When you’re cooking a dish, you obviously need the right ingredients in order to create the recipe. Ingredients alone, however, won’t get you the whole way.
You also need the right approach and technique. Without the proper finesse, your ingredients aren’t becoming a delicious meal anytime soon.
Many cookbooks have tips and tricks for successful cooking, but the advice often varies between cookbooks. Even experts have differences in their viewpoints, after all.
The same is true in sales. Every expert has their own view on what makes a pitch successful, and they often contradict one another. It’s easy to feel unsure on how best to approach the pitch.
First, the best piece of advice for a successful pitch is this: listen to what everyone says, and then do what works for you.
Sales strategies are only effective to the degree they bring you success. If the strategies from “experts” aren’t working, don’t be afraid to rethink your approach.
While sales strategies are not one-size-fits-all, there are a few general principles that should form the foundation of your pitch strategy.
You should always focus your pitch on the needs of the prospect.
Time spent focused on anything other than the prospect’s needs is time wasted. This is the only way to keep their attention and ultimately make the sale.
Your job as a salesperson is not to convince a prospect they need your product, it is to identify their problems and demonstrate how your product solves them. When you do your job correctly, the buying decision should be a no-brainer.
To achieve this goal, you need an understanding of the prospect’s current situation and challenges. You gain that understanding by listening more than you talk.
Your objective is to learn – in detail – about the issues confronting the prospect. They must have some problem, otherwise, why would they take your call?
You gain this detailed understanding by asking targeted questions, uncovering the scope and scale of their issues, and most of all: listening to what they have to say.
All too often, an overeager salesperson will focus too much on explaining the features of their product until their captive audience is bored to tears. People naturally want to discuss the issues important to them, and those important issues happen to be the most compelling reasons a client should buy from you.
So don’t make your job any harder than it has to be; let the prospect explain their situation. Leverage your expertise in the area of your product to provide valuable advice. Remember, they are the expert in their line of business, and you are the expert when it comes to your product.
Once you understand their problem, the next step is to provide a solution. Frame your product offering within the confines of the challenges facing the client. Expound upon the product features most directly addressing their needs and providing easy solutions. Explain that and the sale is as good as yours.
Solutions are there, just as the perfect recipe exists. And while we can’t make you a chef, we can guide you to become a Sales Pro.
For specific sales advice for your business, the Sales Arbiter team is just a phone call away. Connect with us today.
