Commercial pitch: convince your target in two minutes

What is a sales pitch?

The commercial pitch is a short speech that you will use to present your company, your product or your service to a prospect, with a view to selling or making an appointment. It generally occurs at a key stage of yourprospecting funnel, when the prospect has already shown a certain interest and now it is a matter of convincing him. Generally speaking, the commercial pitch is based on three axes:

• It must be short and punchy: do not waste time on useless and futile rants. Get to the point by presenting your value proposition and how it can solve the problem(s) of your interlocutor. Ideally, like the elevator pitch, the commercial pitch should last less than two minutes: going beyond that means taking the risk of losing the interest of your audience.

• He must speak to your prospect: the difficulty of the commercial pitch is to send his prospect a message that concerns him. He must recognize himself in what you describe. Use vocabulary that corresponds to your target, develop concrete examples that they are likely to encounter…

• It must arouse curiosity: make your prospect want to know more, to contact you again, interest them in your product or service by highlighting how it can help them achieve their objectives. Highlight your added value and your own benefits.

How to make your sales pitch?

The sales pitch is a difficult prospecting technique, even for the most experienced salespeople. Here are some tips to help you make it as efficient as possible.

Each target has its own commercial pitch

The first thing to take into account is that, in the majority of cases, you will not be able to settle for just one commercial pitch. The commercial pitch is based on two elements: what you are selling and who you are selling it to. If your service or your product does not change, your interlocutor is different. Your pitch must be a response to their questions and issues: it is therefore important to adapt your speech according to the person you are addressing, to send the right message, to the right person, at the right time.

A concrete example? Let’s say you sell training to businesses. As a salesperson, you are required to approach three main types of prospects: business managers, HR, and employees. Depending on the person you are in front of you, you will need to put forward different arguments to convince them to subscribe to your training offer. For HR, you can, for example, put forward administrative arguments (ease of implementation), legislative (the right to training of employees), financial (aid such as the CPF). If you speak to a business manager, you can show them how your training will help them to have more productive teams, and thereforeultimatelyboost the overall performance of your business. If you have an employee in front of you, you can focus on their career development or their skills development.

Target hot prospects

The sales pitch is a tool that will help you better sell your product or service. But for it to be truly effective, it is important that you address prospects who are ready to listen to you and likely to be interested in what you are selling.

Cold prospecting, such as cold calling orcold emailing, often leads to very low conversion rates and overall poor performance. Thanks to the power of new technologies, and in particular social networks, we can now ensure that we reach people who we know are interested in our offer. This is what hipto offers: using social networks and new technologies, we generate leads for various sectors of activity in order to improve the efficiency of sales forces. The result? Qualified, exclusive, GDPR compliant leads ready to convert, and at a fixed cost.

By using “hot” leads, you ensure a higher success rate on your sales pitches.

Choose your approach

The commercial pitch can take several forms, but the most widespread and most effective generally consists of starting from the particular (a pain point) then opening the subject towards the future. Aprospecting scriptcan help greatly. The plot then unfolds as follows:

• Hook

• Overview of the problem

• Description of possible options

• Highlighting your offer as the most effective option

• More general explanation of your offer

• Openness to the future

This framework allows you to talk to your interlocutor about subjects to which they are sensitive, while highlighting your product or your service and presenting it in its entirety.

Take care of your grip

The most important part of your commercial pitch is certainly the hook, the first sentence, the one which must immediately capture the interest of your user and arouse their curiosity. It can take the form of a question, a clear-cut statement (and which sometimes leads to a challenge, to launch the discussion or debate), or mix with step 2, namely presenting the problem of your interlocutor. Several strategies exist and all have their advantages. It's up to you to choose the one that seems most optimal to you, depending on your target!

Prioritize the customer's point of view

Keep in mind, at all times, that you are there to meet a need. Too many salespeople make the mistake of trying to present their company in an exhaustive manner, which generally doesn't interest the prospect in the slightest. Present the aspects of your offer that will address their immediate problem: you will have plenty of time, once you have captivated them, to open the subject and present the rest of your company, if you think this could constitute an interesting opportunity.

“When I talk to you about myself, I talk to you about you” said Victor Hugo. The commercial pitch is based on this: if you talk about your offer or your company, it is to put it in relation to the problem of your interlocutor.

Project yourself into the future

Once you have been able to highlight the benefits of your offer to your target, you can finally open the subject. Here again, there is no need to be exhaustive and detail everything your company does. But show him the other features and options that might interest him, describe the possibilities offered and gently lead him either to sign for the sale or to make an appointment to talk about it in more detail. This structured approach is fully part of aprospecting methodeffective: gradually guide your interlocutor towards action, without rushing them, while maintaining their interest and confidence.