Questions are key to a perfect pitch

Always back self-interest

It can be challenging for us to answer ‘So, what do you do?’ if we have no background information about the person we’re speaking with and what’s relevant to them. Engagement comes from appealing to our listeners’ self – interest, but if we don’t find out about them it doesn’t allow us to confidently express our value in terms that resonate.

Sales are often lost because we might talk too much or make false assumptions, rather than questioning for understanding and the relevance which can help us fine – tune our message. So with this in mind, let’s talk about a few big pitfalls we can avoid when pitching our business…

What are they ultimately trying to get done?

What is your prospect’s ultimate goal? Not the first goal they tell you about, but the one which might take five or six questions or a longer conversation to arrive at once you’ve earned their trust. It’s sometimes disguised as a throwaway comment at the end of a meeting – ‘yeah, so we’re looking to double our business over the next two years.’

It’s only once we understand their ultimate goal that we can make an assessment about how we might help them achieve this and express it in a way which increases our perceived value.

Draw the connection and put it in their terms

Once we understand our prospect’s ultimate goal and how we can help them achieve this, we need to ensure that our key message or sentence which sums up our big idea is expressed in terms which appeals to their emotions – if it’s easy to grasp, we’re on a winner.

Let’s not talk about our services in isolation and ask the prospect to make the connection between what we do and their ultimate goal – their goal of ‘Doubling their business over the next two years’ becomes the focal point of all communications which goes in email headers, on program plans etc. Our program is simply the conduit.

Get the business you deserve

We can create a lot of value, but if we can’t communicate it in a compelling manner and cut through the noise, we’ll miss out on the business that we deserve.

Understanding our prospects ultimate goal and how we can help them achieve this means we’ll better communicate our value and attract more of the ideal clients we deserve.

Are you attracting the ideal clients you deserve?

The benefits of developing a Perfect Pitch can be substantial, so if you don’t have in – house expertise – seek help. Customer Return help small and medium sized businesses attract more of their ideal clients, faster.

Got the Perfect Pitch? Try our 2 minute perfect pitch self-evaluation.