Anouk van Deurse
Sales is a profession in its own right. If you want to ensure that you can achieve your commercial goals every year, it is important to have a good sales strategy in which you actively go public. A good strategy requires a strong sales pitch. A good story in which you provoke interaction with your target group and can have interesting, substantive conversations with decision makers within organizations that you would like to have in your client portfolio. But when is a pitch strong? What parts should not be missing, what are important points of focus? In this blog we pay attention to them.
1. Good preparation is half the battle
In B2B lead generation, it's important to know your target audience. After all, your goal is to pull or push potential customers in your direction, so it pays to critically examine the ideal customer profile in preparation and create a buyer persona. An Ideal Customer Profile (IKP) focuses more on the type of organization who you are trying to convert to customers with your lead generation goals. The buyer persona is all about the type of person within an organization that you are using your business development purposes wants to achieve.
Within FindBusiness, we also talk about the DMU: the decision making unit. Who makes the decisions about the issue your proposition can play a role in? The moment you have your IKP and buyer persona mapped out, it's time to put together a prospect list. Want to know more about that? Then download our whitepaper.
TIP: It's an interesting thought exercise to uninhibitedly write out what ‘hooks’ you think your DMUs would find triggering. Does your solution have unique features, are you cheaper than your competitors or do you have an interesting offer? Take the time to write this out for yourself. It is interesting input for your sales pitch.
2. Get rid of those sales scripts!
From our own experience, we know that working with scripts can be detrimental for several reasons:
- Thus, it hinders the creativity and independence of your commercial staff;
- You limit and constrain a conversation. For example, you may not ask certain questions because they are not in your script, even though you could use the answer to those questions;
- It encourages sending, but not receiving (the most important tip we can give is: drop silences regularly!!!);
- You come across as sales-like and, as a result, you are less likely to stop by the front desk or get involved in a long conversation with the DMU;
- Etc.
It is useful to write down the core of your proposition and the answers to common objections. Not with the aim of having your conversation led by them, but as a reference point to fall back on when you get lost in your sales conversation.
Also make sure to include in this guide what you can say at the front desk to maximize the chances of being connected. After all, in B2B telephone acquisition, that is a big challenge.
3. Make your sales pitch personal
A pitch is only catchy if your interviewer can identify with your story and if the story comes across as personal. It is a good idea to prepare yourself for the type of organization you are calling, because this is where you can link in with your sales pitch. By integrating your knowledge of the market with it, you come across well prepared and your story sounds personal.
For example; ‘I see that you offer a TMS solution for organizations in the logistics world. We ourselves often find that setting up a structural sales process can be a challenge for organizations like you. Do you spend time every week on telephone market approach?’
You thereby show that you have done preliminary work and that you have experience working for similar organizations. Very important that a prospect does not feel like a number when he or she is in conversation with you.
4. Action reaction!
As mentioned above, one reason we don't use a script is because a script leaves less room to listen carefully to what is being said. It is essential to mainly let your interlocutor speak. This not only helps you learn interesting market information, it also promotes realizing a click. Ask open questions. Even after giving your pitch; ask open questions. To what extent is the subject within the organization? To what extent are they already aware of such solutions? Having a long conversation should not be an end in itself. But the moment you hear interesting leads and you notice that your conversation partner doesn't mind elaborating on them, then we definitely recommend putting your guide aside and going deeper into the topic with the DMU.
TIP: Do you find it challenging to formulate open-ended questions? Start with ‘how’ or ‘to what extent. The rest often comes naturally.
5. Clear follow-up
Ideally, of course, you would like to end your acquisition conversation by scheduling a sales appointment at the prospect's office. If this is still a bridge too far, it is also wise to end with a clear call to action. Examples of such a call to action could be:
- Let's connect on LinkedIn, shall we?;
- I invite you to a trade show where we will have a booth at the end of this year;
- Shall I email you some reviews from existing customers so you can take a look at those?
These tips are sure to help make your sales calls more effective. Are you finding it challenging to implement telephone market approach structurally? Feel free to contact us!