A successful sales pitch is a crucial part of any sales presentation. In fact, it’s vital to a company or startup’s overall sales process, from cold email outreach onward. Your chances of sustaining success as a sales rep are slim without knowing how to craft and deliver your own pitch for each sales opportunity.
Think of the sales pitch as your verbal business card. It’s the first thing a prospective or existing customer will hear when speaking via your sales call or meeting. If anything will improve your sales team’s performance (or your career), it’s learning to nail down a great sales pitch.
Poised has provided ten sales pitch examples to help you do just that:
What Is an Effective Sales Pitch?
A sales pitch is basically the short version of a sales presentation through which a salesperson describes how they can meet a customer’s needs with their products. They’re often called “elevator pitches“ because they’re ideally delivered within one or two minutes — or about the time it takes to go up or down an elevator.
In times past, consumers entertained product or service presentations for hours. Times have changed, and people are no longer willing to spend longer than a couple of minutes listening to a sales rep. Besides, it shouldn’t take you that long to relay your value proposition.
Your opening line should thoroughly describe how your product or service can improve a prospective customer’s life by the time they reach their “floor” from the “lobby.” The perfect sales pitch is compelling and concise, and knowing how to deliver one will boost your chances of speaking with the customer at length in the future.
10 Sales Pitch Examples — The Good and the Bad
So, you’re convinced that coming up with the best sales pitch possible is a top priority. Try out these ten sales pitch examples to get the ball rolling (and avoid common mistakes):
1. Avoid: The Pitch That Comes Too Early
A good sales pitch is all about timing. The last thing you want to do after identifying a potential customer is dive headfirst into a two-sentence pitch or CTA to open the conversation. It’s essential to build rapport, engage the customer by asking questions, and gauge whether making a pitch is even the best path forward at the moment. All of that takes time.
2. Avoid: The Inaccurate Pitch
A customer in your target audience will eventually realize if you misrepresent the product or service you’re selling. If they identify an inaccurate pitch, the sales presentation ends on the spot. If they believe your pitch only to become dissatisfied with their purchase, they’ll run to your competitors and possibly leave bad reviews.
Neither outcome is good, so avoid the inaccurate pitch at all costs — you’ll close more deals in the long run.
3. Avoid: The Impersonal Pitch
Most customers these days crave personalization from their brands. Always keep the customer front and center while creating your sales pitch. Conduct research before each cold call to ensure you know how to address the customer’s pain points and explain how your offering can improve their life.
Also, don’t be afraid to get personal and have a meaningful conversation. Hearing customer stories helps you improve future pitches and can even be beneficial for creating buyer personas. AI tools can monitor your communication in real-time and help you speak and listen with more empathy and competence.
4. Avoid: The Pitch Without a Follow-Up
Most sales take five follow-up calls to result in a purchase, and many salespeople retreat after the first attempt. Remember that it’s a victory if your sales pitch leads to customers giving you their contact information or scheduling a follow-up.
However, you must actually follow through and resolve to contact the potential customer as many times as necessary to complete the sales process.
5. Avoid: The Overly Salesy Pitch
Super-salesy pitches are why salespeople can’t have nice things.
Whatever you do, don’t sell with every breath throughout your pitch to get a prospect’s attention — it doesn’t work. You end up sounding like Linkedin spammers trying to get you to work for them or preachy ads on social media.
Remember the importance of building trust and rapport and learning everything you can about the customer throughout the conversation. Then, you can sprinkle in information about the benefits and product features.
6. Try: The Challenger Sale
The Challenger approach is one of the most popular sales pitch ideas today. It can convince a customer to think outside the box. It requires the sales rep to establish themselves as confident, credible, and knowledgeable.
Instead of aiming to convince customers why they need a solution immediately, Challenger salespeople start their pitch with compelling insights about the customer's company or industry before weaving in the solution.
7. Try: The Sandler Sales Method
The primary purpose of the Sandler method is to build relationships and qualify customers. You can use this method in email pitches and phone calls or in person.
The idea is for the sales reps to prove themselves as a trusted advisor before discussing pricing or trying to build a sense of urgency. This less aggressive approach has proven to help many sales professionals hit their quotas for finding potential clients.
8. Try: The Covey Sales Method
The Covey method also centers around developing trust and relationships with prospective customers but concentrates on learning about the customer's specific needs.
This approach involves building rapport, asking the customer about their problems and needs, and tailoring the solutions to those responses. The customer often feels heard and valued as a result.
9. Try: The Transparency Sales Method
As the name suggests, the Transparency sales method focuses on transparency and honesty. It begins with a conversation about the prospect’s needs before moving to what the sales rep’s product can and cannot do.
Being upfront about your product's shortcomings can go a long way in establishing trust. Just remember to explain the key points — benefits and features — of your product as well.
10. Try: Creating Your Own Pitch Through Trial and Error
Following well-established sales pitch templates can serve sales teams and individuals well. However, at the end of the day, consumers are people who want to talk to other people.
Find your own path and inject your personality into your presentations. The perfect sales pitch is the one you develop over time through trial and error.
How Poised Can Make You a Better Salesperson
The Poised communication coach is all about helping you improve as a business communicator. Since a large chunk of your success as a sales rep relies on your communication ability, using our software can transform your career.
Connect with our team to learn about what our product has done for thousands of professionals, and consider going with a personalized plan for optimal results.
Sources:
How to Create an Elevator Pitch (With Examples) | The Balance
Sales Follow-Up Techniques | Chron
Sales Training Programs to Improve Your Team's Selling Skills | Business 2 Community
