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Using Emotions to Convince in Your Sales Pitches

Most presenters are concerned about how their audiences perceive them. They think that being formal will make them look professional, but they’re missing one key element in engaging audiences: emotion.

Since it links people together, your goal is to move them to action through their emotions.

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Presenting facts isn’t enough to successfully convey your message to your audience. You also have to meet their emotional needs to fully get their attention.

What They Show

What you project to your audience displays your true self.

Your personality plays a vital role in creating audience engagement. You can’t fully convince them to listen without catching their interest in some way.

While facts and figures are significant in any sales pitches or public speeches, how your audience feels still matters. According to Tony Carlson, “A memorable speech rests on the quality of the connection between the speaker and the audience.”

Consider these three facts when introducing your proposal:

1. Emotions Make Us Human

Whether you’re looking at your notes or making eye contact with your clients, make sure to relate to the audience at all times.

Build connection by making them feel that you, too, are a human being who can be happy, sad or serious.

2. Emotions Help Us Remember

Tell stories that appeal to their emotions. This makes them recall your message and encourages them to take action.

Share your own experiences or mention other examples that are related to your topic. Details become easier to remember through an emotional connection.

3. Emotions Inspire Us to Act

Once you get them to feel your emotions, convince them to take action.

If you introduce a certain issue that affects them, they’ll see a need to resolve it. Doing so motivates them to not just ignore it.

How to Display Emotions

When showing your emotions, use the right words, voice, body gestures and facial expression to balance the way you speak and act in front of a crowd.

Imagine yourself presenting with enthusiasm, yet with a neutral face and stiff posture. It’ll come across as unnatural and confusing.

A combination of these various factors reveals what you really feel inside. If you lack passion, or if you’re not in the mood, it’ll show.

1. Use Emotions Occasionally

Don’t overdo it. Be mindful when to stir your audience’s emotions to avoid losing your pitch’s impact.

Utilize emotions based on your topic. Learn how to insert these in-between your message’s section.

2. Combine Positive Emotions with Negative

Be dynamic in your pitch. Always follow negativity with positive mentions to establish a balance people’s emotions.

3. End on a Positive Note

Don’t assume that your audience will feel better without ending your pitch positively.

If you start giving your main points with an intention to make them feel bad, finish it with a positive assurance which helps them recall both you and your message.

Conclusion

Understanding how emotions are important in your pitch helps you use, handle and manage them accordingly.

This motivates your audience to listen, learn and recall your message even after your pitch.

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References

Carlson, Tony. The How of WOW: A Guide to Giving a Speech That Will Positively Blow ’em Away. New York: American Management Association, 2005. Print.
Davis, Keith. “Facts tell… emotions sell.” Easy Public Speaking. October 3, 2010. Accessed May 21, 2015. http://easypublicspeaking.co.uk/using-emotions-in-speeches-and-presentations

Adapting Elevator Pitches Into Your Sales Pitch

The idea of adapting a sales pitch into a 30-second elevator pitch is to deliver a clear and concise speech that makes a good impression in a short amount of time.

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When the elevator door opens and a potential client stands near you, you want to catch his attention and, hopefully, get his business card.

Stay ahead of the competition. Consider every pitch as the chance of a lifetime, so make a speech that sells more than it tells.

Here’s how you can plot your message similar to a well-crafted elevator pitch:

Establish Credibility

How can you earn someone’s trust in the span of an elevator ride?

The key is to establish credibility.

Reel your audience in at the very start and build a positive mental picture in their minds.

A short yet concise self-introduction makes you sound credible. According to presentation trainer Gavin Meikle, you can also literally walk the talk and exude credibility through confident body language.

Stating your specialization and longevity on the field, as well as your manner of speaking, are essential. Convince your audience that you’re worth listening to.

Build Curiosity

Eagle Venture CEO Mel Pirchesky’s famously quoted line summarizes the essence of an elevator pitch: “The objective of the first ten or fifteen seconds is to make your prospective investors want to listen to the next forty-five or fifty seconds differently, more intently than they would have otherwise.”

That’s why most elevator pitches build upon curiosity. They want to make the impression last until the last second.

Though short, elevator pitches shouldn’t reveal your entire offer right off the bat. It’s more of a prelude to the bigger pitch coming up once you’ve hooked your listener into paying attention.

For pitches, giving your audience a glimpse of your product’s benefits is great for hooking in a new lead. This suggests involvement and creates the right atmosphere for persuasion.

