A sales pitch can determine the success rate of a deal. It takes Mike a lot of time to nail a sales pitch after so many practice and experiences.
What is a sales pitch?
A sales pitch is a simplified version of a sales presentation done by a salesperson to explain their company value proposition, favourably in one to two minutes. It is also known as an elevator pitch when it has to be finished within the time constraint of a single elevator ride.
As a salesperson, Mike understands that no one has time for long-winded presentations and they usually expect to hear the killing point as soon as possible.
What do you need in a sales pitch?
In a sales pitch, Mike only includes essential elements due to time constraints:
- Problem – State one actual problem that the company you reach out to is facing.
- Solution – Offer one solid solution that helps to solve the problem.
- Competition – Before questioning by the clients, state the direct or indirect competitors that your product or service currently have.
- Team (essential job roles) – Introduce your team to let the customers know how each member of the team contributes to the product or service.
- Success Stories – Share some positive experiences of previous clients to develop trust between your company and the customer.
- Mission – State your goal and state what you want to achieve with your product or service.
How to do a sales pitch?
With the essential elements stated above, these are how a salesperson can deliver an impactful sales pitch:
1. Make it short and clear.
Usually, Mike will not have a chance to show a PowerPoint presentation during his first pitch. So, it is important to capture their attention immediately by speaking clearly with powerful points.
2. Introduce yourself and your company.
The moment Mike meets his customers, he introduces himself and his company (ABC company) to give an overview of what the company is doing and what product or service they are offering to solve problems.
3. Identify the problem.
Then, he shows the customers why they need ABC company by identifying and evaluating the problem they might be facing. Let’s say the company wants to increase their sales closing rate, Mike will emphasize how hard it is to manage a sales team without ABC company’s system.
4. Show that your product/service can solve it.
In this stage, Mike focuses on making the customers buy from ABC company. He explains how a lead management system can help to monitor and track the growth of a sales team. He shows what advantages his product or service can bring, instead of purely mentioning the features. By doing that, his customers understand that they get to manage their sales more efficiently and eventually increase their company sales.
5. Share success stories to create a connection.
If the customers are still hesitating, Mike will tell them about previous customers’ success stories. For example, Mike talks about how XX company generates 50 new leads and the sales closing rate increases to 75% in the first month. This helps to show that the product or service is really helpful and beneficial to the company’s operations.
Basically, a sales pitch aims at telling the customers what a company does, how they do it and targeting which market. A simple one would be: “ABC company is offering a lead management software that helps salespeople generate more leads, manage them effectively and close more sales.”
Great examples
After understanding the essential elements of a sales pitch, Mike wants to share some great examples of sales/business pitch to all the salespeople out there:
1. Scrub Daddy
Aaron Krause, the founder of Scrub Daddy shared his sales pitch on Shark Tank for a scrubbing tool that changes texture depending on the water temperature. The pitch was impressive not only because he was able to show how easily his product solves cleaning problems around the house, but also because of the live demonstration of the scrubbing tool’s selling points.
The pitch was slightly longer than the usual sales pitch but it was engaging and entertaining with Krause’s sense of humor. In the less than 2 minutes pitch, he was able to leave an impactful impression while demonstrating his product’s value.
2. Form Craft
At the beginning of the pitch, Matt Macnamara, the business development manager of Form Craft asks the audience to envision their dream office space. Since Form Craft is offering architectural and design services to companies, this presentation helps to illustrate their target client and to identify a possible problem. Although he did not identify a problem directly, he explains exactly how his company can help business owners make their visualizations into reality.
3. G2 Crowd
The pitch was extremely short, only 20 seconds but the presenter successfully explained the feature and benefit of the product.
“G2Crowd is the user voice platform for people to be able to say what they actually think about software and not be told by analysts or people who don't use it, or the reference from the best customer. They actually hear it directly from the user and engage with people who actually use the product."
From the short statement, audiences get an idea of what G2Crowd is for, and how it can help users to improve their user experiences.