11.1 Preparing for your Sales Pitch

The first part we need to look at is how you actually prepare for your sales pitch in the first place.

You will of course be aware of the importance of making the correct first impression and that undoubtedly extends to the pitch, and most people would even argue that this was the most important part of all.

1. Understand what you are selling

Now, obviously the first part you need to focus on is understanding the product or service you are pitching because a failure to do this will only lead to your pitch coming across as disjointed and unorganised. That is hardly going to have would-be clients running to your door as they expect a pitch to be professional in its approach and full of useful information they can use to determine as to whether or not they want to spend money with you.

2. Make sure you have the key points of what you are selling

This part regarding what you are selling is clearly very important and what we must stress is that there is a fine balancing act between telling the client enough information about it in your pitch and going over the top and telling them too much. Your company or sales manager should be able to help you when it comes to deciding the key features that need to be included. At that point, having them in bullet point form will make life so much easier and ultimately it lets you know those most important points you simply have to include in your pitch.

3. Check the length

A sales pitch that goes on and on is not going to lead to you being able to close the deal no matter how good you believe you are at selling.Potential clients have a limited scope when it comes to the amount of information they can absorb, along with the length of time they are able to pay attention for. If you go past those limits, and everybody is different, then people will switch off and your chances of converting things into a sale or a deal will diminish.

By checking the length of the pitch, what we mean is that you are aware you have included all of the relevant information, but at the same time you have not gone into too much detail or been too long- winded in your delivery.If this is the case, then you may as well forget about closing the deal and just stop immediately.

4. Practice makes perfect

Even though a sales pitch will often differ slightly from client to client, there will always be certain basics that will be included every single time. What this means is that it is possible for you to practice on various aspects of your pitch by making sure you have the different points firmly embedded in your mind (which is always better than using notes as that will result in you failing to close the deal).

5. Check yourself

By checking yourself what we mean is that you look at your appearance and even the vibe you are giving off because those things are going to play a role in how successful your sales pitch is going to be. People will expect you to both look and act in a certain way when giving the pitch, although the exact points will vary depending on what you are doing and who you are selling to, because they are not only buying what you are selling, but they are also buying into you as well.

What we are saying here is that preparation really is key to building the basis of a successful sales pitch, although there are various things that can have an impact on the way in which it is delivered as well as how it comes across to the other party.However, by doing your homework it does mean you will be ready for whatever is thrown your way and that can only be a good thing for somebody involved in sales.

11.2 How to Perfectly Deliver your Pitch

We have been quite deliberate in our selection of the heading for this section simply because people are drawn into this belief that they really do need to deliver the perfect sales pitch every single time, and this adds so much pressure that they inevitably set themselves up to fail.

This is putting added pressure on you for a situation which already has more than enough pressure for you to contend with, so why would you put yourself through all of that? Instead, we need to address the issue of delivering the perfect pitch and stating what is actually meant by that term.

We do not mean that every word has to be precise and exact and that you cannot make any slip-ups or else it will spell disaster, as that is certainly not the case. This thought will only increase the feeling of tension and anxiety and your chances of delivering the perfect pitch will vanish in an instant.

At the same time, we are not talking about you having to act like the perfect public speaker or orator who can deliver this wonderful speech which captivates the audience because even that can be over the top and will also get you nowhere. Instead, in order to deliver the perfect pitch we need to begin with the most important part, which is not the pitch itself, but you. The absolute key is in how you put across what you are trying to say and that covers both your voice and your body language.

With your voice, it is important that you speak at a reasonable pace, not too fast or slow, and if you have a strong accent, then try your absolute best to clean it up as much as you can. Furthermore, do not use slang words, even if the client is doing the same, as that is also regarded as being unprofessional and will reflect badly on you.

You should also talk in a confident tone and a strong voice rather than sounding as quiet as a mouse. The last thing you want is to have a client asking you to repeat yourself simply because they could not hear what you were saying. Your body language is also important as it has to show confidence in what you are saying and pitching.

You must stand tall and open with lots of eye contact mixed in with strong movements and gestures. We are not saying you must wave your hands around like some conductor as that is not the case, but rather you have to use movements to really emphasise various points as this is going to catch the eye, rather than someone who is standing there and resembling a statue.

At the same time, you must always appear friendly to the client and come across as being very approachable. This will help them to feel more at ease with you and, as a result, they are likely to pay even more attention to your pitch and remember a number of the key points that you will include in it.

Finally, if you do stumble over something, the best piece of advice is to just allow it to breeze past you without paying it too much attention.

Obviously if you say something wrong, then correct yourself immediately and apologise for the error because people will think more highly of you for doing that than making a mistake and then mumbling your way through the rest of the pitch.

In other words, even though the content of the pitch is important in how successful it is, there is no doubt that you are part of your own success with the way in which you put everything across to the prospective buyer. An individual who mumbles, is quiet, is clearly nervous and unable to get those nerves under control, and misses out information in their pitch, is not cut out for this industry. However, practice can make perfect in this instance and a willingness to develop your skills and talents is essential and can make a huge difference in a relatively short period of time.

