Mastering your sales pitch can take time. Anyone who has a decent amount of experience in sales will confirm that their most effective sales pitch was crafted over multiple years. But what if we could make years a couple of months?
Introducing: The Effective Sales Pitch Script to close more deals.
This guide will help you, whether you’re new to sales or have a couple of years of experience. We analyzed hundreds of sales conversations and found the highest success for those following these 10 steps.
Why an Effective Sales Pitch matters
The better you become at sales, the more deals you close. The more deals you close, the higher your target attainment. Those excelling their professional goals will get more compensation or bonus and will grow faster to more senior roles.
Having an effective sales pitch is also a company agnostic skill. It will help you to land a new job, accelerate faster than your peers during onboarding and make you a more promising employee.
For those running their own startup, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that being good at sales will help you to showcase validation early on.
Does the Perfect Sales Pitch exist?
Yes, it does.
This sales pitch script will help you to follow all the right steps during sales conversations. The script in combination with your product knowledge, marketing knowledge and client research will help you to close more deals.
That’s why it’s recommended to practice the sales pitch script. A framework is always a standardized approach of doing things. The true power lies in combining a best practice script with unique and exclusive knowledge.
Our script was inspired by the Kellogg School of Management’s framework, one of the leading Management and Business Schools in the world.
How to Practice your Sales Pitch Script
The best way to practice your sales pitch is to use the sales pitch script below and get honest feedback. Ask a colleague to play the client in a mock sales pitch setting. Provide the colleague with context related to the client they play and some potential objections.
Have other colleagues attend the call, without disrupting the flow of your sales pitch, and ask them to provide feedback at the end of your mock call. Honest feedback from your colleagues can help you find areas to improve your sales pitch.
It will also allow you to practice your sales pitch under pressure. Pitching a solution to a client is less daunting than doing a sales pitch to colleagues.
2×2 Feedback on the Sales Pitch Script
At the end of your mock sales pitch, follow the 2×2 Feedback Model to get qualitative feedback. This model allows everyone in the room to speak.
You start by giving feedback on your own sales pitch. State what you think went well and what you think you could improve. Next, your colleagues will answer the same two questions.
Write down all the feedback on your mock sales pitch and improve on your current pitch when you are in a real life situation with the client.
Effective Sales Pitch Script
The Effective Sales Pitch Script follows ten steps. Regardless of the objective of your call, you should follow these ten steps to get the best results. They are designed to help you:
- Understand the current situation
- Give a clear overview of today’s discussion
- Get a view on the desired situation or needs
- Propose a solution to get to the desired situation
- Provide next steps and timelines to ensure execution
- Get buy-in and ensure the right stakeholders are involved
1. 10 Steps Effective Sales Pitch © SlideFill 2024
Introduction in a Sales Call
Introductions are important whenever you are jumping on a sales pitch call with new stakeholders. By introducing yourself and your role, you clearly communicate to the stakeholders of the call what’s within your responsibilities.
It also allows you to ask the external stakeholders to introduce themselves and their roles. This information is crucial to define who is holding the decision power at the company you’re talking to.
In the case no one on the sales call has true decision power related to budgets, investments or closing a deal, it will alter your sales pitch script in which you need to make sure to invite the decision maker to the next call.
The most important elements of your sales pitch introduction are:
- Introducing yourself
- Defining everyone’s roles and responsibilities
- Reconfirming the objective of the meeting
Your sales pitch script and subsequent introduction will differ based on your existing relationship with the client. If you are meeting frequently, there is no way for a personal introduction as you will be familiar with each other. Once you’ve established a clear relationship, you can start with small talk and confirm the sales meeting objective before diving in.
Should I use slides from the start of my sales pitch call
The answer is no. Slides should be used in order to give visual support to the topic you are discussing. In the case of introductions, that topic is you. You want your audience to clearly see your face and make a personal connection with you and your team.
Prevent using slides or presenting any material until you have done introductions, outlined objectives and set rapport during your sales pitch call.
Sales Pitch Script for Building Trust and Rapport
After introductions it’s time to build rapport and trust. The main goal is to showcase that you have done your due diligence and all parties involved will get the most out of their time.
The easiest way to build trust is to display your knowledge about their products, services or needs. Confirm you have visited their website or social media, got a good understanding of their clients and understand what their business is about.
Ensure you took the time to investigate their business before jumping on the call and confirm questions you might have about their business to build rapport. You want to confirm that your observations are correct as this will impact your whole conversation.
Sellers often tend to directly pull up their slides and start talking about their solution, without confirming expectations of the client about the sales call and validating the research they have done.
Finish building trust and rapport by asking the client if they have any questions before you will present your slides. Answer their questions or explain that you will cover their specific questions during your presentation.
