Do you think you have the best sales pitch or could it use some pizazz? Maybe it’s time to order a pizza…
(I’ll explain what I mean in just a minute.)
But first, I recently was on a plane, and watched a movie. If you know me, you know that I don’t watch much TV but I LOVE movies. I ended up watching Hitch, starring Will Smith.
In this movie, Will Smith plays a relationship coach. He helps bring people together, to help create that magical “spark” – that first nudge. The rest is then up to those two people: Hitch helps create the opportunity for them to turn that spark into a fire.
To help that spark, Hitch helps his clients research the person they like. What do they do? What do they like? What are their goals and dreams? What is their schedule?
He helps create that moment, and then the rest is up to them.
You can say that entrepreneurship – and specifically sales – is like matchmaking. You’ve got to have that magical spark between you and your client, or you and your investors.
Our pitch is our spark; our product or service is the relationship. It’s hard when you know that you have the perfect solution for them – but you just need to figure out how to get it in front of them!
That’s where the pizza comes in: Becca Brown, a guest on the Success Unfiltered Podcast, is co-founder of Solemates, shoe accessories that help keep high heels from sinking into the grass. Becca was trying to get Solemates into David’s Bridal stores, and was trying to get the attention of high-profile people as a mark of approval.
Her sights were set on Oprah and her team – including Oprah’s friend, Gayle King. After doing a little nifty research, Becca learned Oprah’s team’s favorite kind of pizza. Becca ordered that pizza and included her press kit with the delivery. They loved it so much that her press kit ended up on Gayle’s desk, and the rest is history!
If your pitch feels like it’s falling flat, here are some tips and tricks to help you spice things up and create your best sales pitch ever, plus you’ll even bring about some creative connections.
Do Your Research
You can’t pitch someone you don’t know! So take some time to come up with the perfect offering for them! How do you do that…(read on)!
If you’re looking to create a relationship with an influencer, an investor, or even a brand, you need to do your research first.
If it is a person, what do they like? What do they do? If it is a brand or business, what do they stand for? What are their core principles; what gaps do they have that you perfectly fill?
You have the opportunity to stand out because you know more about that person.
We all know what it’s like to skim through our inbox. There are so many impersonal messages there. Training programs that identify a struggle we don’t have. Products we don’t need. Services we already have a team for.
Those attempts at sales persuasion fall flat because they are impersonal, and quite frankly, boring. You’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.
If someone was going to pitch me, I’d tell you that there are a few easy connection points: if you’ve even looked at my Instagram, you can easily learn about what’s important to me.
Here’s just a short list:
- Fitness
- Eating healthy (I love my green juice!)
- Sleeping
- Travelling
- Doing laundry!
- & Sales!
If you spend a little bit of time, it’s not that hard to figure out what is important to the people you want to pitch.
Think Outside the Box
When you consider how much people are bombarded with pitches and sales every day, it makes it even more important to stand out with your pitch.
But how can you do that?
Take that research that you’ve already done, and put it to use!
Becca learned about the team that worked with Gayle King, and found out their favorite kind of pizza. She ordered that pizza for them, and because of that, her press kit ended up on Gayle’s desk. That’s my idea of the best sales pitch!!
If she had only sent the press kit, nothing about it would have stood out to that team, and it may have landed in the recycling bin. But, because she did her research, and learned about something that the team really liked, she was able to land the pitch.
One powerful aspect of this is the concept of the gatekeeper. Often, you can reach the person that you are pitching through a close connection. In this case, it was through the team.
Reach the team; reach the person.
You can see who their close connections are, and through those connections, you can get the introduction that you need. Think of this how LinkedIn works!
Don’t be afraid to be creative in how you reach out.
If you were going to try to have a sales conversation with Becca, you’d potentially connect with her over her favorite hobby, cycling. If you were pitching me, perhaps we’d connect over my favorite drink: green juice!
Create Your Own Connection
Don’t have a connection to the person or brand that you’re wanting to pitch? NO problem!
There are so many ways that you can connect. In fact, social media and technology make the world feel smaller and smaller and gives you access to almost anyone that you could want to connect with.
Connect on Instagram
Most people have an Instagram account these days. A little research can help you find just the right people to connect with.
By engaging meaningfully with their content, you’ll be able to get their attention. Even something as simple as a like, and then a comment can help put you on their radar.
Hint: make sure you spend time watching their stories; that is where a lot of people share that personal content that helps you know exactly how to connect with them.
Connect on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a powerful social media platform because not only are you able to see who you are connected with, but you are also able to see mutual connections.
If you’ve ever played “7 degrees of Kevin Bacon,” then you know just how close of a connection you really do have with almost anyone. In the entrepreneurial world, you often are as close as just one degree of separation!
Just a little bit of LinkedIn research may help you find that you are closer to the connections that you need, and that you may already be connected to just the person who can give you the introduction which leads to sharing your best sales pitch ever.
Connect on Email
You may be able to get through with an email. One of my favorite email hacks is using the person’s first name (at) the website name (dot) com. Often, that actually works – and is their direct connection!
Be creative, and you never know when you’re ending up right in the correct person’s inbox!
In Conclusion
Standing out is one of the most important things that you can do with your sales talk. After all, people are constantly bombarded with sales pitches. You have to find ways to rise above the noise.
How are you rising above the noise and standing out? Tell us in the comments!
As a bonus: in this blog post, I’ve told you several interesting things about me. If you were going to reach out to me to be an investor, or you were going to try to sell me your product, which one of those things would you use as a connection point? Did you catch all the facts about myself that I shared? It’s amazing how much information people reveal, if you just know what to look for!