11.3 The Pitfalls that you Must Avoid

Obviously there is a need to understand the kind of things you must include in your pitch to make life easier for you, but at the same time there is a range of pitfalls that you also have to avoid because of the issues you can have.

1. Lack of preparation

Preparation for your sales pitch is everything.

You may have to do cold calling, but that does not have to translate into cold pitching as this will only ever be a complete disaster. There is absolutely no excuse for people to not be prepared for their pitch as it is unprofessional and it does not say much for your desire to be a success in the world of sales.

2. Believing the clients already know so much

The one thing that will frustrate potential clients or customers more than anything else in the world is the belief that some salespeople hold regarding the amount of information or detail the client already knows. This mistake will result in you leaving out some important pieces of information that could completely change the way in which people would perhaps feel about your entire pitch and, once again, it is something that could be easily avoided.

3. Thinking that the clients know nothing

However, it is also true that the complete opposite is just as equally as bad if you believe the clients know nothing and, as a result, you are guilty of over explaining things in your sales pitch. It is easy to make the client feel as if you are trying to make them sound as if they are stupid and that will only ever get their back up and there is no chance of them ever wanting to close a deal with you. It does mean there is a fine balancing act for you to try to achieve and that is not always going to be easy, although it is something that comes with experience.

4. Delivering the pitch at the wrong speed

The speed at which you deliver the pitch is more important than you think.This is a point that is often overlooked by various people, but the speed you talk at has a direct impact on the way in which people will react to your pitch.

There are some individuals who will talk faster than they normally do simply because they feel so nervous, but that is actually no excuse. At the same time, there are others who will talk far too slow and as a result, it is going to reflect badly on them as individuals simply because you need to sound excited about what you are selling rather than sound bored.

5. A failure to address objections

There are some salespeople who are guilty of becoming too caught up in what they are saying that they simply gloss over any questions or objections raised by the people they are talking to. An individual who appears to ignore these objections rather than addressing them will only lead to the potential clients being put off actually spending money as the salesperson will come across as simply not caring. Do not be afraid of objections as they are there to actually give you another opportunity to clarify points and to put your persuasion skills to the test.

The problem with a sales pitch is that you can never be absolutely sure as to how it will progress, but by simply being aware of the different pitfalls you could encounter, it does mean you can do all that you possibly can to reduce the chances of things going wrong. However, it is how you handle these issues that can ultimately make or break the entire pitch.

FACT

The 4 most common sales objections are all revolve around budget, authority, need, and timeliness 

(also known as BANT)

Source:blog.hubspot.com

11.4 How to Improve your Pitch and Keys Points to Look for

You must remember that nobody is perfect when it comes to a sales pitch and even though some would argue against this, everybody can seek to improve their pitch as there will always be weak points at some part.Even though there is no guarantee that the following points will work for everybody, they are at least food for thought on what you should be looking at doing to ultimately be able to provide a better pitch than ever before.

1. Get feedback

The first point is to get feedback from people you trust. They need to be up front and honest with you when it comes to areas that they were perhaps not too content with and even though it may be tough to hear some of their comments, you need to take them on the chin. Feedback is not always going to be pleasant, but the individual is not doing it to have a go as they are trying to be constructive.

Furthermore, do not use your sales manager as the sole person to give feedback from because the advice they give will be skewed more towards the product. Instead, ask friends or family to help you in this instance because at least then they will be able to tell you more about how you are coming across personally rather than anything else.

2. Record yourself

For some people this could be embarrassing, but recording yourself giving a rehearsed sales pitch can lead to you completely changing how you feel about what you are saying or your delivery. You can look at your body language. You can look at how you actually talk and whether or not you are stressing the key parts. You can also get a sense of the kind of vibe that you are emitting at the time because even though it will be different when you are out there in front of somebody, it does still give a relatively good indication as to what to expect.

3. Be willing to learn from your mistakes

The successful sales professional is always ready to learn from their mistakes, with the first lesson being that they do make them from time to time. There has to be a willingness to do this on your part simply because of the way in which you need to know where you have gone wrong to avoid doing it again in the future.

A mistake that has led to a missed opportunity to close a deal may leave you feeling disheartened, but at the same time it is also not the end of the world. Instead, you must look at what went wrong, figure out why it happened the way it did, and then take appropriate steps to chance tact before it has the chance to happen again.

When it comes to things to look out for, this is going to require you to have a sense of self-awareness and also to reach a point whereby you can be critical about yourself, but at the same time not overly so as this is the kind of thing that can destroy your confidence.

Understanding if things are going wrong will often involve you looking at things such as your conversion rates, how your pitch was received, whether the company itself has received any feedback of note, and also understanding how you felt it went. Now, any good salesperson will be able to identify key areas with experience, but that is why it can often be a good idea to do your first few pitches in the company of an experienced salesperson who you trust, in order to get them to point out those little changes that have to be made to improve how your sales pitch comes across.

By doing this, you may find that you are advised to watch how you speak throughout, as your nerves may get the better of you and you need to address how to stop this from happening. Perhaps you are aware that you fidget or twitch at different times. If so, then consider adapting how you stand or position yourself for the pitch.

Practise your speaking, learn from others and how they do it, and then try the new and improved method to see if it makes a change to your conversion rates.