Anouk van Deurse
A concrete and catchy sales pitch is indispensable within quality B2B lead generation. After all, the sales pitch is the business card, the way to bring your product or service to the attention of the target group. The core of a proposition must be conveyed clearly and concisely. However, formulating and perfecting this pitch requires some work.
When, as a company, you choose proactive market approach as an appropriate way for lead generation, it is first important to get a few things straight. For example, it is important to do preliminary work that will optimize the effect of sales efforts. Also, a pitch must meet a number of requirements. In this comprehensive article (longread), we will go over the process around formulating a catchy and good sales pitch in three steps.
1. Prospect analysis: prospect list and proposition
Telephone acquisition is a craft and requires the necessary preliminary work to make efforts successful. An important first step is to identify to whom you want to address the sales pitch. Only once you know that can you start thinking about the content of the pitch and what requirements it should meet. A prospect analysis is thus an important first step.
In a previous blog, we referred to Jon Steel's (2007) ‘Perfect Pitch. In it it is discussed that as a pitch writer it is very important to immerse yourself in the needs and requirements of your target audience. Often pitches miss the mark because they simply do not meet what the recipient of the pitch is interested in. Therefore, make sure you delve deeply into the target and the proposition.
1.1 Target group
The first step is to properly identify who the target is. To do this, a target group analysis must be done. Questions central to this are:
- Who is your ideal client? In doing so, dive into your current client portfolio: what would you like more of and what are the characteristics that make this client ‘ideal’?
- What is the minimum company size and any region in which prospects should be located?
- What ‘problem’/issue should your prospect have that you can solve?
Then comes the time when you need to look at how you are going to identify these types of businesses. You can use various databases to gather information about your target audience, including KVK and Linkedin. More info on how we generate quality prospect lists? Read there here more information on.
1.2 Proposition
At this stage, the unique selling points of your product or service.
Which ‘hooks’ will fall well with the target audience? Is your offer financially more attractive than that of your competitors and can it therefore be pitched better to the CFO? Or are there technological features in your product that competitors do not have? Then it might be better to pitch to the CTO or IT manager within the prospect organization. Think about this carefully before you approach the market. The sales pitch should be tailored to the recipient.
2. Formulate the sales pitch
What information is most important for the prospect to know? What will make them consider purchasing your product or service? Important questions to answer are:
- What does the product or service entail?
- What distinguishes them from the competition?
- Who does your product or service appeal to and why?
Of course, to convey the essence of your product or service, there may be other questions that need to be answered to optimize the effects of acquisition efforts. So before writing a pitch, map out what questions these are.
Furthermore, it is important to make sure you are not just sending information. Also ask substantive questions that make your prospect's situation clearer to you. That way, if for some reason there are no leads to further conversation, you can better assess when contact should be made again.
2.1 Elevator pitch
It is crucial to include, in addition to a comprehensive sales pitch with all the ins and outs, a short but powerful elevator pitch to have. Sometime, especially within cold call acquisition, you just don't get the chance to pitch extensively. In this case, you can use a short elevator pitch. In this blog read more about that.
3. Make the sales pitch compelling
You have now delved into the target audience and written out the core information your sales pitch should contain. Now it's time to make your pitch convincing to make. Jon Steel (2007), in his book on pitching, links to the Means of Persuasion formulated by Aristotle: ethos, logos and pathos. These three concepts are the core of modern rhetoric, or, ‘the art of eloquence.
3.1 Rhetoric according to Aristotle
Ethos is the appeal to your own character and authority to convince your audience that you are qualified as a speaker. You can do this by, for example, introducing how long your company has been in existence, how large the current client portfolio is, what your role within the organization is, et cetera. Be careful not to do this in a boastful manner; your goal is only to show you are a qualified interviewer.
Logos, from which the word logic is derived, invokes logical reasoning. This plays a major role when one wants to prove something. Therefore, it is also important in persuasion. The story must be true and clear.
Finally, you have pathos, which relates to the audience's emotions. For this, it is crucial that you know your audience well and can predict what is on their minds. For example, is there a particular problem in the industry for which you have a solution? You can then respond to this with your pitch. You also want to come across to your audience as a pleasant interlocutor; after all, you don't want to peddle anything, but rather engage in a substantive conversation to find out whether your solution could contribute to your prospect's processes.
3.2 Encourage action
Ideally, of course, you would like to end your conversation by scheduling a sales appointment with the prospect. If this is still a bridge too far, it is also wise to end with a clear call to action in which a prospect is prompted to take a particular action. Examples of such a call to action may include:
- 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?
By prompting prospects to perform an action or agenda an action item, your proposition is more likely to stick.
To achieve your commercial goals, it is crucial to stand out well to prospects. Hopefully these three steps will help you formulate a catchy sales pitch so you can achieve this.