Express Spontaneity

Elevator speeches express spontaneity.

They sound like a story being told out of impulse, often in a conversational tone. This adds a greater sense of sincerity to your pitch.

When doing a sales pitch, avoid sounding like you’re reading a script.

Practice delivering your speech naturally while sharing your main idea and purpose. Asking a relatable question can also increase audience participation.

Summing It Up

Your sales pitch is your gateway for new leads. Craft an elevator pitch to hook your audience in the most concise and fastest manner possible.

Having problems creating pitch decks that sell? Contact pitchdeck.com and we’ll help you design a pitch deck presentation that gets you the sales you deserve!

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References

Cameron, Chris. “Going Up! How to Ride An Elevator Pitch to New Heights.” ReadWrite. January 11, 2010. Accessed July 01, 2015.
Meikle, Gavin. “How to Come Across as Credible With Your Audience.” InterActiv Presenting and Influencing. July 16, 2013. Accessed July 01, 2015.

Featured Image: “Elevator” by Gideon Tsang on flickr.com

The Secret to an Effective Sales Pitch Rehearsal

The best sales pitches are planned weeks in advance, with rehearsals taking several hours.

Presenters refine several factors such as speech tone, body language, hand gestures, demonstrations, and even slide timing.

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The Secret

What’s the overarching secret to getting the most out of your rehearsal?

Deliberate practice.

According to brand communications expert Carmine Gallo, this is a form of training which involves setting specific goals (say, giving a sales pitch in five minutes), asking for feedback, and continuous improvement during your career as a professional presenter.

Setting Goals

Using this method of training means being specific down to the last detail.

How powerful will your tone be? What sort of emotions do you need to use for presenting? How long will your speech take per slide?

Gallo presents Steve Jobs as an example because of his meticulousness. Jobs spends several hours practicing the sales pitch’s every aspect, right down to how much lighting to use for showing his products.

Similarly, a skilled presenter notes his pitch’s every detail and how they’ll work during the actual show date. This lets you plan how your deck work, including your speech’s timing, for an effortless sales pitch.

Properly Using Feedback

Do the pitch rehearsal with your team, supervisor or even in front of a mirror.

If you have someone or something to help spot your errors, take note of your mistakes and avoid doing them during the actual pitch.

Note if there were likable things you did (ex. building rapport with the audience, poking good-natured fun at yourself) that you can repeat.

Sales strategist Marc Wayshak suggests that another effective way of getting feedback would be to ask prospects what works for them or what doesn’t. This won’t diminish your credibility. In fact, it will make you seem even more determined to connect with them and understand their needs.

Continuous Improvement

As simple as this sounds, improving yourself can take years. Practice is essential to a sales pitch, especially if you want to sound spontaneous.

Over the course of your career, improve yourself by studying both your performance and your audience’s feedback.

Combined with rigorous deliberative practice, you’ll eventually define and improve your mix of personal pitch techniques, letting you sell better than you ever could before.

The Bottom Line

Practice everything, down to the tiniest detail. If you’re as passionate about giving a pitch as Steve Jobs and the top TED speakers are, rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.

Learn from your mistakes and strengths to reach your fullest potential as a presenter.

Once you’ve honed your skills, work with a pitch deck design specialist to give you the right selling tools!

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References

Gallo, C. The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010.
Wayshak, Marc. “5 Tips to Giving the Perfect Sales Presentation.” Salesforce Blog. January 23, 2014. Accessed June 19, 2015.

Sales Pitch Tips from The Art of War: Know Your Craft

In their breakthrough book, The Art of War for Managers, business veterans Gerald and Steven Michaelson cite one of history’s greatest military tacticians, Sun Tzu.

Drawing from one of Sun Tzu’s famous lines, “…the general who understands war is… the guarantor of the security of the nation,” these business gurus suggest that if you spend time knowing your business well enough, you’ll lead it effectively.

The same principle applies to sales pitches.

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CEOs and sales teams take time to know their businesses and products before pitching. They also have a firm grasp of the public speaking techniques they need to sell.

As a presenter, here are three aspects you should master:

Your Product

Knowing your tools is the first step to building a selling idea. According to renowned author Jim Aitchison, learning every aspect of your product or service lets you explain its features correctly. It also helps you outline the benefits your prospects are interested in.

Ask yourself these questions:

  • What is it?
  • How does it work?
  • What benefits does it give to clients?
  • What situations can they use it in?

