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Sales pitches are a dime a dozen, and so are sales pitches about making sales pitches: “Always be closing.” “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” “Cast a wide net.” “It’s all about relationships.” You’ve heard it all a million times, and none of it really means anything.
Why not? Simple, really. Because the people saying those things don’t really care if they actually work or not; they’re just trying to sell you something. Like, say, a book, class, or program about sales pitches. Here, instead of idioms, cliches and quotes from Glengarry Glen Ross, are some tactics that -- call us crazy -- might actually work. And we’re giving them to you for free.
Sell the solution, not the thing
People don’t need your stuff. They don’t need your services, your deals, or your promotions. They need solutions to their problems. If your company doesn’t address a need in the marketplace, it won’t sell. If your company misses the mark on what your customers want, your product won’t move, or at least, it won’t move for very long. In fact, your sales strategy begins long before you pick up the phone to make that first sales call or hit “return” to send that first pitch email to a client. It begins in the ideation phase. It begins on day one of product development. It begins when you decide what you’re going to sell in the first place. Know that, and you’re ahead of the game from the word go.
Put simply, It’s not about you, your brand or your schtick; it’s about the customer. Always. Full stop.
Rake in referrals
Everyone’s heard the old saying, “It’s not what you know; it’s who you know.” But in realistic terms, particularly when you’re launching a startup, what you know absolutely matters. After all, it’s your knowledge, legwork and research that got you and your company here in the first place. Still, who you know definitely matters, too, and that includes every single person you ever met before you stepped into the startup world, and everyone you’ve met since.
Exhibiting passion for what you do, thoughtfulness in your conversations with others, and a deep understanding of the problem your business is solving for customers -- all those things are paramount when you’re ready to start selling, and your track record matters. On a related note, here’s a secret you may not yet know: branding isn’t an advertising campaign, a perfect series of words, a PR stunt, or even a logo. Branding is what people say about you when you’re not in the room. If they say good things, the people they’re talking to will listen, and if they need you, they’ll come find you. It’s your job to make yourself findable, and to exceed expectations once customers arrive.
Network outside of your comfort zone
It’s already been established that referrals are a key result of good branding. But in order to properly brand your company, you have to meet an awful lot of people along the way. Incubators and accelerators provide an endless array of events and activities to firmly entrench founders in the startup community, but getting outside that little bubble requires effort. To truly make your brand known, it’s imperative to get to know the competition, the customer, and all the key influencers that delicately thread the three of you together for better or worse. That means stepping outside of what’s comfortable.
Speak clearly and with conviction to members of the media, to potential investors, to future customers, and even to people you’re not entirely sure you trust. When you make plans, keep them. When you make promises, live up to them without making the recipient wait. Be someone people want to be around; not someone people want to avoid. It sounds overly simplistic, but it means more than you realize when the time comes to get your business off the ground once and for all.
Make cold calls, already warmed up
Cold calling can strike fear in the heart of even the most extroverted human being. But for born salespeople and even folks who just truly believe in the product or service they’re trying to move, it can be a highly necessary part of getting a business off the ground and keeping it running. Whether you’re using a giant database or hand-selecting a coveted curation of potential clients, it doesn’t matter how slick your product or service seems on the surface. What matters is whether or not it will deliver on the promise it makes -- something that won’t take long for people to find out.
Understanding what your customers need and finding an accessible way to give it to them is the name of the game, and if you’ve done your research, your pitch really shouldn’t be that difficult. As Einstein is famously credited with saying, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” The same goes for fixing a problem, and for filling a need.
Give them test runs, on the house
People love free stuff. If you’re in a position to share a sampling of your brand to a customer who might then pay to keep using it, take advantage of that opportunity. Whether it’s a free 15-day trial, a two-for-one deal for new customers, or even just the delivery of free products or services via email, social sharing or in person, give a small amount of something good away for free and your audience will talk amongst itself and come back for more, ideally in waves that grow bigger as time goes on.
Again, there’s that key thing: something good. Because what you’re selling should, ideally, be able to sell itself. That’s the best sales tactic of all.
