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How To Pitch To Clients Without Breaking Rapport

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How To Pitch To Clients

How To Pitch To Clients Without Breaking Rapport

Knowing how to pitch to clients without breaking rapport is a crucial part of the sales process, and one that you need to get right!

 

Making a mistake while delivering your client pitch can mean the difference between closing the sale – and breaking rapport and starting all over again.

 

In this article, we’ll explore why so many Sales Professionals and Business Owners make mistakes when pitching sales, and what steps you need to include prior to delivering yours.

 

This way, you’ll have a more systematised framework to use, and close sales a lot more consistently.

 

 

How To Pitch To Clients Without Breaking Rapport

 

 

The Old Method For How To Pitch To Clients

 

 

Many Sales Professionals and Business Owners follow an old school, ‘always be closing’ mentality for how they pitch to clients.

 

It generally looks like this:

 

  • Meet with clients
  • Build some rapport
  • Deliver their sales pitch
  • Handle objections
  • Ask for the sale

 

This approach is outdated and won’t help your sales efforts.

 

The reason being, is that it’s missing several ingredients needed to close the sale with ease.

 

Read on below to learn how to pitch to clients.

 

 

Premature Presentation

 

 

As per our article in Entrepreneur, many Sales Professionals and Business Owners present way too early.

 

They tend to start their pitch to clients with the hope that something may stick, and that the potential client will potentially buy.

 

This is a lazy approach to selling, because you’re giving your sales pitch to your potential clients without finding out whether or not they’ll actually benefit from your product or service.

 

Presenting prematurely hurts your sales because it positions you as a salesperson looking for just another order; versus someone who truly wants to solve their needs.

 

Your potential client base; particularly those who are buying high ticket, want to buy from a person they like, trust, and that prescribes an educated solution.

 

The older model for how to pitch to clients, is where the salesperson goes into presentation mode without finding out the key reasons as to why you’re even meeting them in the first place.

 

Can you help them solve their issues? And why would you be pitching sales if you don’t know the answer to crucial questions first?

 

 

Identify The Right People Before Learning How To Pitch To Clients

 

 

The second issue with seeing every person as your potential client, is that you don’t know if you’ll be pitching sales to the right people – meaning; are they qualified to make a buying decision?

 

As the famous saying goes – “If you try to serve everyone, you’ll end up serving no one.”

 

Qualifying sales leads, and potential clients is an important part of the sales process, because it’ll ensure you’re having sales conversations with people who can actually buy, and you can actually help.

 

Many Sales Professionals and Business Owners make the mistake of spending their time, effort and energy delivering their sales pitches and having conversations with people they shouldn’t be.

 

When qualifying your potential clients, we recommend learning the following four points as early as possible:

 

  • What is their budget?
  • Are they a decision maker?
  • Can you actually get them their desired outcome?
  • What time frame do they need it delivered?

 

To learn more about qualifying sales leads, read the linked article below for more detail.

 

Further reading: Qualifying Sales Leads – A Step By Step Guide

 

 

What Needs To Happen Prior To Your Pitch To Clients?

 

 

The secret to ensuring you’re effective prior to learning how to pitch to clients, is more importantly in your preparation work prior to going into prescribing a solution.

 

There are a number of sales process steps you need to correctly cover prior to going into ‘solution mode’.

 

These are outlined below.

 

 

Building Rapport

 

 

When you initially start your sales conversation (way before you think of learning how to pitch to clients), you need to develop rapport with your potential clients.

 

Many people think of rapport as friendly banter – how was your weekend, and how long have you been in your role?

 

It’s much more than that.

 

Rapport done correctly focuses on all elements of your communication. This includes:

 

  • Your body language
  • Tonality
  • The words you use

 

Furthermore, how you dress will make an impact, and assist (or break) the opportunity to build rapport.

 

Related article: A Guide To Building Sales Relationships/ Building Rapport

 

 

Your Positioning

 

 

As previously mentioned – prior to your pitch to clients or engaging in an in depth sales conversation, you want to be meeting with decision makers.

 

Not only will this help streamline the buying cycle, but it’ll also prevent the “I need to speak with” sales objection from coming up later.

 

In the linked article below, we outline the three questions you need to ask to get your sales positioning right.

 

Further reading: Positioning In Sales – How To Sell Effectively

 

 

Finding Pain

 

 

People buy for two emotional reasons – to avoid pain and move towards a desired state.

 

Without knowing what their pain points are and why they’re engaging with you in the first place, how will you know how to personalise your sales pitches in a way that solves their pain points and problems?

 

Pain points; in a sales context, are the things that cause discomfort to your potential clients in their business, day to day activities, and their everyday lives.

 

Everyone has different pain points, and they come in different levels of pain.

 

Pain points are generally based on different levels of pain; and the measurement for the level of pain will be based on your potential client’s perceptions, and what they categorise their pain points as.

 

When finding pain, ask questions that slowly go beneath the surface as to why they’re really wanting to buy.

 

The three types of pain points to discover are:

 

  • Technical issues
  • The impact on their business
  • What’s the personal impact of the above

 

By going over their pain points and getting onto the same page in regard to what they’re trying to solve, you’ll be able to pitch sales better by showing how each feature and benefit solves each mentioned problem.

 

 

Bridging The Gap

 

 

Finally, when you’re going about how to pitch to clients correctly – don’t make it about you, your business or your product or service.

 

Instead, demonstrate how each benefit of your product solves their mentioned pain points, and what it will mean when it is solved.

 

People don’t buy features and benefits – they buy what it will mean when they own a solution.

 

Talk about their desired state, and how each of their pain points will be solved by investing in your product or service.

 

Doing so will help you deliver the perfect sales pitch.

 

Other tips include:

 

  • Be visual
  • Don’t just talk – ask questions
  • Keep it short
  • Get feedback
  • Use proof and case studies

 

Further reading: 10 x Effective Sales Presentation Tips You Need To Use

 

 

How To Pitch To Clients – Final Thoughts

 

 

To recap how to pitch to clients, you need to follow a number of key steps prior to going into your sales pitch.

 

Pitching sales shouldn’t be premature, or be about you, your product or your service.

 

When giving your sales pitch, it should be about their pain points, their desires, and how your product or service will bridge the gap from where they are, to where they need to be.

 

When delivering your message, deliver it in a way as if you were prescribing a remedy.

 

This way, they’ll know what it will mean when they own a solution – because people buy outcomes and meaning, not products or services.

 

 

Want To Close Sales Easier?

 

 

Are you committed to closing sales a lot easier, and consistently?

 

If so, you should check out our self-paced and affordable online sales training program; The 5% Sales Blueprint.

 

It’ll give you everything you need to close sales consistently.

 

To learn more, simply click on the link below for more information.

 

Our Online Sales Training ProgramThe 5% Sales Blueprint.

Khabeer Rockley

Khabeer Rockley is a Sales & Business Trainer, and the Founder of The 5% Institute

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