Setting an Agenda
Only now you have the right to start presenting that sales pitch deck you have created. Your first slide can be a cover, while your second slide should be the agenda of the meeting. You want to set clear expectations related to what you will discuss today.
Your agenda includes timings and consists of six broad sections:
- Company introduction
- Typical client problems or needs you solve
- Overview of your solutions, products or services
- Success stories of other customers with your solution
- Budget proposal or a visual price benchmark
- Next steps to consider after your meeting
Before kicking off your first section, ask the client if anything is missing from the agenda that they would like to discuss. You should be able to iterate your agenda based on your audience to maximize the sales pitch relevancy.
To build the perfect presentation, you should follow these sales pitch presentation recommendations.
2. Slides to include in your sales pitch deck © SlideFill 2024
Asking Discovery Questions in a Sales Pitch
Asking the right questions is one of the most important skills for a salesperson. There are typically two types of questions that you can use in your sales pitch script. Write down a set up questions for both categories so you don’t run out.
The first type of questions are Discovery Questions. Discovery Questions are broad in nature and help you understand the needs of your customers. They are designed to have your client talk back to you and help you understand better which of your solutions could help them.
It’s important to ask this type of questions when you’re talking about typical client problems and needs you solve. You want to understand the experience of the other people on the sales call so you can talk later about the solutions that resonate best with them.
Example Discovery Questions for your Sales Pitch Script
Good questions are broad, open and probe your audience to talk. A couple of examples:
- What does success look like in 2024?
- How do you measure success within your business?
- What might prevent you from achieving these results?
- Where do you see your company in 5 years from now?
To understand the answers on Discovery Questions better, you need to ask follow-up questions or Depth Questions.
Asking Depth Questions in a Sales Pitch
Depth questions are designed to understand the underlying reasons of an answer given to a Discovery Question. They probe the audience to think about the drivers of their answers. Good salespeople have a clear understanding of how their audience feels as it will allow them to become more effective at objection handling and aligning solutions to needs.
This type of questions is still open but they are more narrow in nature. A good answer would explain underlying drivers of a previous given answer.
Example Depth Questions for your Sales Pitch Script
In the below table, you can find the original Discovery Question with a good Depth Question you can include in your sales pitch script.
It’s strongly recommended to stop presenting while you’re asking these question so the client can fully focus on answering instead of what’s on your slide.
| Discovery Questions | Depth Questions |
|---|---|
| What does success look like in 2024? | Why are these goals important for the business or you? |
| How do you measure success within your business? | What KPIs do you use and how did you decide on these? |
| What might prevent you from achieving these results? | How are these blockers impacting your team on a day-to-day basis? |
| Where do you see your company in 5 years from now? | What are things you would need to change today to achieve this result? |
3. Different sales questions: Discovery Questions and follow-up Depth Questions © SlideFill 2024
Proposing a Solution during your Sales Meeting
The above questions are designed to understand the real needs and the drivers of these needs. It will allow you to align your solutions to problems indicated by the client on the sales call.
The next phase of your sales pitch script is to align your solutions to the information that was just shared by your client. Every sale is about solving a problem someone has (whether they know or not).
When going over your solutions, focus on these that are directly aligned to needs shared by your client. Don’t talk about features. Talk about how their problem or need will be solved and what expected outcomes might look like.
Once you have aligned your solutions to their needs, you want to make sure they think the solution is feasible. One way to do this is by showcasing success stories or social proof. The most impactful success stories are from other clients that are similar in size and in the same industry. Therefore, you need to tailor success stories to your audience.
Understand Client Objections
Client objections are the biggest fear of every salesperson while they shouldn’t. Objections are nothing more or less than a question for clarification. Clients might not fully understand your solution or don’t see the impact, that’s not because they don’t believe it’s useful, they just do not understand it yet.
When being faced with objections, it’s important to acknowledge the objection, ask depth questions to better understand the underlying reasons and address the objections with clarification.
This requires a deep understanding of your product or service and flexibility to iterate in the moment. When you’re creating your sales pitch script, write down the most common objections and update material frequently to prevent these objections from coming up again.
Defining Next Steps
After you’ve talked through your solutions, ask questions to understand what your audience thinks about your offering. This will bring up objections that you can clarify.
Now, it’s time to define next steps. Remember, at the beginning of the sales meeting you have outlined an objective. Your objective is not always to sell, sometimes it’s simply about getting your lead or client to take an action. This action can be reviewing a proposal, having a follow-up sales call with a different objective or meeting with someone else on your team.
Clearly define the next steps you will take after the meeting and the steps you want your client to take. If there is enough time, try to make them take the steps live on the call to prevent delays.
Obtaining the Right to Follow Up
Once next steps are outlined, you want to book in a follow up call. This follow up call is to check the progress on the next steps that you have defined.
