A career in sales can be lucrative if you know how to reach the consumers to whom you want to sell. This means creating a pitch that showcases your product and meets the needs of the consumers in your market. While every sales agent is different and has their own unique style, there are certain aspects that are essential to every sales pitch.
Show Up Ready to Dazzle
Presenting your pitch begins before you even leave your house. It’s human nature to judge people based upon their appearance, so you’ll want to present yourself in a professional and confident manner. This doesn’t necessarily mean wearing the trendiest outfit. Rather, choose clothes that look nice, present yourself in a somewhat conservative style, and feel comfortable to wear. If you’re uncomfortable in your clothes, you will be distracted and self-conscious throughout the presentation.
You should set your clothes out in advance and ensure everything fits well. This can save you from scrambling through your closet in search of something to wear on the day of your presentation. Prepare any tools, accessories, or displays in advance as well. When you deliver your pitch, it should come off like a well-rehearsed theatrical production rather than an impromptu sketch.
Start With a Brief Introduction
Begin your pitch by briefly introducing yourself, your brand, and your products. This is akin to an elevator presentation that you can deliver briefly as a way of showing your audience what they can expect to learn from the presentation. For example, you don’t need to give every detail about your product. Simply describe the product in a few words to entice the audience. Try to select a few bits of information about the brand or product that will tease the audience and encourage them to listen to the full presentation. You’ll give them more detail as you move forward with the presentation. For the introduction, you just want to sell the sizzle.
Stay Value Oriented
An essential factor of any successful sales pitch deck is to describe the product or service you’re offering. This is an opportunity to describe the value that your product offers over similar products offered by competing brands. If your product offers special features or improvements, this is the time to go into detail about those aspects of the product. This is the part of your pitch where you sell your product and demonstrate why your audience should care about your product.
Emphasize Customer Service
Your audience will want to know about more than just the product itself. They will want to know that your company and brand will stand behind their products. If there is a warranty attached to the purchase of a product, let the audience know about it. Describe what that warranty protects and any special conditions the customer must meet to qualify for that protection. You should also discuss the availability and skill of your customer service department. For most consumers, the availability of quality customer service is at least as important as the quality of the product. If they have a question or complaint, they will want to know that they can get help.
Demonstrate How You Can Solve a Problem
It’s not enough to offer a product that consumers may like. You should be able to describe how your product will solve a problem in a unique way. You should leave your customers feeling as though they need your product rather than enticing them to just want the product. For example, it isn’t enough to sell a new hammer. Explain why it’s better than other hammers. Perhaps the head is magnetic or it’s better balanced to improve accuracy. There should be something unique about your product to leave consumers feeling as though they need your product to solve a problem. If you don’t instill a sense of urgency or necessity in consumers, they are less likely to buy your product.
If you include these aspects into your sales pitch and you’re still not seeing results, try practicing your pitch at home. Learning your pitch and feeling comfortable with your presentation will help you feel more confident as you pitch to customers or investors. As a result, people will feel more trust for you and in the products you want to sell to them.