• What We Do
    ○
    • Sales Technology Consulting Services
      ○
      • Sales Technology Consulting Services
      • Stakeholder Analysis & Sales Technology Audit
      • Sales Technology Selection Strategy
      • Sales Technology Vendor Moderation
      • Sales Technology Adoption Program
      • Sales Technology ROI
      • Multiyear Sales Technology Strategy
    • Research/Advisory
      ○
      • About Clear View Reports
        ○
        • Outbound Prospecting / Agent Assisted
        • Sales Enablement / Content Management
        • Sales Skills Development and Reinforcement
        • Sales Technology and Training Selector
  • Sales Tech Selection Resources
    ○
    • Certified Sales Technology Landscape
    • Tools and Guides
      ○
      • Sales Tech Stack Selection Tool
      • Sales Technology Buying Roadmap
      • Sales Technology ROI Guide
    • Sales Training
      ○
      • Sales Training Solutions
      • Certified Sales Training Landscape
  • Learning Center
    ○
    • The Neutral Zone Sales Technology Blog
    • The Neutral Zone Podcasts
    • The Neutral Zone Webinars
  • About
    ○
    • Contact Us
    • Our Story
    • News & Press
  • Sales Technology Selection Tool
Vendor NeutralVendor Neutral
  • What We Do
    • Consulting
      • Stakeholder Analysis & Sales Technology Audit
      • Sales Technology Selection Strategy
      • Sales Technology Vendor Moderation
      • Sales Technology Adoption Program
      • Sales Technology ROI Framework
      • Multiyear Sales Technology Strategy
    • Research/Advisory
      • Certified Sales Technology Profiles
      • Certified Sales Training Reports
      • Analyst Research
        • Outbound Prospecting / Agent Assisted
        • Sales Enablement / Content Management
        • Sales Skills Development and Reinforcement
      • Sales Technology and Training Selection Tool
  • Sales Tech Selection Resources
    • Sales Technology Solutions
    • Tools and Guides
      • Sales Tech Stack Selection Tool
      • Sales Technology Buying Roadmap
      • Sales Tech ROI Guide
    • Certified Sales Technology Landscape
    • Sales Training
      • Sales Training Solutions
      • Sales Training Selection Tool
      • Certified Sales Training Landscape
  • Learning Center
    • The Neutral Zone Sales Tech Blog
    • The Neutral Zone Podcasts
    • The Neutral Zone Webinars
  • About
    • Contact Us
    • Our Story
    • News & Press

Industry Experts and Thought Leaders

The Neutral Zone Sales Blog

Buying Sales Technology and Training is hard. We’re here to help with curated content from leading experts, thought leaders, and analysts.

Scroll Down

A Powerful Pitch | 4 Key Elements

Vendor Neutral sees a LOT of demos by sales solution vendors. Some demos are strikingly better than others. Why is that? What makes a powerful pitch or presentation? Lucky for us, we know an expert on the topic. Julie Hansen, Founder of Performance Sales and Training, is the author of “Sales Presentations for Dummies” and trains marketing and sales organizations on what it takes to give five-star presentations that prospects will respond to.  We asked her to break it down for us. What are the key elements of a powerful pitch?

4 Key Elements of a Powerful Pitch

1. Start with what’s of most interest to the customer.

Great pitches are customer-focused right from the start. Unfortunately, most of the pitches I see today begin with the salesperson talking about their own company. I call this the Company Selfie. It’s all about us! The best pitches lead with what is of most interest to the audience, which is rarely how many offices you have or how long you’ve been in business. Address the customer’s interests first by sharing an outcome they can expect from using your product, a key insight, or something you found in discovery. This is a great way to grab your audience’s attention and pique their interest.

2. Focus on a few key features.

Did you ever drink from a hose as a kid? That’s what many customers feel like on the receiving end of a traditional demo. If your goal is to show as many features and capabilities as time allows, you’re missing the point. This “feature dump” waters down your main message, confuses and overwhelms your customer.
Instead, focus on a few key features that directly impact your customer’s current situation. You want to avoid getting too deep into how a feature or process works (a demo is not a teaching situation!) or wandering off the path with a casual “you can also do this” or “while we’re here let me show you,” which invites tune out and opens you up to additional risks, such as making your solution appear complicated, going down a rabbit hole, or running into bugs.

3. Tailor it to the customer.

People expect a custom experience – whether they’re buying a three-dollar cup of coffee or a six-figure technology tool! Even though your solution may address a common set of challenges, your pitch should make your customer feel like your solution was designed just for them. Customization doesn’t have to be a long, arduous process or require a ton of discovery. Simply by applying what you do know about your customer to a few key areas, you can turn a generic sounding pitch into a custom experience. For example:

• Use customer-specific context to connect features to the customer’s world. What unique challenge does a feature solve for your prospect? How are they currently addressing this challenge? What is the impact? By connecting the dots between your product’s capabilities and how, when and why your prospect would use it, you allow your prospect to envision using your solution in their own unique environment.

