Close More Deals With These 4 Sales Pitch Tips

So, how do you develop credibility and build trust in your sales pitch? By lowering the risk.In sales, there’s an old saying: Facts Tell. Stories Sell.

The science of the sales pitch

It’s practically a cliche by now, but when it comes to any sales pitch, the most important thing you need to sell is trust. Without trust, sales rarely happen. If a customer doesn’t think that you fully understand their business, doesn’t trust the solutions you’re recommending, or doesn’t trust you will deliver what you say you will, how can you realistically expect to get their business?

Everything in your sales pitch should work together to build that trust. It’s an uphill battle. They know you’re trying to sell them something and they’re predisposed to be wary. When you ask people about who they trust, salespeople don’t fare well. In one study,only 3%of respondents found salespeople to be worthy of trust. That’s just barely ahead of lobbyists and politicians,. More people trust their coffee barista than they trust salespeople.

Sure, you can have my pin number.

Building trust involves demonstrating your credibility, reliability, and intimacy. It takes a commitment to focus on the things that build trust and a concentrated effort to develop relationships. Here are some sales pitch techniques that will help you close more deals today:

The customer’s needs come first

Demonstrate that you are putting the customer’s interests above your own. This means having a firm understanding of the prospect’s needs and what solving their problems means for them. You must be able to fully articulate the problem they face and the impact it has on their organisation. Drill down to the specific pain point they are dealing with. It’s typically one of these four:

Financial: They need to improve financial performance in their organisation or reduce expenses with current providers or products.
Process: They want to improve internal processes to create more efficiencies
Productivity: They feel they are wasting time with current solutions.
Support: They aren’t receiving the support they need to solve their problems.

Your sales pitch should define the pain point clearly. This demonstrated credibility by showing you know what they are going through. Focus on both the problem and the impact it has. Showing empathy for their situation helps build trust. Empathy is a key part of emotional intelligence– considered by many to be one of the most important sales skills.

Read: How Culture Creates Your Brand

Present the Solution to their Problems

Identify which of the pain points is the most effective plan of attack for you and then customise your pitch to focus on it. Frame your pitch in a way that highlights the benefits of your proposed solution. For example:

If the pain point is financial, you might approach it by emphasising cost-savings, demonstrating a better ROI, or stopping losses.
If the pain point is about processes, show how your product makes the process smoother, integrates with existing products or services, or can overcome obstacles.
If the pain point is productivity, show how your solution saves time, makes tasks easier, and frees up employee time and effort.
If the pain point is support-based, you might highlight your after-sales support.

With each one of these solutions, you are again demonstrating you understand their pain and gaining their trust by presenting solutions that benefit them. When presenting solutions, it’s important to customise your offering. Nobody wants the off-the-shelf product you’re selling or the features it presents – even if that’s exactly what they need. Trust comes from demonstrating how you are tailoring your solution to their exact needs.

Build Credibility

Just because you say your product or service will solve their problem doesn’t mean they’ll believe it. Remember, they are inclined not to trust you. So, how do you develop credibility and build trust? By lowering the risk.

In sales, there’s an old saying: Facts Tell. Stories Sell. You can list page after page of features and benefits, statistics and studies, and anonymised case studiesinyour sales pitch. Nothing works as well as telling a story about how your product or solution helped someone in a similar situation. Every salesperson should have a handful of success stories you can show exactly how your product or solution took away someone else’s pain. If you don’t have your own, borrow from your company’s success stories from other salespeople in your organisation.

When prospects see that others took the leap to work with you and your company and it turned out positive, it mitigates the risk they’re taking. It goes beyond just telling them something will work, but it also shows how it did work for others. This also builds trust. It’s even better if you can gather these success stories and let current customers tell the story in their own words. It’s so easy these days to record a short testimonial on your cell phone and drop it into a pitch.

Decision-makers will no longer take your word on anything. The words of others about your proposed solution will carry more weight than your own. And, positive experiences make a difference. 90% of buyers say positive reviews of products and services influence their purchase decision.

Ask for the Sale

After you’ve built up the trust, shown how your solution will ease their pain, and built credibility, for goodness sake ask for the sale! It’s amazing how many salespeople do everything right, get to the end of their pitch, and then ask if the prospect has any questions, or ask when it would be appropriate to follow up. Stop this nonsense! You’ve worked too hard to walk away without a commitment. Ask-for-the-sale.

Stop this nonsense! You’ve worked too hard to walk away without a commitment. Ask-for-the-sale.

They won’t be insulted. They know you’re trying to sell them something. If they’re ready to buy, you need to close. If they’re not ready, they’ll let you know. Sales training will prepare you for this moment and give you the tools to probe for objections and tackle them effectively. If you just ask if they have questions, they’ll likely say no. If you can ask when it’s okay to follow-up, they’ll generally say in a week or two. If you want to actually get a follow-up, pull up your calendar and schedule it.

See Also: What Successful Salespeople Have In Common

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