Make Your Sales Pitch "Pitch Perfect"

Susan Allan, founder of The Sales Forum, has been a valuable coach to Extraordinary Events and our entire team to counsel and teach us better communication skills. All her savvy input reaches to far more than our own event industry. It even applies to a car salesman. If you see an 80-year old walk in, you probably don't try to sell him the Corvette or even a hybrid. On the other hand, for a young family you will focus on the SUV or something similar. In other words, no matter what the discipline, it's know your audience. Who YOU are never really matters if you cannot find a way to connect ... we all have much to learn from Susan, and I am happy that this blog can reach out to benefit so many. -Andrea Michaels

Make Your Sales Pitch "Pitch Perfect"
-By Susan Allan

As a sales and business coach within many industries, I have found that there is a "sweet spot" that account execs and business owners can reach so that their sales pitch becomes pitch perfect. While you alter each pitch for your specific audience, there are a few simple steps that allow you to create "winning conversations" every time. I have experimented with these for decades, and countless clients have proven the results that are generated with The 6 Part Conversation for Sales© below. The unique quality about this system is that it puts 95% of your focus on "them" so that you truly understand who you are meeting. When you put time into prep work, every meeting is a smooth and successful one because you are fully prepared. When you demonstrate your awareness of someone's company and industry based on research before each meeting, you shift rapport from a wish to a reality. You may be experienced in "Qualifying the Client;" here is your chance to qualify and quantify yourself so that you are fully ready to pick up the phone and make each call.

Look at the Top 10 on your Wish List, those companies that you really want as clients. With Vertical Marketing you're able to save time by focusing on a few industries, do your reading, and prepare. What do the clients need? How are you going to meet these needs? What is your unique solution for this? Why are you most qualified to sell to them? What terminology is appropriate? What part of your PowerPoint presentation do you enhance and what part do you ignore? What research can you do before meeting the "players" at the firm? Once you've checked www.linkedin.com; www.facebook.com; www.youtube.com; and www.google.com, you're ready to create unique verbiage to motivate them to your Close. Thus your process may be:

1. Target a company or industry.
2. Decide which company to approach first based on research.
3. Research the CEO, key employees and any press releases.
4. Do all the above in less than 30 minutes.
5. Begin to craft your pitch and work with your team to generate a few "big picture" creative ideas.
6. Craft the actual verbiage you need for your meeting specific to the audience.

At the meeting, once you have spent the first few minutes socializing, you will want to gently move to business, right? Here are some of the key phrases that you may find helpful in most preliminary meetings before you begin your actual pitch and during the pitch to ensure  that your audience is attentive:

1. I noticed on your Web site that _________________________.
2. When I read the ______________article about your firm, I guessed that you might be interested in ____________________________.
3. Since you just won the ________________award last month, I know how important ____________ is to you; may I describe the quality consciousness for which we are famous?

Yes, it is all about them in the beginning of a Presentation if you want to demonstrate that you are truly interested in their needs. Proving that you are committed to their success can be your biggest goal. Arriving with a working knowledge of their industry, their company and the person you're seeing is required, not optional, and proves your competence. Arriving with a few reasons why they need your product is another essential. Once you have enough information from them, you will return with your full Presentation, incorporating all the information you have gathered and using your full creativity and memory. If you're a seasoned professional, be great on your feet, pulling exciting ideas out of nowhere. If you're new to the industry, ask for the days you need, and that's what a full-court press is for. Since you can't demonstrate dependability before they're your client, speak about your firm's reputation. Then, it's time for your second meeting, and you may find some of these phrases helpful:

1. I remember that at our last meeting you said___________________________.
2. When I heard you say_________________, it made me think of________________________.
3. I'm guessing that since you (did or said)________________________that you might like us to ________________________________for you; does that sound good?

Each improvement that you make on your sales pitch can be multiplied and multiplied in each successful meeting so that in a short time your results can be exactly what you have dreamed of achieving and your sales results bigger than ever before!

 Susan Allan is the Founder of The Sales Forum and a specialist in creating successful career and business strategies for corporations and entrepreneurs. Susan is an author and certified mediator and has created The 6 Part Conversation for Sales and numerous unique skills that allow us to create peaceful and cooperative negotiations, and motivate and inspire anyone to a Close! As the on-air host and executive producer of Evolution Revolution TV, Susan explores the newest breakthroughs in thinking and communication. During Susan’s 20-year career in fashion, she and her teams designed and sold over a half billion dollars of her products. She has been seen on Fox News and on hundreds of television and radio shows demonstrating the results we can create when we transform the way we think, listen, speak, and act and focus on solutions instead of on problems!  Due to the non-profit status of the parent company, Susan offers a complimentary 1-hour private telephone session so that everyone can transform their lives, their finances and their future! Susan may be reached at susan@susanallan.org.