These should lead to what clients need to know, more specifically: how the product or service help their business.

Your Pitch Techniques

Once you know how your business and products work, rehearse. There is no shortcut.

As brand communications expert, Carmine Gallo, says, even some professional presenters spend several weeks rehearsing for a single pitch. They also take note of what works and what doesn’t so they can improve their public speaking.

Professional presenters deliberately practice until they get their pitch just right, almost as if their work was effortless.

Learn how to use the techniques and tools at your disposal before entering the boardroom to give yourself an immense advantage over others.

Your Pitch Deck

Once you know everything about your product or service and have spent hours rehearsing your speech, it’s time to prepare your third and most crucial component: your pitch deck.

Your deck is not a script, but it’s there to help your audience visualize what you have to say, so keep it as simple and understandable as possible.

You can even hire professional pitch deck specialists to help you design a deck that effectively sells your pitch.

Learn the Tools and the Trade

Pitching skills and techniques are acquired over time. Some spend hours practicing to gain them, while others have built them up over their careers. The same thing goes for knowing your business well enough to sell it.

Know every aspect of your product first. There’s nothing to pitch if you don’t understand your own offering. Rehearse until you master your tone, gestures, and timing. All the information you have is useless if you can’t deliver it clearly.

Finally, make your deck simple but packed with meaningful content. Don’t use them as your cue cards. Instead, use them to emphasize what you want to say. With enough practice, you’ll know how to best persuade a crowd by combining all these factors into a great sales pitch.

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References

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.
Knowing Your Products and Services.” Queensland Government. Accessed June 15, 2015.
Michaelson, G., and Steven Michaelson. Sun Tzu: The Art of War for Managers: 50 Strategic Rules Updated for Today’s Business. 2nd ed. Avon, Mass.: Adams Media. 2010.
The Secret to an Effective Sales Pitch Rehearsal.” pitchdeck.com, Inc. 2015. Accessed June 15, 2015.

Featured Image: “Chinese Brush for Writing Calligraphy” by epSos .de on flickr.com

5 Sales Pitch Tricks from Advertising Agency Gurus

Advertising agencies and presenters both sell products and services using effective messages, be it in the conference room, a lecture hall, a television, or a webinar.

The problem is that the regular customer or client is subjected to several messages from different companies, each trying to get their products ahead of the competition.

You have to go beyond offering what your competition can’t, because almost all competing companies employ the same strategy.

The Challenge

People construct several standards before making purchase-related decisions. This is what renowned author, Jim Aitchison, calls a personal cage.

A personal cage is composed of all the experiences, knowledge, morals, and ethics we gain as we grow.

These standards affect how we see and interpret every message we encounter, especially advertisements and sales pitches.

Building your personal cage happens throughout your whole life.

If the bars of the cage act as filters, find relevant messages that pass through these and sell your sales pitch ideas.

The Five Tricks

The Signpost

Signpost messages signify changes in certain kinds of behavior.

As Aitchison cites in his book, Cutting Edge Advertising, the Pepsi vs. Coca-Cola story is a classic marketing example.

When Michael Jackson became Pepsi’s new icon, they positioned themselves as the drink of the next generation. This led to many Coke drinkers permitting themselves to change those standards.

When Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone’s third quarter market share in 2008, he signified that times were changing for the US smartphone market.

Within the first 90 days of its shipment, he showed the iPhone as a potential investment for customers and business partners alike.

A Newsflash

Introducing a new product or service in an ad pitch is challenging for any startup company, especially product launch advertisements.

Position your message as a piece of news, like how Jobs introduced the iPhone in 2007.

First, he built interest by announcing that Apple reinvented a new product type.

Then, he briefly explained the current competition’s weaknesses: fixed keypads and limited functions.

It was only after all this that he introduced what made the iPhone different and showed the actual product with its full touchscreen capabilities.

This generates strong interest in your offer and highlights what makes you different and more appealing from other brands.

A Message of Support

People always look for something to rationalize an emotional need.

Will people buy an expensive sports car to enhance their personal image?

Will a company invest in a health insurance program to let employees feel that their well-being matters?

Make clients feel that they’re understood. This matches their behavior (in this case, investing in your proposal) with their desires and attitudes.

An Existing Standard of the Client

Since your message is consistent with what your audience already believes in, they’re more likely to respond if you give something that reinforces their beliefs.

