Having a successful sales pitch can make or break your business, so it’s important to get it right. Whilst nerves and a lack of preparation can leave you sweating, the right amount of groundwork and research can turn any pitch into a success. To perfect your pitch, take a look at these top 5 tips now…
1. Know your audience
Every client is different, so using the same pitch over and over again simply won’t help you to gain clients. Before you meet with your prospective targets, take the time to understand their business and their industry. By knowing how they work and what their current issues are, you can show how your product or service will benefit them.
With plenty of information available online, you don’t have to spend long trying to fathom your target’s business background. However, many people overlook this straightforward pitch preparation. If you’ve already secured a meeting, don’t waste time in front of key decision-makers. Instead, tell them why your business can help theirs, and have the facts and data to back up your claims.
2. Practice, practice, practice
Although you don’t want your pitch to sound too forced or stilted, practicing it can certainly help with your delivery. As well as helping to banish nerves, practicing your pitch will help you to identify any critical areas you may have missed. Furthermore, you can ensure your delivery truly conveys the benefits your products or services offer.
Delivering your pitch to in-house colleagues can be a great way to prepare for meeting with clients, so ensure you schedule in some time for this. If confidentiality clauses don’t prohibit it, practicing your pitch on family and friends can also be advantageous. Whilst practicing in the mirror used to be an age-old tip for perfecting sales pitches, you can now rely on your smartphone or tablet to record you as you practice your pitch. Watching it back can help you to identify nervous habits, as well as content you may have missed, so it’s well worth examining your own performance before you make your pitch for real.
3. Be prepared
Depending on what you’re selling, you may be taking a range of products or tech to your meetings. If you’re delivering an interactive presentation, for example, you may need to take a laptop and/or screen with you to ensure it can be set up without any hassle. Of course, it’s vital that any equipment you take with you is in perfect working order.
Unpacking your products, only to discover that they’ve broken in transit, won’t impress your clients, and it could be enough to lose you the contract. Make sure you have an appropriate way to transport your goods or equipment so that you don’t have to deal with any unexpected issues on the day. A tool case with foam is an ideal way to get everything from one meeting to another, as they’re robust enough to prevent any damage occurring and have added internal foam to keep everything fully-protected.
4. Don’t be too repetitive
When you’re delivering a pitch, you’re going to be keen to emphasize the benefits of your products and services, but don’t repeat yourself too often. Trust your audience to take your points on board and offer brief recaps at the end of every segment. Similarly, when you’re preparing your pitch, take out information which isn’t relevant to the particular audience you’ll be talking too. If you’re pitching SEO services to a web design firm, for example, you aren’t going to need to explain how optimization works in as much detail as you would to a non-tech business.
Keep your pitch personal and relevant to the client wherever possible, even if this means cutting it down. By removing unnecessary or repetitive content, you can keep your audience engaged and spend more time delivering salient points.
5. Prepare for questions
If clients have questions, it can be a sign that your pitch has gone well and that they’re interested in taking things further. Whilst you can’t always predict what a potential client will ask, having a good understanding of your products, services and business will ensure you’re able to provide the information they need. If you’re unsure, don’t make claims you can’t verify. Instead, use it as an opportunity to follow up with the potential client at a later date, and provide them the information they’ve requested.
Whilst any sales pitch can be a daunting prospect, the right amount of preparation can help to ensure your pitch goes smoothly and successfully.
- This post has been written by an outside source – See Disclosure Policy