• Use the customer’s own language. Too many salespeople try to teach customer’s their product names or industry acronyms. It’s much more important for the salesperson to understand the customer’s language – and use it whenever possible. Most customers don’t care what you call your product or features. What they do care about is how those products or features are going to help solve the customer’s problems. Using language grounded in your customer’s world shows that you have a deeper understanding of your customer’s issues and exponentially increases your credibility.

4. Make it a conversation.

Studies show that the more the customer talks, the more successful the demo. However, we’ve trained customers to sit back and listen, so you can’t expect a conversation to just naturally take place without some action on your part. Salespeople can break that pattern of passivity by creating natural opportunities for the customer to interact or ask questions. Too often customers don’t ask questions because the salesperson has already answered them by going into too much detail! It’s a smart practice to hold back in a few areas and allow your customer to ask the questions they want to ask.

Another way to create interaction is to break your content into short three-five minute chunks when attention starts to naturally wane. At the end of each chunk, pause, ask a question or invite feedback. I suggest planning those questions ahead of time, so you don’t keep repeating the over-used (and mildly condescending) “Does that make sense?” or similar.
There are many more elements that go into a successful pitch or demo, but starting with the customer’s interests, focusing on a few key features, tailoring it where possible, and keeping it conversational are great starting points for a pitch or demo that is more engaging, memorable, and ultimately, successful.

We highly recommend Julie’s book if you’re looking to create compelling, engaging presentations that hook your prospects from the beginning. You can buy Julie’s book on Amazon.

April 7, 2021 Dan Cilley
  • We’re in the midst of the fourth industrial revolution. Is your manufacturing business implementing digital transformation in the most effective way?
    Are You Ready for Industry 4.0? The Digital Transformation of Manufacturing According to many in the manufacturing industry, we are currently in the middle of the...
  • Top ERP Transformations That Support buyers
    Top ERP Transformations That Support Buyers B2B companies are currently up to their necks in "digital transformation." They're moving at a rapid clip to enhance the...
  • Increase-eCommerce-Adoption-by-including-your-Sales-Team
    eCommerce Adoption and Your Sales Team Internal Resistance Any type of change within an organization is likely to see some resistance. It’s not that change is necessarily...
  • 10 Ways to Provide Value to Sales Technology Vendors
    10 Ways to Provide Value to Sales Technology Vendors…Even When They Don't Win the Deal Not every sales technology vendor is the perfect fit for your...
  • Why You Are Experiencing Digital Transformation Failure
    Top 10 Reasons You Experience Digital Transformation Failure In a world of augmented technology and heavy investment in resources for digital transformation, it is alarming that...
  • Data Driven Digital Transformation of Your Revenue Operations
    Data Driven Digital Transformation of Your Revenue Operations We live in a rapidly changing business landscape. If your organization is still relying on intuition and gut...
  • Propel Your Growth in 2022 with Revenue Operations
    A Healthy Revenue Operations Program Is Essential to Driving Growth Why You Need RevOps Now More Than Ever  If you’re a midmarket or enterprise company and you’re...
  • Everything You Need to Know about Digital Transformation
    Everything You Need to Know about Digital Transformation Digital transformation can be a powerful tool your business uses to maximize productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness. Here's what...
  • Step-by-Step Strategy for Driving Digital Transformation
    11 Steps for Driving Digital Transformation through Sales Technology Adoption A Proven Digital Transformation Strategy and Framework Are you looking to update your business strategy with digital...
  • Framework for Effective Digital Transformation Strategy
    Why People, Processes, and Technology Are Vital to Your Digital Transformation Strategy With the new year, many companies are reassessing, updating, or implementing their business strategy....
  • How to Vet an Enterprise Sales Technology Consultant
    10 Questions to Ask before Hiring an Enterprise Sales Technology Consultant Carefully Vet Third-Party Consultants for Maximum ROI Sales technology has the power to revolutionize how you...
  • Defining the Ongoing Costs of Your Sales Tech Stack
    How to Define the Ongoing Costs of Your Sales Tech Stack Solutions 5 Key Factors That Affect Your Bottom Line When it comes to defining the ongoing...
  • 5 Common and Costly Sales Tech Stack Mistakes
    5 Mistakes That Prevent the Perfect Sales Tech Stack How to Improve the ROI of Your Sales Technology When organizations think about the “perfect” sales technology stack,...
  • Have Success with Your Sales Technology Selection in 2022
    Reevaluate Your Sales Technology Selection Process in 2022 Why Technology Matters, and How to Have Success with Your Selection Process With the start of a new...
  • B2B Digital Sales Trends during COVID-19
    What’s Changed in B2B Digital Sales? What We’ve Learned with the Dramatic Shift to Digital Sales Programs during COVID-19 For anybody operating a B2B organization during the...

Upcoming Events

No event found!
Vendor Neutral Dark Background
  • Sales Technology Solutions
  • Sales Technology Selection Tools
  • Sales Technology Consulting Services
  • About Vendor Neutral
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy and Terms of Use
Copyright © 2021 Vendor Neutral LLC. All Rights Reserved