Sales Pitches

Have you ever delivered a make or break sales pitch? It's one of the toughest jobs there is, knowing that your perfomance could affect the future activities of your colleagues and your business.

Sales pitches are not for the faint-hearted. You're involved in a competition to present the best proposal to your client, but you don't know just how good your competitors are. The best assumption here is to imagine that they are pretty switched on when it comes to delivering effective sales pitches. And this must be the stimulus for you to be even more effective.

Preparation is the key to a successful sales pitch and that means paying attention to the detailed requirements of the brief. A poorly worded brief or a misunderstood brief usually ends in embarassment. Ensure that you fully understand exactly what the client is looking for. It also shows that you're thoughtful, interested and it has the derivative benefit of giving you access to the client - a great opportunity to strike up a winning rapport with one of the client team. Remember that you'll be investing a great deal of time on this project and if you don't understand the brief and associated budget, you are sailing against the wind.

What is your company really good at? What are your core competencies? Do you have a successful reputation for delivering quality solutions? If so, this is no place to be modest. Make it absolutely clear to the client that your track history in this field is excellent.

There is a tried and trusted formula for a succesful sales pitch which I have shared with my clients over a number of years. The major requirement is that somebody in your team can speak enthusiastically and articulately about your company's achievements. Here I'm looking for a supremely confident speaker with the power of persuasion. People with these specialist skills are like gold dust. However, people can be trained for peak performance.