Here are three things you might be overlooking when giving your sales pitch:
1) Know Your Prospects’ Alternatives
Your potential customer has a problem. They need your product, but what you’re offering is only one of many.
In fact, your product may not even be their best option.
The goal of your sales pitch is to become the only option.
You want to start your conversation and sales pitch by identifying their needs. This is the moment you’re most likely to be on the same page.
What comes next is you telling them that if they purchase your product, their lives will be significantly easier.
Well, they may not agree with that.
As you present your solution and illustrate the benefits of your product, the customer is asking themselves a variety of different questions all which stem from one root question:
“Is there a better alternative?”
This is where you start losing them.
You’re losing them because as you’re speaking, they’re thinking of something else—lower costs, better performance, a faster solution.
This is why you need to be familiar with their alternatives (your competitors) and discuss them. By discussing these options, you provide insight, strengths, and weaknesses. Most of all, you are now in a position to understand their concerns which will inform future pitches and perhaps even help you improve your product.
Don’t hesitate to ask if there are any alternatives you’re not aware of.
In fact, asking them about their alternatives tells you something you have considered and you learn or they admit there are no better alternatives. Once someone has stated aloud that there are no better alternatives, they may be more likely to realize not buying just delays the inevitable.
2) Keep Their Eyes on You
Sales is a balancing act between compassion and aggression.
You want to be assertive, but still able to control the moment. Much of this balance is found in body language and eye contact.
Usually, when people create pitch decks, they feel it needs to tell the whole story. They litter every slide with superfluous information.
This is a problem: by filling slides with walls of content, these assets fatigue the audience, give them an opportunity to “escape” (a.k.a, zone out, engage with their cell phones, etc.), and ultimately miss your key message.
The takeaway? Keep your copy as light as possible. This approach quickly turns the attention back to you.
You’re the authority on the subject. Making them read everything puts the onus of information on their shoulders, rather than you working for them. It’s a bad way to begin a relationship. By holding information for your pitch, you invite eye contact, conveying not only your authority on the subject, but your willingness to be open and communicative.
3) Avoid “Strawman” Comparisons
No one likes to be “sold.”
People are naturally wary of salesmen. The less a potential customer or client trusts you, the harder it will be to make a sale.
A quick way to lose that trust is to make an unfair statement about a competitor.
Salespeople are willing to dismiss their competitors as “just out to make a buck,” attacking their motives, their value or their service without regard for the facts.
The truth is, we’re all out to make a buck, but that doesn’t mean we don’t offer value as we do it. If you present yourself as different from your competitors because you are not financially motivated, you won’t have the credibility to close the sale.
Discussing your competition fairly and honestly will disarm their natural resistance to being sold.
And in some cases, others will offer a better product or a greater value than you.
You don’t have to acknowledge it’s better to say that it’s good. Simply focus on what makes yours ideal.
Sometimes, that’s as simple as the convenience of being able to solve the problem this minute without making the customer seek out their own solution.
After all, people value the human component. Don’t fail to add your person-to-person exchange into the column of what you are offering the competition is not.
Your Narrative Is Your Map to Success
When planning your sales deck, you probably collated a list of all your important talking points.
You may have even found an outline online of how to present all that information. But don’t defer to someone’s catchall approach.
The truth is, the ideal narrative for your sales pitch is shaped by who you’re talking to. That is, your prospects’ persona.
More than likely, you’re talking to more than one persona on a regular basis, so rather than following what someone else suggests has worked for them, ask yourself how you can adjust your talking points to direct each prospect to a moment of clarity specific to their personas pain points.
Your actual pitch is only a few slides. It should cover pricing, delivery, and your call-to-action. Once you’ve moved your customer to that moment of clarity, these are just the steps they need to get what they want. Every other talking point should be bringing them to this moment.
Equip Yourself with an Immaculate Sales Pitch Deck
Prospective customers who see a visually dynamic pitch deck get a peek at the quality they should expect.
That puts their minds at ease. A clumsy pitch or sales deck can act as a warning. Rather than going to art school, enlist the help of a professional designer.
pitchdeck.com has been designing superior sales assets for our clients since 2012. We’ve helped countless clients throughout the world to build pitch decks that have raised millions. Don’t hesitate to reach out to one of helpful representatives to find out how we can help you bring your sales pitch deck to the next level.
