeline.
Make your prospects the center point of your presentation, and engage them in a way that benefits them first.
Now that we have understood the broader elements and structure of an ideal sales pitch, let’s look at how to master the art of sales pitching.
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The Sales Pitch Blueprint
With great conversion rates as the target, the following blueprint can help you devise the perfect sales pitch:
1. Does Your Sales Pitch Have an Objective?
A sales pitch without a clear objective is doomed to fail.
Always consider what is the next step in the buying journey of the customers, and keep your focus on that. The objective is to convert leads and prospects into paying customers, but that happens in small steps.
Let the objective be the next small step instead of just selling the product or service as much as possible.
2. Does Your Customer Really Care About Your Solution?
You can make a great sales presentation to the wrong audience, and none of the efforts will pay off.
Try and segment your audiences in such a way that you never present a product to someone who does not need it. Talk to people, even if few, who actually care about the solution you are here to sell.
These few people can convert well and go on to become loyal brand advocates for you in the coming years.
For instance, this is how OnePlus marketed its first models. The brand was really small and hence did not try to capture the market of Apple or Samsung directly.
The OnePlus team reached out to smartphone buffs and tech bloggers around the world and presented a case for a smartphone that comes with certain compromises here and there but outperforms much pricier flagship products of established brands.
Soon, the term ‘flagship killer’ took off, and this small community of tech bloggers and smartphone enthusiasts spread the word to the larger markets.
With very little marketing and advertising, OnePlus became one of the largest global smartphone brands in just a few years.
3. Is There a Central Idea in Your Pitch?
Many salespeople veer off the central topic in their presentations quickly.
In order to make a great presentation, you should always focus on the core benefit that your product is offering.
Stick to the central idea, and let all other conversations stem only from that, and lead only back to that. This kind of focus will help keep your sales process efficient.
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4. Customize Your Sales Pitches
Don’t cut corners while presenting your product or service to potential customers. Remember that every customer is unique and has their own particular set of problems.
Don’t cut, copy, and paste your previous presentation for your next one. Customers today are smart and have plenty of options, so if you don’t offer them a customized sales pitch, they’ll look elsewhere.
5. The Power of Three
Great salespeople stick to the Rule of Three in sales.
According to this ‘action selling’ approach, the salesperson must ask questions until the potential customer has at least offered three problem areas.
Only when you have answers to how your product or service will help the customer benefit in these three problem areas, you shouldn’t even introduce your product or service.
Sounds smart, right?
6. Always Be Ready for a Great Verbal Pitch
In certain cases, you might be asked to deliver your sales pitch without any Powerpoint presentations. Be prepared for this situation, it’ll come without a warning.
Practice delivering your sales pitch without any slides, animation, etc., even though you must otherwise use them as much as you can.
It would also be a good idea to find some commonly asked questions about products or services similar to yours, and have specific answers ready.
In general, no-slide presentations are ice-breakers and quite effective in starting conversations.
7. The Next Steps
Never finish your presentation without listing out the next steps. These could be signing up for a free trial, the next meeting, or anything else that makes for a Call To Action (CTA).
People are busy and forgetful, so if you make a great sales pitch and don’t follow up, you might easily lose the prospects even after almost converting them.
A lot depends on your CTA, so make sure you ace this step. (Read more about it here)
The 5 Types of Sales Pitches
As a sales-driven organization, you should use different kinds of sales pitches to promote your products or services. Here’s a list of ideas that you can employ.
Please note that this is just an indicative list; you can always use your own ideas.
1. One-word Pitch
Perhaps the toughest sales pitch idea to implement is the One-word Pitch. This one word captures your company’s value, belief, or goal.
By the way, it isn’t easy to find your central value or belief.
Great companies like Google excel in this kind of pitch. For the search engine giant, that one word is ‘Search’. What’s yours?
Once you identify your one-word pitch, adopt it and use it liberally in marketing and selling your product or service.
2. Social Media Pitch
If we ask you to quickly think of five brands off the top of your head now, you’ll most likely end up thinking of brands with a strong social media presence.
