Whether you work in retail level sales or make multi-million dollar pitches you have one thing in common with every door to door salesman, car stereo salesman, used car salesman, real estate agent, or girl scout peddling cookies door to door; you have to convince someone else to buy something from you.
Somehow and in someway you have to convince another person to spend some of their hard-earned capital and invest in your product or service or, if you think about it in you.
One of the challenges of modern sales is crafting a pitch that will be appropriate to your audience. In the past I figured a one size fits all approach would work best. My approach would be to write or present as much technical information about the product or service as I could remember. To essentially cover my bases and give them all they could ever want to know and hopefully the product or service would sell itself.
This did not turn out to be the best approach. I mean think about it. Who wants to hear all the dull technical minutiae? That’s right! Technical guys. The ones paid to know all the nuts and bolts of the operation. They not only wouldn’t mind hearing this stuff, they would insist upon it. They are the ones that will talk your ears off about all the little details.
Middle managers and creative types on the other hand don’t really want to get all of that. They want to know that the “thing” will work for them. Oh sure, they will have some questions or they may bring in some experts with their own questions but their main focus is accomplishing their goals.
Then of course you have the boss level event. The CEO, or the President, or whatever that person’s title is. This individual’s time is at a premium. They definitely don’t have the time for the full dog and pony act and they don’t haggle about pricing.
Your presentation has to be short and to the point. You also have to discuss the appropriate topic. Talk about the challenges to their business, about possible opportunities for both firms to work together, make an abstract of how cooperation between both business could be beneficial.
Every once in a while you do get the boss that wants to know those technical details or wants to talk shop so be ready for that but most of the time those bosses are late to their next meeting and can’t spare the time. They will most likely turn you over to someone else in the company if they’re interested.
If you think about it, every sales person out there will run into one of these type of clients in their working life. Being prepared with the appropriate response level will help get you to close deals more often and even if you don’t close today, that potential customer will have a much more favorable impression of your sales abilities and will remember that in the future.
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