The sales pitch is more than just a quick transaction between two parties — it’s a complex undertaking that’s intended to bring a better solution to an existing problem.
But it’s not always carried out as such.
Little preparation and research, taking shortcuts in the relationship-building stage, and focusing more on the attractiveness of your product — versus a customer’s wants and needs — can all contribute to pitches that ultimately fall short.
“You must connect on a personal level with the people across the table. When things go wrong — and they will go wrong — a buyer wants to work with someone who genuinely cares about their experience,” Jeffrey Morelli, Director of Sales at identity platform Truework, said.
In addition to being an empathetic salesperson, showing continued interest in a potential customer’s business can not only help seal a deal but pay dividends for the relationship down the line.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s the first call, a proposal review or a follow-up on a contract signature — there’s always something new to learn,” Stephen Ananicz, a Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships at knowledge engine platform Yext, said.
Built In San Francisco caught up with Ananicz and Morelli to see how they’ve perfected their sales pitch by layering customer questions into their pitch, listening — rather than just pitching — to build deeper business relationships, and more.
As a privacy-based internet company, Truework aims to give control back to the consumer for how their personal information is shared online. In his sales pitches, Director of Sales Jeffrey Morelli emphasizes the importance of relating product features back to the customer’s main concern and why trust holds more value than anything else you could sell.
What’s the key to a successful sales pitch, and why?
The key to a successful sales pitch is the ability to sell the value of your product, not the features of the product. One of my favorite quotes is “People don’t want a quarter-inch drill bit, they want a quarter-inch hole.”
For example, most people do not care about how Google search works behind the scenes. Instead, they care about receiving relevant information to their questions as quickly as possible. This may sound obvious, but it is alarming how many salespeople describe every last feature in the product before aligning on the pain points.
Furthermore, you must connect on a personal level with the people across the table. When things go wrong — and they will go wrong — a buyer wants to work with someone who genuinely cares about their experience. If you are struggling with this skill, I highly recommend reading “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie, which I view as the best sales book on the market.
A great sales pitch intertwines relationship building with value selling. Why? Because at the end of the day the buyer must trust who they are buying from, and ultimately people will spend more money when it is an emotional decision rather than a strategic decision.
What’s one change you've made that’s really elevated your sales pitch?
My sales pitch drastically changed when I stopped focusing on what I was going to say and instead started focusing on what the customer was truly saying. I do this by asking as many questions as possible and genuinely caring about the answers.
When a customer asks a question, the natural instinct is to answer that question directly. Instead, try answering their question with another question. This approach gives you insight into what they are actually trying to learn. In every call, customers drop hints on what truly matters from their perspective (which is the only perspective that matters). Once you find the value prop that the customer cares about, it is your job to relate the rest of the presentation back to that value prop.
My sales pitch drastically changed when I stopped focusing on what I was going to say and instead started focusing on what the customer was truly saying.”
What’s the most valuable piece of advice you could share with someone who’s looking to take their sales pitch to the next level?
When a skill is mastered, it is typically because the individual produces more by doing less. They have found what differentiates good from great and only focus their efforts on highly leveraged skills. The same is true for sales.
People primarily care about themselves. So, as effective salespeople, we must ruthlessly prioritize and ask ourselves, “Does what I am about to say make the customer excited?” This means questioning everything about your current sales process. Do you need that slide on company history? Do you need to show them the different options within settings? Do you spend more time on the demo than you do on discovery?
At the end of the day, it’s quite simple: Make sure everything in your pitch focuses on the value added to the customer, and be sure that you are listening to every detail they have to say.
As a search experience cloud, Yext organizes a business’s facts so consumers can gain official answers to their specific questions. Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships Stephen Ananicz pitches his products like a date proposal, explaining that listening is crucial and that any informative outcome — even if it deviates from expectations — is a good one.
What’s the key to a successful sales pitch, and why?
Two key things: identifying mutual meeting objectives, and understanding that discovery never stops.
Time is something you don’t get back, so it’s crucial to establish mutually agreed-upon meeting objectives before the sales pitch. Even if it’s the first conversation, you’d be surprised how open and responsive a prospective client will be to sharing how they’d like to spend their time with you. While the client’s meeting objectives take priority, both parties can build respect by coming forth with an ideal outcome.
Also, while nailing the first impression on your introductory call is crucial, it’s a mistake to think that that’s where discovery begins and ends. It doesn’t matter if it’s the first call, a proposal review or a follow-up on a contract signature — there’s always something new to learn.
What’s one change you've made that’s really elevated your sales pitch?
Layering open-ended questions during discovery has had the most impact in elevating my sales pitch. You can learn so much through simple layering techniques, weaving in phrases such as:
- “Tell me more.”
- “Do you mind expanding on that?”
- “How does that impact your business financially?”
- “How does this align with your yearly goals?”
While I put an emphasis on open-ended questions, I still strive to earn the right to ask “Have we earned your business?” in every conversation.
Being that the devil is in the details, by layering questions I am able to uncover golden nuggets of information that could ultimately make the difference between winning and losing business. Even if the outcome isn’t what I had hoped for, I take a moment to reflect and review the post-evaluation discovery in order to make improvements to my pitch in the future.
While nailing the first impression on your introductory call is crucial, it’s a mistake to think that that’s where discovery begins and ends.”
What’s the most valuable piece of advice you could share with someone who’s looking to take their sales pitch to the next level?
It’s simple — build trust with your client. My wife shared an analogy that has stuck with me ever since: “Sales is similar to dating.”
In enterprise and strategic account sales, our goal is to build genuine and long-lasting relationships — not too far off from the dating world. That’s why it’s so important to have an open dialogue with your client about professional goals, business objectives and challenges. It not only aids in sealing the deal, but it can also play in your favor if you need to get a deal over the finish line with stringent time constraints.
At the end of the day, clients are people just like you and me. Taking shortcuts in relationship-building may work from time to time, but it’s just a temporary fix. When entering a conversation, I always assume the client has a healthy level of skepticism and that they’re able to identify a one-sided relationship. It’s called a “win-win” for a reason!
