Sales Pitch

Sales Pitch

Everyone knows that a sales interview is never won in advance. To win the order, you must convince your customer that your offer is the one he needs. As a big part of your success lies in the preparation of this moment. One of the key points is the sales pitch. Let’s see how to build an effective tool for the sales pitch.

Take Your Sales Pitch as an Effective Tool

Some Precision before the Method

Functionality: it is a characteristic of the product, an aspect that can be described as technical. Example: accounting software that has an export function. So the latter makes it possible to transfer its data in a format compatible with the tools of its accountant.

Advantage: it corresponds to which features provide the service rendered. In our example, the export function saves time in the transfer of information to its accountant.

Customer benefit: it is the impact of a benefit for a customer, which he will personally gain from a given characteristic. You are there at the heart of the argumentation. Let’s take our software. For an entrepreneur, the export function allows him to get out of a task without added value and to invest this time on the conduct of his business. For the same functionality, the profit may be different depending on the priorities of the prospect. Moreover in our case, the export function has another advantage: ease of use. Anyone can do this export. This translates into an improvement of its organization: the task can be entrusted to a non-specialist collaborator. Thus it all depends on your interlocutor’s concerns.

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The true value of your offer is seen in the benefits provided. However, this is not to forget the features! This is the evidence to use in your product pitch: “My great machine saves you a lot of time (profit) because it is very fast (advantage). Indeed, it has a unique functionality (the proof), etc.” Moreover, in some markets where the offer is trivialized, the difference will be made on the features rather than the benefits provided.

How to build an Argument for your Products and Services

First of all, this exercise should be conducted by a small working group, made up of the size of your business, marketing staff and why not R&D members.

List the features

To start with the search for functionalities is to start with rational elements. And it is always easier to start on the concrete, if only to cope with the syndrome of the blank page. In addition note the main characteristics, but also the secondary ones. It is often on details that the arguments are effective. In general, the main features are offered by all competitors. Therefore you will find it difficult to differentiate yourself.

Translate features into Benefits

From the list gathered in the previous step, map a benefit. The simplest way to lead this reflection is to ask you questions such as: What is the purpose of this function? What does it bring? And if I take it off, what does the product lose? 

Determine Customer Benefits

This is the third step, a logical step, the most difficult to carry out because it requires a detailed knowledge of customer needs. You have to put yourself in the shoes of a potential customer and ask yourself “what does this benefit mean for me? “ Sales people are well placed to take on this role…

Your Offer – That of Competitors

The construction of an argument cannot exist without a section on competition. The objective is not to review all the competitors on the market, but to focus on the most present. The approach is the same as for your own products, but being more selective. Once again, rest on your salespeople. They know very well which competitors are giving them the most trouble.

Decline your Analysis in three Axes

• Benefits and customer benefits that you do not cover with your features.
• The areas covered but for which your offer is more efficient.
• The points where competition holds you high.

For each axis, good group work is needed to find counter-arguments. It may be necessary to go deeper into the product analysis and dissect the technologies used to provide the functionality. This is frequently the case for markets based on technical offers.

With this work, you will be armed to meet customers and prospects. You will have to have first assimilated this argument and master it on the fingertips. This is obviously not a sheet to go out in front of the customer! As the discovery phase unfolds during the sales interview, each detected need must cause a “tilt” in their head: <=> Profit <=> advantage <=> Product <=> feature. Everything must be put in place instantly to serve the shock argument.