Hey, my Curious Salesperson.
Of course you need a good 'Sales Pitch.’
How else can you describe what you sell?
How else do potential buyers know what you do?
And yet, there is a flaw in most Sales Pitches…
It’s the word Pitch. Here's why:
A 'pitch' is something that gets thrown at somebody.
A pitch (in baseball) is often fast, hard and…if effective, the person misses it.
It is not a dialogue.
A "sales pitch" means that you’ve verbally upchucked sales information AT someone’s ears, email inbox, or voicemail, and now you're crossing your fingers in the hopes those customers and prospects like something in that information enough to respond.
Our customers can drop, miss, catch our pitch or slam it away: they just react without much thought.
Their brains are full: their days are busy.
If customers have to work to connect the dots, they’re more likely to just say No.
Eliminate the word “Pitch” from your vocabulary and your thinking.
A Sales Pitch is not effective in earning you a place as a respected professional and business partner.
Reach out to customers and prospects about the Business Value you bring to their particular company.
Yes, it’s semantics. Sort of.
There is a difference in the mindset and the research that goes into a conversation about Business Value vs launching a Sales Pitch.
To bring Business Value as a salesperson, make two key changes:
Reach out to every prospect or customer with the intent of having a collaborative dialogue, whether it turns into a sale or not. This is the mindset shift- if you know you’ve got helpful stuff, you don’t have to pitch…you can chat.
Do your research. Why might this particular customer or prospect be interested in what you sell? The research is the hard work part. It's the “go slow to go fast” part of sales. You take the time so you’re more effective and knowledgeable when you connect.
Your job is to contact customers and prospects with an educated guess on how your products or services might bring efficiencies, joy, dollars, and any other business benefits specific to that prospect or customer's company or line of business…and then discuss if you were right, and/or if that customer cares right now.
Research. Ask many questions.
Stop pitching.
'Pitching' is just another way of saying we’re trying to convince someone to buy from us through a fog of unknowns.
Start a collaborative dialogue to support each other’s businesses.
As salespeople, we want to retain respect and equal control in the sales process.
You Were Made to Sell Better.
PS. I still ❤️ a good baseball game. Sun. Open stadium. Hot dog(s). Go Jays Go!
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