7 Tips for Crafting the PERFECT Sales Pitch

If you’ve followed my content for long enough, then you already know that I’m pretty critical of the idea of using a traditional sales pitch.

Why? Because they simply don’t work.

Traditional sales pitches typically involve using a features and benefits presentation early on in the conversation with prospects. Salespeople jump right into telling the prospect about the amazing solutions they have to offer. 

This approach is just pain cheesy and old-school. Today, the data shows that prospects are immediately disengaged from that kind of sales pitch.

Instead, the perfect sales pitch is focused on providing insight and value to the prospect; not touting the best parts of your product, company, or service. 

In this video, I’m going to show you 7 tips for crafting the perfect sales pitch. Check it out:

Video Summary:

Perfect Sales Pitch Tip #1: The pitch isn’t about you, it’s about them.

This is such an important distinction when it comes to crafting the perfect sales pitch. Prospects only care about themselves. They’re only focused on their own world, and they don’t care about your product, your service, or your company.

You’ve got the best offering on the market? Good for you. Prospects don’t care.

What they care about is finding a reliable solution to their top challenges. That’s all.

The key is to make your sales pitch all about them. Focus that early part of every sales conversation on the most pressing issues your prospects are facing.

You’ll ultimately use your perfect sales pitch to engage them in a real dialogue, establish your expertise, and make it clear that you have strong authority in the area that can help them solve their challenges.

Perfect Sales Pitch Tip #2: Use a small whiteboard.

To craft the perfect sales pitch, use a small whiteboard at the very beginning of the conversation. (Or, if you’re on the phone, lay out the same process I’m going to explain to you without physically showing the prospect your whiteboard.)

If you’re on a Zoom video call or in a face-to-face meeting, you should actually use a small whiteboard, your iPad, or your screen to write out the following key pieces: the top issues that the prospect is facing; why those challenges exist and how they affect the prospect; and some data to show that you are the expert to help solve them.

There is nothing more impressive than a salesperson who is competent and comfortable enough to stand up and start writing on a whiteboard in a structured fashion.

Perfect Sales Pitch Tip #3: Lay out the top three challenges you see.

This is where the whiteboard pitch gets really interesting. Use your whiteboard to start a conversation with your prospect by laying out the top three challenges you see your prospects facing right now.

In my world, my prospects are high-level executives in sales. So I would say something like, “Right now, I see a lot of clients similar to you facing three key issues with sales…” And then I’d turn to my whiteboard and write as I explained:

Challenge #1: Losing sales to low-cost competitors

Challenge #2: Being treated as just another vendor

Challenge #3: Struggling to maintain quota

Perfect Sales Pitch Tip #4: Share a root cause for each challenge.

Once you’ve used your whiteboard to lay out the top three challenges, you’ll share a root cause for each challenge. I’d say something like, “Now, what we see with these three sales challenges is that there are clear root causes behind each…” Then, I’d turn back to my whiteboard and write as I explained:

Root Cause #1: Salespeople aren’t engaging in conversations around real value

Root Cause #2: Salespeople are winging the sales process

Root Cause #3: Sales reps are doing the same thing over and over again

Perfect Sales Pitch Tip #5: Give one piece of data for each root cause.

The final piece of the whiteboard pitch is to give one piece of data for each root cause. This is where you really start to show your expertise. Here’s what I would share on my whiteboard:

• Only 18% of salespeople today are classified by buyers as trusted advisors whom they respect

• 68% of salespeople are behaving in ways that actually drive down performance in sales

• Only 24.3% of salespeople exceeded their quota last year

By way of explanation, I would say the following as I wrote the data points on my whiteboard: “For the first challenge, what we see is that only 18% of salespeople today are actually classified by buyers as trusted advisors whom they actually respect. Second, we’re seeing that 68% of salespeople are behaving in ways that truly drive down performance and sales. And on the third issue, fewer than 25% of salespeople actually exceeded their quota last year.”

Perfect Sales Pitch Tip #6: Engage them to talk.

After you’ve just shared that entire whiteboard pitch (which by the way, only takes about two minutes) it’s time to engage your prospect to talk.

Simply wrap up your whiteboard pitch by saying something like, “Now, based on what I’ve just talked about, do any of these issues ring true to you?”

This is a critical part of the perfect sales pitch, because this is where you start to uncover what the prospect is truly thinking about in their world.

You’ve already established your expertise and shared a ton of insight. Now it’s time to hear from the prospect about which key challenges are affecting them the most right now.

Perfect Sales Pitch Tip #7: Disqualify.

After your whiteboard pitch, the next and final phase of the perfect sales pitch is the disqualification process. In order to disqualify, simply ask a series of intentional questions to engage the prospect in a high-value conversation and determine whether they are a fit.

Once your prospect has shared their top challenges, ask questions like, “Can you tell me a little bit more about how that challenge affects you?” Since you’ve taken the time to walk your prospect through the perfect sales pitch up until now, they will open up to you and talk to you like you’re an expert who has demonstrated that you understand their world.

Based on their answers to the questions you ask during the disqualification process, you can then decide whether the prospect is a good fit, or if you should focus your time and energy elsewhere.

So, there you have it. Now you know 7 tips for crafting the perfect sales pitch. Which of these ideas did you find most useful? Share your thoughts in the comments section below to join the conversation.