Citing CreditUnion’s correspondence with Kraft CEO, Robert K. Deromedi, Demand Media’s Vanessa Cross discusses the mechanics of values-based marketing, particularly its customer-centric nature.

Kraft wanted to reach out to parents who believed in giving their kids a proper meal, so the company pulled out their junk food advertising to establish credibility with their intended customers.

Shared Experiences

Like the way TED Talk speakers relate their pitches to personal experiences, offering another person’s perspective sells your message.

Some experiences mirror your own, even at a conceptual level. This includes being plagued with restrictive problems then solving it intuitively.

Look into your company’s product or service history. Did someone have a eureka moment after a long observation? Did someone experience something that led to developing what you sell?

Everything has an interesting story behind it. Your sales pitch is no exception.

Everyone has something to dream about: a new house, a better car, a more luxurious lifestyle, etc.

Everyone wants something, especially your clients. Make your sales pitch interesting enough to pass through your clients’ standards.

Want to know more about using these five tricks more effectively? Hire pitchdeck.com, your pitch deck partner, to help you out.

References

Aitchison, Jim. Cutting Edge Advertising: How to Create the World’s Best Print for Brands in the 21st Century. Singapore; New York: Prentice Hall, 2004.
Cross, Vanessa. “The Goals of Values-Based Marketing.” Chron. Accessed June 5, 2015.

Get Back in the Game: Regain Your Sales Pitch Skills

It’s challenging to get back on your feet after losing your touch. Failing to deliver is unacceptable when rejected sales pitches result in lost profits.

Humans are prone to mistakes and these happen with sales pitches, too. You might trip, lose your touch, and wonder how you even got there in the first place.

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While there’s no set timetable for recovery or a rock-solid formula to regaining your edge, there are three factors to assess if you want to get back in the game:

What defined your style?

Over time, presenters develop their own personal brand. These define you as a presenter.

Remember which pitch skills worked for you. Review your old pitch deck sales presentations and identify what made them work.

Were your slide designs simplistic?

Did you share any relevant stories from personal experience? Did you connect to your audience with shared beliefs?

Find answers by looking at your past performances. Know your style, take notes on what you can improve on, and start practicing again.

How can you make yourself relevant?

Look at how successful brands sell their products through advertising.

According to Interbrand group chief executive, Chuck Brymer, effective branding techniques define what a business stands for.

Coke is a refreshing drink, Nike is for sporty go-getters, etc. They understand what their customers want and adjust their ads to stay relevant in the market.

As presenters, you also represent your company’s brand.

How you do your sales pitch reflects how your company does business with others, whether you speak professional or casually. You embody what your company stands for, so bank on those beliefs to re-establish a connection with your clients.

How can you rebuild credibility?

Successful companies stay that way is because they never compromise their core beliefs.

As cited in Jim Aitchison’s book, Cutting Edge Advertising, Avis consistently positioned its message as the number two brand for car rentals. This gave customers the impression of a hard-working company.

In order to stay relevant, companies continuously understand how their customers behave to pitch their products effectively. Take this same practice and apply them to your sales pitches. Remain consistent with what your company stands for and understand how these can relate with what your clients believe in. This builds up that relationship with promises and trust.

Regaining your edge shouldn’t be limited to these three factors. Keep practicing and trying out new ways to make yourself unique.

Focus on how you want your listeners to see you and what they’d miss if you quit.

To get that edge, call a pitch deck partner to help you out. All it takes is fifteen minutes.

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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: Prentice Hall.
Brymer, Chuck. “WHAT MAKES BRANDS GREAT?Marketing Magazine. Accessed May 11, 2015.
Sales Presentation Skills: Stay Relevant to Pitch Ideas.” pitchdeck.com, May 11, 2015. Accessed May 15, 2015.

What’s Wrong With Your Sales Pitches?

Sales pitches are a crucial step to your reaching out and communicating with prospect clients. During such an opportunity, you get to make them understand the importance of what your brand can do for them.

Because of this, it’s important that you make the most of the time you’ve been given. Delivering a successful sales pitch leads you one step closer to sealing the deal with a new client.

But what if your sales pitches aren’t helping you reach that outcome? Let us lend you a hand by taking note of some mistakes that could cost you incredible opportunities:

Mistake #1: Lack of preparation

Most people try to prepare for sales pitches as quickly as possible, thinking they can simply “wing” most of their pitch.

Sure, you might have taken the time to prepare your pitch deck and all the points you want to cover, but this isn’t enough to get you across the finish line. If you really want to succeed and impress your prospects, plan and prepare every aspect of your pitch.

