Many people believe sales is all about the pitch and that it needs to be this generic manufactured phrase you use when making a sale. In reality this kind of a pitch does not work. When in sales you need to be able to use you other sales skills like attunement, and see what is going to be most effective to your customer. The key here is improvisation. A salesmen has to be able to react to new information, new goals, new conditions, and new dynamics.
There are also different types of pitch you can use. There are one word pitches, which reflect branding or a word. The question pitch, the rhyming pitch, the subject-line pitch,the twitter pitch, and the pixar pitch. All these are different types of pitches you can use in different scenarios, depending on who your audience is.
The Key Questions to ask yourself before you Pitch are:
1. What do you want them to know?
2. What do you want them to feel?
3. What do you want them to do?
This can help be a frame of reference for a salesmen when deciding what kind of pitch he should take a with particular client. Not have a manufactured, nonadjustable pitch is key because you are always changing your audience and need to be able to improvise.
BoweryJE22
I like the Know/Feel/Do series of questiosn because answering them really does give you a complete picture of how they process. Throughout this competition season, I noticed that certain judges respond better to different kinds of information. Probably the biggest instance of improv in pitches that I’ve found helpful on numerous occasions has been when I’m storytelling. I can usually tell by the second or third sentence if people are interested or not. If not, I take the nearest exit. If so – I’ll ham it up and add some more details and milk that story for all it’s worth.
This is a great point – often times different companies look for different things in pitches, so to be able to adapt your pitch to fit the customer is definitely important, and shows that you are attuned to the situation. This is definitely aided by what you mentioned here, the fact that there are so many different types of pitching, all seeking after gratification of making sure the 3 key questions are answered! Great thoughts here!