Writing great pitches is an essential ability for every salesperson, and will make all the difference between getting lackluster results and crushing sales quotas. Having a few templates of great pitches that you can modify and tweak to make them more personalized to your prospects can save you a great deal of time as a salesperson. The following 8 tips will help you master the science of writing a great sales pitch for any type of prospect!
Your pitches should have a direct connection to a problem or pain point your prospects are trying to solve. Of course, this requires research beforehand! The more targeted your pitches are and the more knowledge you demonstrate about the problems the recipient is currently facing, the more results you will have.
2. Get their Attention Early
Most people are only going to read the headline and maybe the first two or three lines of your pitch. Therefore, it is critical that you get the recipient’s attention fast and present your value proposition early on in the text of your pitch. The best approach is to be direct and concise. Many fall into the trap of trying to write creative, evocative, or overly clever headlines to entice their prospects to keep reading. But vague messages are usually ignored or discarded immediately. Instead, your prospects should know exactly what value you are offering just by reading the headline and first few lines. You want the headline to be so clear and to the point that even without opening the message your prospect will understand exactly what your company is offering them. You should also try to incorporate numbers into your headlines whenever possible. The more specific and fact-based they are, the more credibility you establish and the likelier your prospects are to keep reading.
3. Story-Based
The best sales pitches tell a story, with the customer in the role of the protagonist. The prospect should feel they are going to undergo a journey. Structuring your pitch as a narrative can be a very powerful technique, as people respond emotionally to stories, especially if they are at the center of them. Make sure to focus on conveying the emotions they will feel when they have completed their journey by making the purchase, the weight that will be lifted off their shoulders, and the distance they will have traveled. If you can truly make your prospects identify with and connect to a story, they will feel connected to your product and be very likely to buy.
4. Propose Value
Everything you do in your sales pitch should be centered around one main goal, demonstrating and explaining the specific value your product will deliver to the customer. Don’t get caught up in explaining the features and bells and whistles your product may have. Always relate your product’s features back to the benefits they will provide for the customer. At the end of every sentence, you should ask yourself, ‘how does this point provide value to the customer?’ If you can’t come up with an answer, that is a sign that you need to focus more on the problems the customer is facing and the benefits you can provide them. If you focus throughout your pitch on how you can help your clients get the results they want, rather than how you can show off your product, it is difficult to go wrong!
5. Personalized
The best sales pitches feel very personal and specific, rather than coming across as generic and ‘salesy’. Your prospects should be consistently impressed by how knowledgeable and informed you are about their needs as a company. This is also the best way to distinguish your message from the tidal wave of sales content that your customers are receiving on a weekly basis, much of which is generic and impersonal.
6. Testimonials
One of the essential aspects of a great sales pitch is demonstrating credibility through testimonials. One of the biggest factors in a prospect’s decision is seeing that other people have bought and been satisfied with the product.
7. Call to Action
An astonishing number of sales pitches are sent out without a clear call to action to the recipient. As a salesperson, you should never leave the next step vague or implicit. Some people are wary about selling too directly, but being straightforward is always the best tactic. There should be as little ambiguity as possible, and your pitch should include an explicitly worded call to action that makes it as easy and seamless as possible for the prospect to go on to the next step of their buyer’s journey.
8. Follow Up
Your work is far from done if you sent out a sales pitch and didn’t get a response. One of the keys to sales is persistence. The average prospect says no up to four times before saying yes, so you shouldn’t hesitate to keep trying if you don’t get a definite response. No matter how great and personalized your pitch is, you will likely have to keep trying and reaching out afterward. Your follow-up messages and calls are nearly as important as your initial sales pitch.
The most effective sales pitches are written to address the customer’s main problems. Find out what your potential customers want and need, then tailor your pitch accordingly. Getting their attention early is important too; you don't have much time before they lose interest or click away from your website page altogether. Once you've captured their attention with an intriguing story, make sure to offer solutions that will solve their problem without compromising on price or quality of service (you can use testimonials for this). Close by asking them for a sale in some form. Finally, follow up after sending the email so you can continue building rapport and a solid relationship.
If you’re a sales leader, there are multiple ways to train your team and help them achieve better results. These five creative strategies will give you an edge in today’s competitive market.
Having a system builds mutual trust between salespeople and prospects. The salesperson is able to have better conversations and become a trusted advisor. The techniques are very effective because they are based on psychological discipline and focus on how people truly communicate, which leads to long-term relationships between salespeople and their prospects.
