The Art Of Pitching To Customers

An invaluable advice to overcome the most basic hurdles at pitching to every customer that comes across you is : “ DON’T “

Time is money, don’t waste it on people who don’t seem serious. Now I can’t say that do not pitch at all but just be cautious when you do it. Talking to prospect clients should be no less than a well articulated “speech” that has been delivered many times. It is an art and there should be a version for all sorts. You should know when to cut it short and when to elaborate according to the size of the company and number of employees. For a SaaS company, every sale counts and sometimes the scrutiny might be harder than you think.

The key to judge is simple, there should be a pre-decided or planned out criteria or a graded scoring system to rate the prospect client. In addition, there should always be a certain person on the team who should know how to assign and distribute the deals according to the capabilities of the salesperson. Although, my mantra is that everyone on the team should know how to close a deal. Need be, every person should be your salesperson and brand ambassador. After all, your client would be the word of mouth about your business and for great testimonials, personal recommendations and endorsements your customers must have a lasting impression.

Power of judgement at the most crucial times can make or break a company, it is best to take second opinions while closing a bigger deal. As much as the big deal may look appealing and noteworthy, it could have an opposite effect as well. Some big deals are technically less suitable for a business and might actually hinder your growth process. Never try to own an area that you are least confident about, every person in the company is therefore assigned a specific role. Trying to master it all might cause a trust deficit and may actually hint towards a lack of competency of people in a particular organization.

Make notes about the customer behavior and patterns and how does your “niche” decide to have your services, after all your pitching and convincing styles could be tweaked a bit to adjust accordingly. Of course all metrics matter when it is a SaaS company we are talking about but the cost of customer acquisition matters the most, as selling to small and mid sized companies cannot and should not result in burning up too much cash. Leads should carefully be chosen and worked upon to convert them.

Not all leads are worth working upon, it never hurts to get two opinions just to be safe and make authentic decisions. One more golden rule to be followed at all times is, never to pitch while cold calling. The person on the other hand is not expecting a walk through the dreaded park, he/she is not even expecting you’d call in the first place, so let it be.

Always leave room to think, be convincing, be accurate, be boastful but never imposing. If you think you’re smart enough to cloud the judgement of a customer, than that might not be true. Even if you are such an enigma and somehow reach that nirvana while convincing and enticing the client, he might snap out of it soon. Let the client decide and respect their decisions.

Workout the challenges that any typical and atypical pitch might have. “The might haves” should not be left to be “tended to” later category. There can always be an array of questions that you haven’t covered, always remember that clients can surprise you and put you out in a corner where you’d like to bang your head in the wall or go jump off a cliff. So before you try any of those, try a middle ground “ learn, learn, learn “ always be observing, analyzing, studying, experimenting and upgrading.