Better results with Sales pitch – how to build an effective Sales pitch in just 5 easy steps

Why should you create your own Sales pitch?

Sales pitch works well when you want to sell an idea, but also when you need to clarify one of your own ideas to yourself. If you need several minutes for presenting your own idea, that means you yourself still need to focus on what parts of that idea is still a bit unclear to you.

If you are wondering how is it possible to wrap up a presentation into 10s-30s, I recommend that you take a look at TV commercials. At their best, the commercials have made their point clear in a manner of seconds.

With Sales pitch it is easier to get a better idea of the listener’s point of view. Presenting your own idea in such a short period of time, requires a lot of thought put into what it is that the listener really wants to hear. And to be able to do that, you really need to think about things from the listener’s point of view.

Where to start with a sales pitch?

You start building the Sales pitch by thinking who is the target audience. For example, you shouldn’t sell the same product to a customer by using the same words as you would when presenting it to your business partner.

To add to the effectiveness of the Sales pitch you need have clear target audience and a clear style.

Just like in good commercials, in the beginning of your Sales pitch you need to have something that raises the attention. It doesn’t have to be anything ground breaking. For example, people always like to hear something nice about themselves.

You can start your Sales pitch by saying, for example, how great it is to meet the person in front of you, and how much they have affected your life.

After getting their attention give a brief introduction of yourself. Tell only relevant things about yourself, and keep the introduction short. The goal of introducing yourself is to gain trust and make the conversation more personal. My Sales pitch for Mika D. Rubanovitsch could begin with something like this:

Hello there Mr. Rubanovitsch! It is such a pleasure meeting you in person. Your books have made such a great impact on me. My name is Antti Toikkanen and I work for Trustmary.”

5 stages of creating your Sales pitch

There are several versions for creating the core of your Sales pitch. Here I will introduce to you a five step guide for creating an efficient Sales pitch.

This is a very general base of the speech, that can be modified according to your own needs. These examples are guidelines for a 30 second long Sales pitch.

What else should you consider with Sales pitch?

You have now planned the world’s best Sales pitch on subject X. What’s next? Should it be practiced? 

I can say with good conscience, that you can go horribly wrong with your Sales pitch, unless you practice it. When you need to make things clear with a summarized speech, it leaves no room for hesitation.

Practice your speech thoroughly a couple of times and then start taking it into practice. But, endlessly making more and more final touches won’t change the fact that no one will be able to hear your Sales pitch, unless you go out and present it to someone.

If you are naturally funny and can use humor in your speech, go for it! Just make sure you are not trying too much and end up making too many jokes, but rather including a small icebreaker in the middle of the speech can add to the receptivity of the listener notably.

While creating a Sales pitch it is also important that you stick to a vocabulary that the listener can understand. For example, working in the IT-industry you can quickly come across with a situation where you are using such terminology the listener won’t have a clue of what you are trying to say.

Also, too long sentences are a bad thing. Keep in mind, who it is you are talking to and prefer more simpler, rather than complicated words.

Words by themselves are not enough to make for a good Sales pitch. Interaction is always a combination of words, body language and using your sound.

External matters also play a role. As a very roughly made up example, if a homeless looking person would introduce themselves as the CEO of a successful business, the listener will more than likely consider the situation either as a joke, or frightening.

Things you should never do in a sales pitch

Don’t speak too fast. There is not a lot of time, but that doesn’t mean that you should speak as much and as fast as possible. It is often far more efficient to emphasize on a certain manner, when you leave the listener some time to absorb the information. 

Stop rambling. Don’t use unclear sentences. These are the worst mistakes during a Sales pitch and you can affect it a lot by planning and practicing. A well planned and well practiced speech will stay intact.

Don’t speak by using a monotonic tone. 30 seconds of a boring speech will go through one ear and out the other. Emphasize the important parts of your speech, and show enthusiasm towards what you are saying. An excited person doesn’t sound monotonic and boring.

You’ll need to use a body language that is both confident and raises trust in the listener. For example, massaging your hands together might calm yourself down, but it would distract the listener.

How to develop into a great Sales pitch performer?

Repetition is the key. No matter if you are going to the gym or working in a sales organization, through repetition you will find success. The more you give sales pitches, the more experience you will gain.

You can get far with your Sales pitch by simply using these tips.