Take the time to do some research and prepare your materials long before your scheduled meeting.

Plan how you’ll go about your pitch deck to make sure you don’t go over the time you were given. Be meticulous about every step, or you might end up with a half-baked pitch.

Mistake #2: The hard sell

Your ultimate goal is to seal the deal with your prospects. However, your sales pitches shouldn’t sound like a desperate bid to get hired.

While hard selling has its own benefits, Gigaom contributor, Celine Roque, explains that its straightforwardness may not always work for everyone.

Explore other avenues of pitching your product or service. Let your brand should speak for itself. Work hard to present all the significant features that are relevant to your audience by appealing to their experiences.

During your preparation, try to learn as much as you can about your prospects: What particular challenge would they want to solve with the help of your product or service?

After that, identify a few attributes that would be important to them based on what you found out through your research.

Mistake #3: Poor delivery

You can have the most inspired pitch deck ever, but it won’t be any good if you can’t deliver properly.

As compelling as your points might be, you need to make sure you sell them as best you can.

Don’t waste a good opportunity by mumbling to yourself and avoiding eye contact. Face the crowd with confidence.

If you’re feeling a bit nervous about it, we have plenty of tips that might help you shake off your anxiety. Rather than run away from your fears, face them and use them to your advantage.

Your audience doesn’t know your pitch deck the way you do, so don’t be afraid to make mistakes.

You’ll be surprised how much you can do when you put on a brave face.

Mistake #4: Ignoring the audience

It’s hard to trust and engage with a presenter who talks without much regard to his audience.

If you don’t take the time to pause and ask questions, your prospects might feel like you’re talking at them, rather than to them. This defeats the point of engaging them.

Instead of this bad habit, make them feel like you’re in a productive conversation.

Remember that you have to leave your prospects with a favorable impression of your brand and organization.

A disengaged presenter won’t do that. Make eye contact and be pleasant throughout your pitch. Observe their reactions and ask for their comments if it looks like someone might want to share comments.

Mistake #5: Bad pitch deck designs

Finally, keep in mind that pitch deck design plays an important role in the success of sales pitches.

As we’ve mentioned time and again, majority of people are visual learners. Seeing your pitch play out in front of them as engaging visuals can really add impact to the message you want to share.

Step out of the mold and customize your design. You can also browse through our portfolio for inspiration and contact our expert pitch deck designers for some extra help.

References

Design Ideas: How to Improve PowerPoint Templates.” pitchdeck.com, December 9, 2014. Accessed March 3, 2015.
Roque, Celine. “Hard Selling vs. Soft Selling: Which Approach Do You Use With Clients?Gigaom. February 25, 2009. Accessed March 3, 2015.
The Visual (spatial) Learning Style.” Learning Styles. Accessed March 3, 2015.

Featured Image: David Goehring via Flickr

9 Simple Rules for an Effective Sales Pitch

There’s a lot at stake when delivering a sales pitch. After cold calls and endless follow-ups, you now have the opportunity to meet with prospects and have a worthwhile discussion with them. You get to showcase the service or product you’re offering and all the benefits attached to it.

In order to succeed, you can’t just throw a pitch deck together and deliver a haphazard pitch. Instead, you need to be mindful of the correct techniques, making use of your creativity to leave a lasting impression.

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Here are 9 simple rules to make sure your pitch goes according to plan:

1.) Keep it short and simple

It’s easy to lose interest in a pitch that seems to go on forever. Even with an extremely engaging topic, most audiences have a hard time focusing their attention for more than a couple of minutes.

The first step to improving your sales pitch is by cutting down the content. Focus only on the points that are crucial to the message you’re delivering.

2.) Hook the audience with a story

There’s nothing more compelling than a good story. Instead of presenting your pitch in a traditional, matter-of-fact way, you can spin it into a narrative. Following the dramatic arc of ancient Greek plays, or use the AIDA method as a guide.

With a specific and structured narrative, you can easily determine which points are crucial to your message, and which ones feel excessive or unnecessary. This technique can also lead to a stronger connection between you and your audience.

3.) Create tension by identifying challenges

All the best stories are able to build tension for conflict and suspense. The same thing should be true for your sales pitch. Briefly show your prospects just how crucial your product or service is. Let them know that you’re aware of the problems they encounter. Describe a scenario that enumerates the challenges they face. Aside from making your pitch more compelling, this will let your prospects see how much you understand their current situation.

