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3 Crucial Pointers for Making Effective Sales Pitches

In every sales pitch, offering new products changes how clients see three things: their problem, your company and your pitch. According to Cutting Edge Advertising author, Jim Aitchison, “Disruption” is an advertising method which involves presenting your idea as the solution to dismantle the status quo and replace it with something new.

Clients have objections relating to costs, time and your proposals’ reliability. Break these barriers to change their perceptions. Every business presentation’s goal is to convince clients to take the risk of investing in your idea.

1. Prove That You can Change the Status Quo

Change how your clients see their problem by presenting an opportunity to solve it. Apple iPhone users relied on wall sockets to charge their phones. The Samsung Galaxy S5’s commercial challenged this with its improved power-saving mode and interchangeable batteries. It dismantled the status quo despite directly attacking the iPhone.

Make a strong statement by studying your current industry and competition for any weaknesses you can exploit.

2. Change How Clients See Your Company

With several other companies pitching ideas, show what makes you unique. Offer your best advantage over the competition. Back up your claims with numbers.

Have you made notable profits? Are your solutions more cost-efficient than others? Prove that your idea’s worth investing in. Brand communications expert Carmine Gallo suggests that entrepreneurs show investors that you can compete with major market players. Explain what the numbers mean for them.

3. Change How Clients See Your Pitch

Because clients look for proof that you deliver, make your pitch convincing with past cases of your success. Have you made any notable achievements? Are there other companies that can testify that you deliver your promise?

Your pitch has a higher approval rate if you offer proof, if your promises are consistent with what your company does, and if you show that other clients are satisfied. These address any objections you’ll face.

The Bottom Line

Changing perceptions involves showing proof that you can spark said changes.

In business and sales pitches, point out how to solve the problem and how you plan to do it. Then, convince your clients that your company can consistently deliver. This proves that clients can trust your company to get the most out of their investment.

To learn more about making sales presentation strong enough to convince clients, talk to the right people.

References

Ad Agency Tricks: Outsell Competitors in Sales Presentations.” pitchdeck.com, 2015. Accessed July 23, 2015.
Aitchison, J. Cutting Edge Advertising: How to Create the World’s Best Print for Brands in the 21st Century. Singapore; New York: Prentice Hall, 2004.
Gallo, C. The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010.
Samsung Galaxy S5Samsung Mobile. Accessed July 23, 2015.

4 Sales Pitch Ideas from Radio Advertisement Writers

According to ad veteran, Luke Sullivan, presenters and radio ad writers come up with ways to get customers to listen and buy what they advertise.

While presenters have the advantage of more time (ten to twenty minutes of presentation time vs. a thirty-second radio ad) and a pitch deck to provide visuals, the majority of the pitch depends on how the presenter talks.

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Voice tones, hand gestures, and even body language contribute to how effectively you deliver your sales pitch.

Brand communications expert, Carmine Gallo, suggests that you can either give a listless pitch deck with notecards, or you can study your product long enough to come up with an interesting idea that sells itself.

Because radio ad writers and presenters share a common problem, there are solutions that are applicable to both parties:

Use words to paint images.

Telling a story is one effective way to make a compelling pitch, but using words to describe a picture can effectively engage your audience, letting them visualize what you have in mind.

Your sales pitch deck is there to provide a visual image for your audience when you give your speech.

This becomes even more effective when the deck applies the right design methods to enhance your core message.

Use speech ideas you can describe in a sentence.

Simplifying your topic gives your clients a clearer picture of what you have to offer.

The same thing applies when you craft your pitch deck speech. The first question you need to ask is: “What is my pitch all about?”

Once you answer this, start writing your script and practice it.

Whether you want to present a car that gets you to where you want to go, or an impressive quarterly sales result for your brand, boil down your topic into one simple idea.

You’ll have more freedom to write your script.

Use the right tone for your pitch.

While using a conversational tone works for most professional pitches, there are times where you need to bring your passion into your pitch, particularly when building hype for a new product or celebrating a new sales record and making new recommendations.

The key is to know your client’s expectations.

Once you do, stay relevant to those expectations in order to connect with your clients.

You may want to use humor in your speech, but that won’t work if the client expects you to be serious and professional.

You can be funny, but you need to be interesting.

While some presenters like to poke fun during their pitches, remember to be professional and take your clients seriously so you can sell.

If the situation calls for you to poke fun at your product, then it’s fine. Sullivan reiterates that every presenter needs to be “interesting.”

Being interesting means having an idea.

Fortunately, as renowned author Jim Aitchison suggests, every product has a story to tell.

Maybe it has something that no other competitor has, the way it was made puts it above others, or maybe it has benefits that no other product has.

Whatever your speech idea, always go back to what you want to talk about. Chances are, there’s an interesting story to tell your clients.

That story might be your ticket to selling your pitch.

As with every story, getting someone to look it over gives you room for improvement, increasing your chances of selling.

Just as radio ad writers need editors, every presenter needs the help of a professional pitch deck specialist to give them that selling advantage.

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References

Aitchison, J. (2004). Cutting Edge Advertising: How to Create the World’s Best Print for Brands in the 21st Century. Singapore ; New York: Prentice Hall.
Gallo, C. (2010). The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Sales Presentation Skills: Stay Relevant to Pitch Ideas.” pitchdeck.com, May 11, 2015. Accessed June 9, 2015.
Sullivan, L. (2008). Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This! A Guide to Creating Great Ads. Hoboken, NJ – J. Wiley & Sons.

Featured Image: “Radio ZRK Eroica cropped background” by Tomek Goździewicz on Wikimedia Commons