Making an effective sales pitch
You might have thought that you’ve got the best idea, backed up with amazing financials and presented on beautiful charts, but when you presented it to the boardroom – it got rejected. You might think it is the end of your world, that you’re not good enough, that your ideas are weak and aren’t worthy. Honestly, it might be because of poor sales pitching. We’ve all been rejected, not once but many times. That does not mean we should stop. In this article, whether you’re a freelancer or an entrepreneur you might get a few tips on how to effectively ace that sales pitch.
With over 2 million freelancers and nearly 700,000 startups in the UK, it is impossible that these people haven’t had a taste of rejection.
How to make an effective sales pitch?
Investigate where it went wrong – figure out why your pitch didn’t work. There must be something about your presentation that made you lose the sale. Once you find what it is, learn from it and modify it. Failed sales pitch can be due to insufficient research about the needs and an ineffective presentation. You might have been asked questions that you could not answer. You might have stuttered and stumbled through the pitch, especially at a specific part that you are less confident about. If you are not 100% confident in what you are selling, the people on the other end of your pitch will sense that insecurity and will feel a negative reaction to you.
Don’t burn bridges – as much as you hate the idea of clients turning down your proposal, it is not a good idea to cut connections with them. You never know when an opportunity with a previous lead will come, so might as well add them to your list of connections. You never know what the future could bring.
Listen to understand – failures teach us many lessons and it can be a great starting point to produce even better ideas. During your sales pitch, clients might have given you their take on your proposal and from that, you should remember those comments, use their feedback to continuously improve your pitch.
Know your audience – an effective sales pitch is when you know who to pitch your ideas to. You might be rejected because you’re talking to the wrong people whose target audiences are different from what you are proposing. Find some common ground and use it.
Practice your elevator pitch – Imagine you are in an elevator with the person that you want to sell to. You have a maximum of 2 minutes in that elevator before they get out at their floor. What can you say to them that will ensure that they remember you and want to know more? This 2 minutes is inspiring, interesting, passionate, focused and shows that you are fully in control of your product and your market.
