Is your company sales pitch costing you customers?
Natalee Roan
December 2nd, 2008I’ve been involved with startups most of my career, as an entrepreneur, investor, and consultant. When I meet a potential consulting client for the first time, I just ask the question: "What does your company do?" The way they answer is extremely revealing.
Nearly every entrepreneur knows the importance of their elevator pitch, yet an extraordinary number of them fail this simple test. As an example, in response to this single question, one well-respected CEO spent 15 minutes telling me about their mobile application platform (and of course I had already read their website). The VP of Sales gave me his "prospect pitch" as well. Their pitch told me all about the technical benefits of their solution, and how their prospects loved it. They weren’t the only company in this space, and after their explanations I mentioned that I still couldn’t put my arms around why someone would specifically buy their solution.
In frustration, the CEO told me that I clearly didn’t get it and that I was the wrong consultant to help them. His exact quote as he was dismissing me was “The people we are selling this to understand what we do and why we're better and you just can't grasp it - sorry this didn't work out.”
Out of curiosity, I asked if they had any signed contracts yet. The VP of Sales responded that they had a few pilots going which weren't free, but wouldn't pay the bills - and they also had a pipeline of quality prospects. But not one full-blown contract after nearly 18 months. I understand long sales cycles, but given their difficulty in getting me to understand what their company did, my impression was that there was a real problem - and it wasn't with me.
As they were getting up to leave, I asked who their point of contact was within their potential customer base. “Application developers,” they said. “Every entertainment company is building application development departments, and whenever we talk to these guys they are very excited about our platform for mobilizing them and we're usually able to get pilots started. It also works out to a lower cost of ownership."
My next question: “How much does your platform cost?”
Their response: “$100,000 and up."
I shared with them my impression of their problem: They were targeting application developers who were really excited about their product versus anything else on the market. But they couldn’t get a signed contract out of their prospects because application developers rarely have $100k financial signing authority, and it was obvious they had trouble explaining the benefits to less technical people that could write that kind of check. They needed a better pitch to nontechnical buyers like CFOs and CEOs that really laid out the benefits in nontechnical terms and showcased the lower cost of ownership versus other solutions.
I helped them with their benefits messaging targeting financially-minded buyers who held the purse-strings and re-did the website, sales pitches and sales training. The new materials also included helping application developers position the product up the ladder within their own organizations. This step is often missed in sales process development. WIthin a few months they closed 5 high-profile customers with sizeable contracts and their pipeline grew substantially. The company sold just 9 months later for over $50 million.
Often I hear senior executives say “my mother still doesn’t understand what I do.” If you’re in that boat and treading finanical water, consider this: Your mother is really paying attention, and that of course isn't always the case with business contacts. I have a venture capitalist friend who tells all the entrepreneurs pitching him, “Explain this to me like I’m a five-year-old.” To attract investors, customers, employees and media attention, it’s advice you’d be wise to follow.
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Some business owners rely on
Some business owners rely on their products or services to sell themselves and avoid sales pitches like the plague. Others may be lucky enough to benefit from cross sales to existing customers and recommendations from satisfied clients and trusty contacts. But at some stage or another most business owners and senior managers will be called upon to make a sales pitch of some kind or another –exam 70-648 in fact at the most basic level – everyone needs to make a sales pitch to get themselves a jobAnd taking this example you only have to think about the shifty teenager turning up for a Saturday job interview straight from school – with shirt hanging out, muddy trainers, dirty hair and no idea what to say as they introduce themselves with – ‘me mum says there’s a job going here’ to realise there are some simple do’s and don’ts in any sales pitch.A well organized and thought through sales pitch should be in the communications armoury of every business.lpi practice test After all it is just another method of promoting your products and services to potential customers.Whether you are involved in a formal sales pitch or tender process –mcitp exam what those in professional services laughingly call ‘beauty parades’ – or less formal opportunities to ‘sell’ you wares when you meet prospects at a business lunch - the pitch must be simple and direct, and illustrate how your product or service can benefit the customer and meet their need.
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If you simply hand over your criteria scoring spreadsheet to the vendors and say, "Can your product do this?" the answer will either be "Yes" or "It's in our next release.
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