The Sales Pitch as Part of Your Communications Armoury

Some business owners rely on their products or services to sell themselves and avoid sales pitches like the plague. Others may be lucky enough to benefit from cross sales to existing customers and recommendations from satisfied clients and trusty contacts. But at some stage or another most business owners and senior managers will be called upon to make a sales pitch of some kind or another – in fact at the most basic level – everyone needs to make a sales pitch to get themselves a job.

And taking this example you only have to think about the shifty teenager turning up for a Saturday job interview straight from school – with shirt hanging out, muddy trainers, dirty hair and no idea what to say as they introduce themselves with – ‘me mum says there’s a job going here’ to realise there are some simple do’s and don’ts in any sales pitch.

A well organized and thought through sales pitch should be in the communications armoury of every business. After all it is just another method of promoting your products and services to potential customers.

Whether you are involved in a formal sales pitch or tender process – what those in professional services laughingly call ‘beauty parades’ – or less formal opportunities to ‘sell’ you wares when you meet prospects at a business lunch - the pitch must be simple and direct, and illustrate how your product or service can benefit the customer and meet their need.

Start with the Product or Service

You might think the greatest challenge is where to start – but that’s easy – with your product, service or offer. What is it that you are selling? Or maybe it’s not so easy – because if you’ve thought to yourself – oh well – I sell accountancy services or I’m a web developer – then that’s not quite what I mean.

You need to think about things from a buyers’ point of view, think about the advantages and benefits of what you offer to them – not just what it is that you do. For example a good accountancy service might save a client money on their tax bill, might provide advice on how the business can expand without over stretching itself financially – and a professional web developer could develop a website which facilitates on-line sales – which could save a client money in sales costs, open up global market places and allow things like test marketing at minimum cost. You really need to think about what’s in it for the potential client.

Do Your Research

The big advantage of making a formal pitch is that you normally have time and opportunity to research your prospective client. That means finding out things like:

What business they are in, how they do business, what they sell, where they sell, who they sell to – all of these pieces of information start to build a picture of your client and help to identify the trigger points you can use in your sales pitch.
What their business priorities are – and how you can help meet them.
Which alternative suppliers they might be considering – and how you compare with them / what your USP (unique selling point) is against these competitors.
What do they need from your product or service?

It also means tailoring your offer to these needs. Even in a less formal sales situation, at a networking event for example, you should still follow the same principles – and do more listening than talking!

A Simple Structure

It helps to have a basic structure for any sales pitch that you do – and is even more important in an official tender situation. You might for example include the following:

Your understanding of the prospect company and their particular requirements
A brief description or explanation of your offer, product or service and how it addresses their needs
An explanation of the benefits that they will enjoy from using your service or product, backed up with examples of how other customers have benefited
An easy to understand quote or price – with no hidden extras or small print

Depending on the length of the pitch and whether it’s in writing or something that you present in a quick 5 minute chat or through a more formal presentation you might want an executive summary which highlights the benefits of working with you one more time.

Following these basic ideas you could have a sales pitch that can win you new clients over and over again.

Article written by Teresa Harris, Second Opinion Marketing. Teresa is an independent marketing consultant specialising in communication solutions and the customer experience. Contact: Teresa on 01789 740396 or tah@secondopinionmarketing.co.uk

Useful links

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