The point is, without a social media selling strategy, your brand is unlikely to get a lot of attention. Devise a few great social media ads or slogans, and take advantage of the masses online.
3. The Elevator Pitch
The Elevator Pitch has been much written about, so we’ll keep it short, just the way this pitch should be — no more than 30 seconds long.
It should be interesting, short, and have a call for action.
And yes, it should be personalized and verbal.
4. The Cold Call Pitch
When you dial a customer’s phone number, never start your conversation by saying, ‘Hi, I want to tell you about my amazing product….’.
Find out whether the person on the other end is busy or driving at the time of the phone call.
Reschedule your call and double-check whether your prospect has time now or not.
An essential point in this kind of pitch is that you need to secure an appointment. Warm up to the potential customer, make the call less cold, and you have a chance of winning the sale.
(For great cold call tips, click here)
5. The Email Pitch
Email marketing works great, but you must make your emails well personalized in the subject line, heading, and body content.
Also, make sure you schedule your sales pitch via email in tandem with the time zone of your audience.
9 Great Sales Pitch Examples To Inspire You
Here are some sales pitch examples that are too good to ignore.
While you should refer to these examples to learn a few things about how to communicate your idea effectively, make yours fresh, unique, free from information overload, and original.
1. The ‘Don’t You Agree?’ Strategy
Here is how this strategy works:
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- Present a fact.
- Present a flip side of the fact, which is obvious but is usually overlooked.
- Ask your audience – Do you agree with this fact?
- State your solution.
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2. Fixing a Contradiction
In this strategy, you first state a fact (Fact A). Next, you present a contradictory fact (Fact B).
Now that you have your audience riveted, ask a question — How can we reconcile both the facts?
Present your solution.
3. Stitch Your Pitch to Your Story
It is a proven fact that our brains are always ready to hear stories.
Use storytelling to pitch your product.
Make your product coherent with human value, and watch your audience react.
4. Demo
Have you wondered why infomercials are beamed late at night? Because the profit from a demo always outweighs the one from a non-demo sales pitch.
Besides, nothing speaks for a product more than the product itself. Allow your target to interact with the product — even a little teaser would do.
A first-hand experience with your product always makes your sales pitch more compelling, so don’t hesitate to offer a free trial version.
5. Persuasion
One way to make your sales pitch stand out is to educate and inspire people.
You can do this by leveraging your product to generate a positive impact on society.
This way, you are persuading people to follow your brand without even asking them to buy from you.
6. The Pique Technique
Make your audience stop and think.
This could be done via a tricky yet quirky question, like what did they do the first thing upon waking up.
Something which seems irrelevant and rather colloquial, but upon connecting the dots it builds up the flow for your sales pitch.
This sales pitch idea is called the Pique Technique.
7. Using a Metaphor
Metaphors link one thing to another, and this can be aptly used in sales pitches.
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8. Make Your Customers Feel Valued
One way of going about this technique is by shifting the focus entirely to the customer.
Show your prospects that their time is more valuable than yours. Make it about them and how they benefit from the product.
And lastly,
9. Flatter Your Audience
You’ve got to admit, nothing works like a dab of sugar.
Especially when you are going to make a sales pitch about your consumers, make sure the result is helping them feel good.
Of course, this can be achieved by great customer service, and part of that is engaging your customer in a little bit of flattery.
However, don’t overdo it. Compliment them, but be sincere.
Conclusion
To recap, a good sales pitch is like a story that starts with the problem your product solves and ends with how it will benefit the buyer.
Effective sales pitches are made up of three parts—introduction (problem), body (solution), and conclusion (benefit).
When you’re ready to give your next presentation or make an in-person sale, try putting together these three pieces for every customer to see the value in your sales pitch.
We hope that you’ve found this blog post helpful. If you’re interested in learning more about how to improve your sales pitch, we recommend checking out the following resources:
- Promotional Email: How to Write Email That Converts
- 15 Creative Customer Engagement Strategies for Small Businesses
- Social Selling: A Complete Guide for Sales Reps
- How to Upsell with Email Marketing
- Sales Prospecting Guide Blog: A Few Modern Techniques
And, of course, we have more than just reading resources for you.
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