60% of chief sales officers are preparing for a permanent shift to remote selling. Are your sales pitches performing as well as they could be?
Giving customers the opportunity to independently review content, engage virtually with your sales reps, and leverage the right technology for remote selling are all essential parts of the sales process – but perfecting your sales pitch is vital.
Let’s look at some of the foundations of what makes an effective sales pitch and explore some examples and best practices that will help fine-tune your pitch.
What is a sales pitch?
A sales pitch is how a salesperson persuades a customer to buy their product or service. It’s essentially a salesperson’s attempt to persuade their audience to buy or believe what they’re offering.
A pitch is basically a shorter version of a sales presentation where a salesperson explains the benefits of their business, ideally in just a couple of minutes. You’ll often hear the term “elevator pitch” because the salesperson should be able to deliver it within the time frame of one elevator ride.
Everyone in your sales team should have a well-crafted, optimized sales pitch created during the pre-sales planning period, which can be customized for different situations.
How to make a winning pitch using the sales pitch framework
While every company’s sales pitch is different, there are a few key ingredients that you’ll need to include for maximum impact. Your sales pitch should include:
An attention-grabbing hook
Grab your customer’s attention with a great opening line. Try things like:
- Sharing a data point – “Did you know that 80% of manufacturing companies…?”
- Mentioning a recent interaction – “It was great connecting with you at…”
- Asking a thought-provoking question – “Have you ever noticed that…?”
An explanation of the problem you’re solving
Describe the problem your customers are facing, then explain why and how your product solves that problem.
Conduct customer interviews to craft a specific explanation of the problem, then make a list of your product’s primary features and brainstorm all the ways those features will alleviate that pain point.
Sometimes salespeople have a clear understanding of the problem, but they can’t communicate it in simple terms. Did you know that only 13% of customers believe that a salesperson understands their needs?
So, fine-tune your problem description until it is crystal clear to your potential customer.
A clear, concise statement of value
Your value proposition is the most important part of your sales pitch. It should include:
- Who your target customer is
- The product you offer
- The problem you’re solving
- Your product’s strengths and benefits
Hyperbole (exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally) – when used well – can help you describe your product.
For example, Ben and Jerry’s tout their green energy initiatives by saying, “We pride ourselves on making the best possible ice cream in the nicest possible way.”
Hyper-exaggeration helps you communicate with pride about your product’s benefits, and it can act as an appropriate sales pitch tool – as long as you can back it up with strong product benefits.
Unique differentiators
Point out the specific features and benefits that make your product different from others. Differentiators must be unique, valuable to your customer, and provable.
Here are some potential differentiators:
- Industry or market specialization
- Specializing in a specific role within a company
- Serving customers of a specific size
- Distinctive expertise (for example, all of your team members are accountants)
- An innovative approach to solving a problem
- A unique product distribution method
6 sales pitch examples and best practices
Looking for some examples of great sales pitches? Here are some ideas that can help you craft a sales pitch and sell successfully:
Create an emotional bond
“The person who is going to win the sale is the one who understands and connects with the company on a deeper level,” says Michael McLaren, Global CEO at Merkle B2B.
Emotional factors comprise up to 70% of economic decision-making, even in B2B.
What does that mean for B2B sales? In our customer-centric world, sales reps have to connect with potential customers on a personal level. According to McLaren, “Today’s business leaders expect B2B marketing and sales outreach to be as personalized to their companies’ needs and values as possible.”
Tell a story that features your product and makes an emotional connection with current or potential customers. You can do this by looking beyond what your product does, to what the product means to people.
In doing so, you build a strong basis of trust, which increases customer loyalty, engagement, and excitement.
For example, if your products help by saving time, what does the additional free time mean to your buyer?
Keep it short and simple
Keep it short and simple – engage your customer’s curiosity and leave them wanting more.
In some cases, you can craft one or two-sentence sales pitches – particularly if you’ve done deep research on your customers’ pain points and know exactly how your product solves their biggest problems.
For example, Adam Goldstein, co-founder of Hipmunk, knew he had to differentiate himself when he sought funding for his start-up. He needed something unique for his sales pitch, something that made it stand out from so many others.
Solution? He wrote a two-line pitch summarizing his business’s value proposition – lowering distribution costs.
After he sent the pitch to the CEO of United Airlines, he received a response in minutes, eventually getting $55 million in funding from investors.
So keep in mind, short and to the point is better.
Build on previous rapport
If you’ve already connected with your prospect and spoken to them about your product, you don’t need to start from scratch – refer back to your previous conversation! Remind them that you have a deep understanding of their needs.
Think back to the words the prospect used in your previous conversations, then pivot into your value statement to show how your product can solve that problem, and invite them to jump on a call with you to discuss.