It’s also an opportunity for you to include other stakeholders. Ask your audience if you should invite anyone else with the goal to get the different decision makers during the next sales meeting.
You can have multiple meetings with a client but as long as the person who owns the budget and decision is not on the call, you will never close the deal.
Summarizing and closing your Sales Call
Now the follow up meeting is booked, you have only one task left. You need to summarize what’s been discussed and go one more time over the agreed next steps that will happen right after the sales meeting.
Outline key decisions from the call and ask if you have missed anything. If not, close your sales pitch script by stating you’re open to answer any questions in the meantime and you’re looking forward to meeting them again on the decided date.
Frequently Asked Questions
Before you head to the conclusion of this article, you can find answers on frequently asked questions related to making better sales presentations:
RevOps Managers play a pivotal role in setting up personalization for data-driven presentations. Their objectives include:
- Deciding Processes for Data-Driven Presentations: Revenue Operations should identify and prioritize processes that require personalized presentations based on factors such as customization needs, organizational readiness, efficiency gains, and data availability.
- Creating Triggers and Templates Using Variables: Managers should collaborate with teams to define input parameters for personalization. This involves deciding which variables and data points will dynamically replace content in marketing collateral or sales decks. Triggers and templates should align with the customization needs of specific activities.
- Empowering Sellers: Revenue Operations Managers should make data-driven presentations and templates accessible to sellers. The approach can be centralized, allowing for global alignment and brand consistency, or decentralized, offering regional teams more flexibility. The decision depends on the balance between brand control and regional relevance.
By fulfilling these objectives, Revenue Operations Managers facilitate effective personalization, ensuring that content is tailored to specific clients’ needs while optimizing brand consistency and global scale.
Find more answers related to Customizing Content
Discover all frequently asked questions and answers about Customizing Content FAQ.
Pitfalls arise when businesses solely rely on Generative AI without considering the importance of customization. While Generative AI, such as ChatGPT, can automate content creation, it often leads to undifferentiated and generic messages that lack personalization. In the long run, companies using Generative AI for all content creation might save costs initially but risk losing differentiation and personalization, crucial factors in customer engagement.
To prevent these pitfalls, businesses need to strike a balance between automation (or GenAI) and customization. The article suggests categorizing content based on its value – low or high. Low-value content, like confirmation messages, can be automated through tools like ChatGPT with minimal customization. On the other hand, high-value content, such as sales pitches or marketing collateral, requires in-depth customization to resonate with the audience and maximize conversion potential.
The key is to recognize when and where to apply automation and when to prioritize customization. By understanding these dynamics, businesses can avoid the pitfalls associated with over-reliance on Generative AI.
Find more answers related to Customizing Content
Discover all frequently asked questions and answers about Customizing Content FAQ.
Generative AI, including tools like ChatGPT, serves as the automation component in content creation. It automates the generation of low-value content, such as confirmation messages or routine communications, allowing businesses to streamline processes and save time. However, the article emphasizes that the real power lies in combining Generative AI with customization for high-value content.
Customization is the ability to personalize content, tailoring it to specific needs and preferences. In the context of content customization at scale, GenAI acts as the tool for automating low-value activities, while customization becomes crucial for crafting personalized and impactful high-value content.
The key takeaway is that both GenAI and customization have their roles, and businesses should strategically leverage them to achieve efficiency and effectiveness in their content creation processes while not compensating on personalization.
Find more answers related to Customizing Content
Discover all frequently asked questions and answers about Customizing Content FAQ.
Customization in sales and marketing content is essential due to the saturation of the digital landscape. With individuals spending significant time online, generic and undifferentiated content tends to get lost in the noise. The internet’s saturation leads to a high volume of content, making it challenging for businesses to capture the attention of their target audience. Customization allows companies to stand out by aligning their value proposition with the specific needs and preferences of their audience, resulting in increased engagement and, ultimately, higher revenue. The McKinsey study mentioned in the expert article emphasizes that 71% of customers expect personalization, and companies excelling in customization achieve a 40% boost in revenue.
To navigate the content-saturated environment successfully, businesses must focus on personalized messaging, relevant recommendations, targeted promotions, and timely communication. Customization is the key to building a unique brand identity in the long run, setting a company apart from the indistinctive and dull content generated by emerging technologies like Generative AI.
Find more answers related to Customizing Content
Discover all frequently asked questions and answers about Customizing Content FAQ.
Conclusion
What’s next for you
When writing your next sales pitch script, ensure to incorporate these 10 best practices. Understand client needs, ask questions, align solutions to their needs and close the objective of your sales call. Make sure to adapt your script for every single client to maximize your results and hit your goals.
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Views are personal and not affiliated to employers.
No generative AI was used to write the article.
All examples are illustrative and fictional.
