Sales Pitch

Key takeaways: 1 Buying is hard 2 "Do nothing" is the most fearsome competitor you have. 3 A sales pitch is special. Companies tell different stories for different audiences and for different purposes. 4 A great sales pitch starts with your company's unique insight into the market not just following a trend. 5 Help customers understand their options and they will be better informed to make decisions confidently. 6 Differentiated value is the star of the show.

there are a million and one ways the positioning story can and should be incorporated into the company's marketing. Let's look at a few examples: - The explainer video - The buyer’s guide - Telling the story using a free version of the product - Visual elements and graphics - A conference talk - Research paper - A book

Sales Pitch: Common Mistakes An Ask That's Too Complicated Buyers don't necessarily know how to evaluate and purchase solutions. So, it's your job to make sure that the ask is straightforward and doesn't cause the prospect to second-guess whether they should accept your recommendation for how to move ahead. The Ask step should move the deal forward (assuming the prospect is a good fit for your solution) by giving the prospect a next step that is easy to say yes to.

Sales Pitch: Common Mistakes Proof That Doesn't Match the Prospeet's Situation In Step 6, Proof, some companies default to sharing a case study, and often use the same case study for every prospect. If your prospects are similar, this might be fine. But ideally you want your proof to connect to both the value themes you've covered and the individual prospect's situation. Wherever pou-sible, you want to have proof that matches the prospect. l'or example, if you are using a case study, it should reflect a similar industry or show a similar use ease, such as moving from the same status que solution.

Sales Pitch: Common Mistakes Weak or Undifferentiated Value Themes Your positioning is the fundamental input to the sales pitch. Weak positioning leads to a weak insight statement and will result in an ineffective story about how you are differentiated from the alternatives. Your Differentiated Value step is the most important input to the pitch because this is where you articulate what your solution can do for prospects that no alternative solution can deliver. If that value is weak or not very differentiated, then the pitch will not be compelling and is unlikely to work.

Sales Pitch: Common Mistakes Spending Too Much Time on the Setup Phase One of the most common mistakes companies make with this format is spending too much time on the setup phase. The first call with a prospect can last anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour. The setup is important, and you should never skip it. But you need to spend the bulk of your time ensuring that the prospect grasps your differentiated value. The setup provides important context so your prospect understands the importance of that value, but don't forget that your value is the meat of that first call.

Sales Pitch: Common Mistakes A Lack of Discovery Experienced sales reps will naturally see Step 2, Alternatives, as a place to do discovery. Less-experienced reps may fall into a trap of talking at a prospect, rather than taking the time to ask questions to make sure their characterization of the market is resonating with the prospect and that they are getting what they need to fully understand the prospect's sit-uation. That doesn't necessarily mean you need to spend a long time on this step—it will depend on how many alternative approaches you want to cover and the complexity of their pros and cons.

Sales Pitch: Common Mistakes Insight That Isn't Unique Some companies will try to use a common industry trend as insight at the start of their sales pitch, rather than the company's unique insight into the market. For example, I have seen variations of "Companies are generating more data than ever before," or "The pace of Al adoption is accelerating," or "Companies need to digitally transform their businesses." All of these are obvious trends in the market. The key to Step 1, Insight, is to go beyond these surface-level observations and get down to the insight that makes your solution uniquely valuable.

After every call, the team should sit down and compare notes on what they felt did and did not work in the meeting. • Where was the prospect getting lost? • Where was the prospect getting excited? • Were there questions asked that might indicate there was something confusing in the pitch? There may be obvious adjustments you want to make.

8. The Ask Mature sales organizations will have a documented and tested sales process with a set of distinct steps they move though before a deal is closed. Many start-ups fail to have an ask at the end of their sales pitch at all ("Call us if you have any ques-tions!" doesn't count). If your company is new and your sales process is less evolved, a good starting point to get some structure is to be consistent in what you ask the customer to do after the first sales call. This will also give you a starting point to at least test which call to action works best with your customer set.

7. Objections You may notice that there are common objections that are crucial to address in the first meeting, whether or not the customer has raised them. This step is optional. If you find there are common unspoken objections you need to handle, this is when you would do that, but if not, you can skip this step.