The ultimate tool that gets your foot in the sales door.
Riding down the elevator of a hotel in Nairobi to the Cafeteria, I’m in a discussion with a colleague about the training programme for the day when a co-occupant of the mobile box tells me: “You’re West African, either from Nigeria or Ghana!” He hit the nail on the head because those two countries are my operating bases.
Immediately, my pitch takes over. I’m telling my inquisitive co-occupant of the elevator that management skills are the ultimate for personal development and eventual prosperity at your business. Before we get to the basement where breakfast is served, I have given the man a picture of what I do and why he ought to patronize me. The attention and smile I get at the end with a firm handshake tells me that I have done well.
Everyone needs marketing and sales skills. No matter what you do, wherever you are, you are selling something. If it’s not a service or good, you probably are selling your skills to people around you on a regular basis. The boss-subordinate relationships require a consistent portrayal of confidence and conviction, ensuring that your supervisor sees and believes that you have the right qualities for the job and you are attaining your performance expectation consistently. Marketing and sales skills show in the way you talk to prospects and customers as well as your colleagues and bosses in and outside of the work environment. The elevator pitch, which was succinctly described earlier, should be at the tip of your tongue at all times. Could you, within a few minutes, tell a prospect what you do for a living and why your organization is deemed to be important to people around you? The elevator pitch presents a solution to a major problem and lures the listener in, making him see that there is a probable solution to a situation he has been facing right before him.
Everyone needs marketing and sales skills. No matter what you do, wherever you are, you are selling something.
Every person needs to sharpen his pitch. Whether you sell oranges at the local market, Insurance door to door, house hold commodities online or even solicit for clients as a lawyer, there has to be something you can say in a few words that will get a prospect interested in you and what you do.
I remember being shaken down by sturdy looking security guards at Dakar International Airport. I was billed to board a flight to Lagos. They wanted to know why I had come to Dakar and what the nature of my business was. Looking the officials straight in the eye, I launched into my pitch, even though deep down I was offended because I was being profiled negatively. The decision was to play it cool and let sales talk take over.
“When last did you go for training” I said with a smile. Did you know management training in certain key skill sets would give you a greater chance for promotion and a better edge for achieving your key performance indicators?” Of course I was telling myself they really needed training in Customer Service and human relations! They had asked me to put all my money on the table. I had just been paid in dollars so I asked with a smile, “You want to take my money?” No Sir! They responded and before I knew what was happening I was being ushered out of the side room to the boarding patch for my flight. My pitch and confidence had got me out of another tight corner.
It’s not enough for you to have a pitch; you need to be able to make it sharp, like razor edge, so that it cuts through any form of resistance you face. Prospects will put up resistance to any kind of product or service you present. Your job is to wear down that resistance, cut through it like a hot knife through a slab of butter and convince them that you are at least worth listening too.
Your pitch must be flexible. It cannot be always the same. According to whom the prospects are, you can enact a modification that would suit the immediate purpose and prospective client that you are facing. Politicians need a pitch, sportsmen and TV presenters too! There must be something unique about your product or service that should resonate with the person you want to patronize you. That is what we call the Unique Selling Point or Unique Selling Proposition (USP).
So, don’t just build and rehearse your pitch. Make it sharp so that it can penetrate resistance. Remember, every buyer has a level of resistance. It’s your job to wear it down.
Everyone has one. Your duty is to bring it out, place it before the prospect and make it resonate deep into his psyche. If you can do this, selling or getting a commitment to sales is easy. The Pitch works anywhere and everywhere if you know how to present it. Great salesmen always have a great pitch and they know how to adjust it to suit different prospects at all times. On a broader scale you need to be able to walk through all the following stages: Prospecting, Building rapport, Identifying needs, Presenting, Answering objections, Closing the sale and of course, Getting re-sales and Referrals. A good pitch would take you from the level of prospecting to sales in a jiffy. What is important is that you make sure you are talking to the right person.
One basic test we carry out for participants in training is to put them in an imaginary room with 15 of the busiest and wealthiest people in their city and tell them they have 15 minutes to make a presentation. How do you go about that? Well the strategy is to open strong with your USP in tow so that you get the attention of the people you are talking to. Remember, they are busy and their attention span is very short. If you can get them interested in what you are saying from the beginning then you have sold them half way. The first problem of any form of communication is getting people’s attention. Our brain is designed to be keenly aware of changes. Surprise gets our attention while interest keeps it. If your pitch can have surprises: things out of the ordinary and interesting details, then you will get the attention of people you are talking to and keep it.
So suppose you are a car salesman and you are talking to people who like cars and possibly collect them. The model you want to sell the room of millionaires is bound to have some unique features. What would probably work would be to show a movie clip of the car accentuating its uniqueness for a few minutes. Then call for questions. You would be amazed at the response it would receive.
So, don’t just build and rehearse your pitch. Make it sharp so that it can penetrate resistance. Remember, every buyer has a level of resistance. It’s your job to wear it down.
*Ogundadegbe is a renowned management consultant. He trains managers and executives in the arts of Customer Service, Human Resources Management and Management strategy ([email protected]).
