I confess… I am a rubbish salesperson and really don’t like selling. Writing a sales pitch is daunting and feels unnatural. But…
I LOVE the feeling when you close a sale, but despise ‘selling’.
I’ve studied a lot of people and a lot of strategies, this is my go-to strategy for any marketing or sales activity.
Selling is a necessity, so having a process makes it really easy.
This is my solution to selling FULL STOP.
I want to teach you that simple, five-part formula you can use next time you have a sales pitch or are writing any form of marketing piece designed to sell.
I’ve found that I have great success using this formula. In fact, I now teach people how to implement this formula into their business marketing and sales.
The first one is… PROMISE.
Advertisers who spend millions of pounds on a simple 60 second commercial say that if they can’t hook someone within that first five seconds, they might as well have not even filmed the next 55 seconds. Movies – the opening scene, directors stress about for months on end getting right because they know that sets the trajectory for everything else. Well, with you, whatever you’re selling, set the tone with that first one sentence.
This is called the promise. It’s a short punchy little one-liner. Like:
The sales pitch template that kills all others!
Once you do that, you move into the next P.
The next P is… PAIN
Focus in on the problem that your product or service solves.
What is causing your client pain, don’t dive into your solution, talk about their pain and problem.
Most humans only take action when they decide to stop living with the pain. When you talk about and articulate their pain, you build understanding and get the prospects attention.
It’s known as ‘pushing the pain points’. The pain point is a motivator that triggers an emotional response in your customer, which then leads them to buy your product or service. When you identify with their problem, you make a deeper connection and move towards closing the sale.
You can’t sell without emotion.
So, identify the real problem. Stir it up. This gets the prospects attention and focus.
The next P is… PICTURE.
I always use the example of buying a car. The salespersons job is to get you to imagine driving the car you are looking at on the forecourt. If you can’t see yourself driving it, you never will. So, the sales pitch is predominately targeting the imagination.
What does the picture look like for people who buy your product or service. What does their world look like with your solution / service?
You are tying your outcome to the aims and aspirations of the client. If you can save a client time, what can they do with it? If you make their lives easier, what can they do now they are less stressed?
You might be asking, “Dean, isn’t selling logical? Wouldn’t you want to convince someone about the reasons they should buy your deal, it’s a better deal than the competitors?”
No, you don’t want to do that. We actually buy with our emotions as human beings and then we justify with logic. So if you really want to convince someone, go after the emotional side of them.
The next P is… PROOF.
Before you say ‘we’ve got this’ – you really haven’t.
People don’t believe you when you tell them how good you are. You’re not going to tell them you’re are crap are you?
Facts don’t mean people believe you.
Statistics don’t make people change their minds.
People have to believe you.
How do you show people you can deliver on your promises without telling them directly.
Stories… tell stories.
Yes give them testimonials, but be straight as a die with people.
Don’t be afraid of being honest.
When you look at online reviews, you would never buy from someone with all negative reviews would you?
But equally, you would mistrust people who have perfect 100% reviews too.
Have stories and a good sales strategy these all give the prospect validation of their decision to buy, but be straight, waffle and bragging won’t cut it.
In previous pitches, I have told clients how we work and how we can get the best out of the relationship to prevent things not working out.
The last P is… PITCH.
Most people spend all their time on this component, 90% of their time is here, yet, a clients decision is already made by this point.
If you have spent time crafting the first 4 P’s well, this is the easy part.
Give people the choice to buy.
Have you ever heard of the paradox of choice?
It is a paradox whereby if you give people too many choices, they don’t make a choice.
Give them the most straightforward way to buy and seal the deal.
When you do a pitch, don’t give 10 things to act on, give one or two.
