A Winning Sales Pitch: The Good, the Bad, the Stupid

A good sales pitch isn’t a pitch at all. It isn’t something you throw at people, hoping to persuade them to buy your product or service.

When you pitch something at people, their natural inclination is to duck or to take a swing at it, not to engage it with an open mind.

A sales pitch — a winning one, at least — is more like a consultation, a collaborative conversation, a facilitated dialogue.

By doing your research, by asking questions and listening to the answers, by engaging the other person — before, during, and after your formal sales pitch — you discover whether there’s a good fit between what they want and need and what you offer.

A good sales pitch gives prospects confidence that your product or service best meets their needs (to fix, solve, improve, or achieve something that matters to them), given their unique situation and constraints.

A bad sales pitch is a one-size-fits-all presentation. It makes token references to your prospective clients and their concerns. It’s mostly about your company, your qualifications, your experience, and the generic features and benefits of your product or service.

A stupid sales pitch is a self-centered monologue, a rapid-fire recitation of every good point about you, your company, and your product or service. It demonstrates no knowledge of or concern for the prospect. None at all.

Whether you’re a one-person service provider — a consultant, coach, solopreneur — or a multinational corporation, you know that selling isn’t a bad thing. It’s a requirement.

And selling, from time to time, requires you to make a sales pitch. The only question is what kind.

Check out Differentiators/Discriminators Contribute to a Winning Proposal.