By Steve Whitehill
The key to a good sales pitch is not what you may think. It’s not about making small talk and building rapport. It’s also not about idolizing your company, its founders, or even the product you’re trying to sell.
It’s all about crafting that high-level, strategic story. If you do it right, you may land some of the biggest deals of your career.
Step 1: Make it Relatable
Now this may seem obvious. You should only be trying to sell your product or service to someone who actually has a need for it. So, in addition to being relatable to your prospects’ needs, you also need to be relatable to the world.
There’s always something big, new, controversial, or exciting making headlines. It’s likely that whatever is going on will somehow, in some way, trickle its way down to have an effect on your industry. Make this your starting point. Now, you’ve established trust and created a sense of urgency.
Step 2: Illustrate That There Will be Winners and Losers
Many decision makers will avoid change in an attempt to prevent loss. They do this by doing what has always been done or by doing what everyone else is doing. Your job is illustrating how those who do business with you will win, and if they’re the first to do it they’ll be the biggest winners of all.
A great example is the dropship e-commerce marketplace. It seems to be daily that we’re seeing stories in the news about brick and mortar retail companies filing for bankruptcy or simply closing their doors. Walk through the mall on any given day and you’ll see liquidation “everything must go” sale signs in store windows. Can you imagine turning away the opportunity to go digital, only to find a few months later that a competitor did and stole away 85% of your customer base? Tell these stories and show your prospect how it’s possible for them to win.
Step 3: Leave them Fantasizing About the Future
This is probably the part of your pitch where you feel the need to begin listing off all of the benefits to your product or service. Instead, present your prospect with a beautifully painted picture of what life could be like if they agree to do business with you.
To do this effectively, you’ll have to demonstrate how doing business with you is the only way they can achieve their ideal future. Don’t make this about you – make it about them. What do they want? Why can’t they achieve it on their own, or with someone else?
Step 4: Present Your Product’s Features and Show Them How You’ll Do it
Position your business as the magic ticket that will transport your prospect from the old way to the new. Your prospect can’t achieve the new without you, and that is your super power.
Stories are just stories without evidence to back them up. Make your story come to life with success stories, customer testimonials, case studies, and data. Whatever you have that shows how you’ve helped others in similar situations achieve what the prospect is looking to achieve.