4.) Release tension by detailing your solution

Of course, you’ll need to do more than talk about the problems. Too much suspense can also kill engagement, so balance your story out by bringing attention to positive details as well. Delve into the features of your product or service, and focus on the opportunities it can give your prospects. Show them how your solution is the best way to overcome their challenges.

5.) Showcase your accomplishments, expertise, and experience

Another thing you can’t miss is to showcase the value of your brand and company. Build audience trust by enumerating your key accomplishments and relevant industry experience. Let your prospects understand the culture and logic behind your product or service, but don’t spend too much time blowing your own horn. Majority of your sales pitch should be spent on connecting with your prospect and showcasing the benefits of your offer.

6.) Emphasize your message with slides that incorporate your brand

Your brand encapsulates your entire company identity. By creating a pitch deck that mirrors your brand, you can help your pitch become more unique and distinguishable. The easiest way to go about this is by using a color palette that’s similar to your logo. You can also incorporate the overall theme of your product into your design. These examples can serve as inspiration.

7.) Prepare for the difficult questions

You can never tell how the audience will react to your pitches. Your prospect might ask you questions that are difficult to answer. They could also bring up points you weren’t made aware of in your previous conversations. For situations like this, it’s always better to be prepared. Get ready to improvise. It will also help if you list down and answer all the possible questions that your audience might ask. Consult your colleagues and other members of your team to expand your list.

8.) Close with a specific Call-to-Action

The Call-to-Action (CTA) is perhaps the most crucial part of your sales pitch. It summarizes the purpose of your pitch in a bold statement that urges your prospects to take positive action. In other words, the CTA puts the ball on their side of the court. To be effective, a CTA needs to be direct, precise, and straight to the point.

9.) Don’t forget to follow up

Your work doesn’t stop even after your sales pitch ends with positive feedback. You can’t assume that your prospects will immediately act on your pitch. The people in your audience, especially the key decision makers, often have busy schedules. To make sure the impact of your sales pitch doesn’t dwindle, send an email to your prospects and reiterate your points.

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READ MORE: What Makes a Sales Pitch, As Told by Mad Men’s Don Draper

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Enhance Your Sales Pitches with the AIDA Method

Did your last sales pitch end with blank stares from the audience? If your answer is a loud and desperate ‘yes’, it’s time to consider a new strategy. Luckily, there’s a classic marketing trick that will help sustain audience engagement throughout your pitch. It’s called the AIDA method.

The AIDA method was first developed in 1898. It proves its longevity as it continues to provide an effective framework for marketing efforts. Utilize it for your next sales pitch.

What is AIDA?

AIDA is an acronym that stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. Basically, it serves as a framework for any type of content that aims to persuade, engage, and convert readers or viewers. For pitches, you start by grabbing the attention of your audience then move to building their interest.

When that’s done, you strive to make an emotional connection. This will eventually lead to positive response.

How exactly does AIDA work? Let’s break down each component of the method to see how it can improve your sales pitch:

A – Attention

Set up your pitch by introducing the problem your product or service can solve. Be creative with your approach. You can do it by describing a hypothetical scenario your audience can relate with. You can also start with shocking statistics. If you’re feeling brave, try integrating humor through a short anecdote. Another thing you can do is to ask your audience a thought-provoking question.

I – Interest

With your audience hooked, it’s time to dig a little bit deeper. Talk about the special features of your product or service. Provide them with information that’s backed by proof. If your product allows it, give your audience a short demonstration. This is your chance to impress your audience with case studies and facts gathered through research. The key is to build a strong case.

D – Desire

This step of the AIDA method is closely related to the previous one. After you sustain interest with hard facts, you have to generate a strong emotional connection. You want your audience to realize that you have the best solution to their problems. Continue explaining the features of your product or service, but frame the discussion in a way that’s a bit more personalized for your audience. Explain the advantages of your offer, and how that could benefit them. You can also show them a video of testimonials from relatable clients and customers.

A – Action

If you were able to sustain interest and create an emotional connection, the last step of the AIDA method will be easy to accomplish. After you’ve convinced your audience that your product/service is something they need, persuade them to take action. Take inspiration from advertisers who use a sense of urgency in their commercials. For your pitch, give the audience a call to action that’s straight to the point.

Reference

What Is AIDA?About.com Money. Accessed August 19, 2014.

Featured Image: Flazingo Photos via Flickr