Sales Suicide, Vol. 1
The Pitch No One Wants
This is the first in a series on the fastest ways to kill a sale before it ever gets started.
At Antimatter Consulting, we spend a lot of time teaching reps how to pitch products. I’m a big believer that “winging it” is a bad idea. Sure, people hate powerpoint, but on the other hand having a 45-minute conversation with a prospect without explaining your basic capabilities doesn’t work.
But there’s a problem. Once a rep has spent some hours honing that new pitch, they REALLY want to deliver it. Reps can’t win a deal on charm. But they sure can blow any chance of getting in the door by jumping into a pitch when nobody asked.
LIke it or not, early sales conversations are like dating. Reps are trying to spark up a conversation. The customer is trying to decide how painful it’s going to be listening to this person talk for the next few weeks.
Put it this way. A guy walks up to you at a bar. Then he opens with this:
“Hi, I'm Brad. I'm an Executive Director at Goldman Sachs. I went to Princeton. I run marathons. I have a golden retriever named Churchill. I drive a Tesla but I'm thinking about upgrading. My last relationship ended because she just couldn't keep up with my lifestyle, you know? Anyway. I make $340K base. Can I buy you a drink?"
You puke in your mouth a little bit and then make a beeline for the nearest exit.
Have you ever heard one of your sales reps talk to a new prospect and had that same reaction? Like “OMFG just stop talking, you’re not helping!” Yeah, we’ve been there.
Here’s what good looks like in a bar (feel free to comment and mock my game, it’s been a while):
1. Disarming opener. "I'd love a drink but this bartender seems way too busy admiring his reflection in the cocktail shaker. With that hair I can't blame him." (read the room, say something brief and funny)
2. Permission to engage. "Hi, I'm Steve. Is your 6'10 husband going to come kick my ass for saying hello?" (be direct & confident, but give them a safe way out if they’re not interested)
3. Open-ended question with a compliment. "What's your story? Just celebrating after bringing home the gold in Milan?" (Make the conversation about them, and paint a positive picture)
4. About me. "Me? I run sales for a tech firm. But my real passion is D&D. That's my heart-throb Dungeon Master Julian over there by the jukebox." (be honest but don’t brag, leave them wanting more)
Now translate that into a sales call.
1. Disarming opener. "James Roarty gave me your name, so if you hang up now I'll completely understand."
2. Permission to engage. "I saw you guys just acquired TechSoft, so I'm guessing Q1 is absolutely insane right now. I used to work with them, and if you have two minutes I'd love to ask a quick question about the merger."
3. Open question with a compliment. "I hear you're kind of the brains behind the operation. Are you involved in the whole integration project?"
4. About me. "My company, CloudServe, usually comes in right after an acquisition and helps assess all the new apps and architecture. Then we offer migration, app refactoring, and ongoing security & operations support."
See? They got the elevator pitch in after all, but only after the conversation led there. Timing is everything.
Teach your reps to pitch. But make sure to teach them the context for when and how to deliver it. That’s how they get to that magical third date.
At Antimatter, we help sales reps to figure out when to pitch and when to shut up. It's one of the most valuable things we do, and the results show up in their pipeline. If your reps are launching into their decks before the prospect has said ten words, let's talk.
Next up in Sales Suicide Vol. 2: The Corporate Word Salad.
"We provide your organization with a canonical reference architecture for scalable enterprise innovation."
“Ah… Ma'am, this is a Waffle House.”