Examples:
Sales rep: “I remember you mentioning that you were looking for a more effective way to do X, and I’d love to discuss a few strategies we’ve implemented for similar companies that produced great results this year.”
OR
Sales rep: “You mentioned you were looking into X, and I thought you might be interested in this report.”
Your sales rep can then use a sales enablement and customer engagement platform to build the relationship and move the sales process forward with targeted content.
Lead with a question
Instead of launching right into your value statement, kick off the conversation with an intriguing question that provokes a response from the prospect.
Chris Westfall, author of The New Elevator Pitch: The Definitive Guide to Persuasive Communication in the Digital Age, recommends starting with one of these questions:
“Have you ever noticed…?”
“You know how…?”
“Doesn’t it seem like…?”
A qualified prospect will answer “yes” to your question and want to continue the conversation. To see an example of this technique in action, watch this video of Chris giving a presentation.
Leverage social proof
Research shows that trust plays a significant role for 92% of Americans when contemplating a big purchase – and one of the best ways to build trust is by including social proof in your sales pitch.
Social media and brand awareness go hand in hand, and a recent Hubspot survey showed that “Roughly half of B2B marketers report that ‘increasing brand awareness’ is their number one goal in 2022.”
The higher your brand profile, the more information (social proof) you can gather and leverage when making sales pitches.
Your sales reps should have multiple methods of social proof at the ready, including things like:
- Customer satisfaction statistics
- Testimonials
- Reviews
- Case studies
- Expert opinions
- Number of customers served
Testimonials and case studies could easily be adapted and shortened to use in your sales pitch – or you could send the prospect a link to read them.
A comprehensive automated sales enablement platform will ensure your sales reps have access to all this information, enabling them to send it to prospects promptly.
Use a conversational style
Your sales pitch shouldn’t be a monologue. Instead of launching into a formal presentation every time you need to deliver a pitch, use a conversational style that starts with a brief description of what you do.
If the person you’re talking to indicates they’re interested in hearing more, then continue.
Speaker coach Brian Walter advises using a “WOW, HOW, NOW” framework to keep your presentation tone light.
WOW: One attention-getting or intriguing sentence that answers what you do that is designed to make your customer want to know more.
HOW: After you’ve got their attention, expand and clarify by telling a story, giving more specific details, or sharing a statistic. You want to illustrate how what you do will benefit them.
NOW: Wrap up your sales pitch by giving an example of exactly what you do. This is your chance to tell a story to connect your prospect to the larger concept of what you’re offering them.
Example:
Prospect: “So, what do you do?”
Sales rep: “I speed up the sales process.”
Prospect: “What? How do you do that?”
Sales rep: “I sell a platform that helps sales reps engage with customers, close the marketing loop with actionable insights and increase sales teams’ efficiency and productivity. Right now, I’m working with a company to help them find and target their customers with the right content at the right time.”
Leverage customer data
You likely have a lot of data about your prospect’s behavior right at your fingertips through your sales enablement platform. Use that data to craft a personalized sales pitch.
For example, if you know the prospect has spent time engaging with a particular article or white paper that you sent them, you can prioritize topics from that content in your sales pitch conversations. Whenever possible, use customer data to create and personalize new pitches.
Remote reps can use conversational intelligence to highlight trends, objectives, and buying signals in digital and remote sales interactions, then learn from that data to shape their sales pitches.
Create a winning sales pitch with Pitcher’s sales enablement solution
The Pitcher Super App for sales enablement allows reps to track what pieces of content have been downloaded, opened, and presented at every touch point. These real-time content analytics are the perfect tool for shaping personalized sales pitches that will resonate with prospects.
In one multi-purpose, omnichannel platform application, your sales reps can:
- Manage and automate targeted, personalized content
- Engage with customers and prospects in multiple channels
- Analyze insights about customer behavior and sentiment – even when they’re offline
- Measure performance and refine sales pitches with powerful analytics
In addition, your team can use Pitcher to deliver just-in-time sales training, so your salespeople can fine-tune their most important sales pitches.
Sales pitch FAQs
What is a sales pitch?
A sales pitch is how a salesperson persuades a customer to buy their product or service. It’s essentially a salesperson’s attempt to persuade their audience to buy or believe what they’re offering.
Why is sales pitching important?
Every salesperson should know the key USPs of the product or service they are trying to sell. In a sales pitch, a salesperson explains the benefits of their business, ideally in just a couple of minutes. A salesperson should be able to deliver it within the time frame of one elevator ride, ergo the term “elevator pitch.” Everyone on your sales team should have a well-crafted, optimized sales pitch created during the pre-sales planning period, which can be customized for different situations.
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