So what separates the good from the bad?
During my 35-year career in sales development, I’ve built and seen many sales pitches. I’ve also been pitched-to by numerous salespeople — some good and some bad.
To find out the difference, our call analyst Jo Saviour, screened over 500 sales calls in an 8-month period. What we learned was that ALL the best sales pitches include the exact same elements.
If you know what these elements are, you can easily replicate their success. Keep reading to learn what those elements are — and how you can use them to craft your own killer sales pitch.
First, though, let’s address the elephant in the room…
Scripted vs. Freestyle Sales Pitches
The debate is ongoing. Some organisations swear by the effectiveness of a sales pitch script that reps can read word-for-word. Others feel strongly that a freestyle pitch allows reps to initiate a more natural conversation with customers.
Both are true. The sweet spot is actually somewhere in the middle. The benefit of starting with a sales script is that you can plan exactly what you’re going to say and how you’re going to say it. But once started you’ll never stop encountering new scenarios and new ways to address these – so a script never reaches its completion state. It evolves and becomes second nature for most callers after 30 or 40 solid conversations and therefore starts to sound more natural with improvised and embellished elements.
Now, let’s look at how to make a good sales pitch…
There are 6 Essential Elements in Every Good Sales Pitch. Keep in mind, there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach. But if you can answer prospects’ most basic questions in your sales pitch, you’ll have a great jumping off point to pitch effectively.
Based on our study of 500 sales calls, the 6 elements that MUST be included are:
- Why you
- Who your company is
- Pain points
- Benefits
- Validation and referrals
- Close
