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Power
Pitching: Get the Personal Edge
by
Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE
Whenever
and whatever you're pitching, dozens of factors will figure
in the final decision of your prospects. All else being equal,
you have the edge if you can establish a personal connection.
Connect emotionally and intellectually, so they like and trust
you more than your competitors. How can you get your prospects
to like you? Try these tips.
- Focus
and be sincere. If you appear nervous or unsure, you may
seem devious or incompetent. If your sales presentation
does not respond to their concerns and you just grind on
with a prepared pitch, they will decide you don't care about
them and their problems. Look people right in the eyes and
convince them that you stand 100% behind the ideas, products,
or services that you want to sell them. Pick up on their
concerns, and address them.
- "Divide
and conquer." If you're doing a sales presentation, shake
hands with everyone as they enter the room. Connect with
them so you see them as individuals, and you become more
memorable to them too. (People are usually more shy of groups
of strangers than in one-on-one contacts.)
- Use
technology to enhance your sales presentation, not drown
it. PowerPoint can keep you on track, but it can't establish
trust.
- Keep
it simple and memorable! When your prospects have a debriefing
afterwards, you want them to remember what you said more
than anything your competitors pitched to them. Break your
talking points into snappy sound bites that are easy to
write down and remember. Make them interesting and repeatable.
- Steer
clear of technical language and jargon. Rehearse your presentation
in advance with your spouse or an intelligent 12-year-old
across the dinner table. If there's anything they don't
understand, it's too complicated.
- Tell
great stories. People are trained to resist a sales pitch,
but no one can resist a good story. Let's say you're trying
to get money to fund your software company. Tell a story
about how the prospective investor's life will change when
you bring the product to market: "Imagine that a year from
now you'll come to work and use this software to do in 5
minutes what now takes you 45 minutes. I don't know what
that would do to your life, but in all our test markets
or pilot programs, people tell us..." Then add more
stories.
Take a lesson
from Hollywood. Give your stories interesting characters and
dialogue, plus a dramatic lesson that your prospects can relate
to. Don't say, "Certain companies have used our software." Don't
even say, "IBM has used our software." Instead, say, "Joe Smith
at IBM said to me, 'If we don't increase sales turnover by 20%,
we want make our projections'. We guaranteed them they could
if they used our software. Six months later, Joe called and
said, 'You guys saved us.'"
If you are pitching a product that hasn't been built yet, build
a story about what it will be like for someone using it.
Everything
else being equal, you're way ahead of any and all your competition
when your prospects relate to you, like you, and trust you.
(523 words)
This article first appeared in the September 23, 2003 issue of SpeakerFrippNews. You can email Mike Pniewski at filmski@aol.com To subscribe or access archived issues of Fripp's Public Speaking and Presentation Skills ezine SpeakerFrippNews Subscription is free.
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