108: Perfect Your Pitch

Young Hustlers

Most people are horrible at a quick pitch. If you don't believe me, ask someone you know to pitch you. Give them 20 seconds and see what they have to say. Oh, by the way, twenty seconds is how much time you actually have in a real pitch before you lose your chance.

Here are five questions to ask yourself to help you create your perfect pitch:

What is the one thing you want the prospect to remember about you? Do not try to be all things to all people. You are trying to get the pitch to stick not make a sale.

What is your big claim of your product or service? Do not talk about your products, create a big claim for your product or service. “My product is sales training, we help companies increase sales 40% in thirty days.”

What is your competitive advantage — what do you do better than anyone else that if you said it everyone would want it? Find that stand out thing that you do better than the rest of the world. This is called the sticky.

Who are the decision makers and influencers of your offer? Who is it you would need to get in front of to demonstrate and validate your offer. You need to know the types of people that influence or decide on your offer. Depending on how complex a sale you are involved with or how large a company, there could be many influencers involved. “If I could do for you 1/2 of what I have claimed are you the decision maker at your company. And who else would need to be involved?”

How many different pitches do you need? I own five companies and there is no way I can pitch them all in 20 seconds. So I have to create a pitch for each and know who the market is. Before I move into a pitch I would need to know which pitch to drop.

The pitch is not selling, the pitch is about getting attention and keeping your pipeline full. The prospect has a lot going on and is short on time. Don’t sell, pitch, clarify your goal before you start and know something about the target to pick your pitch, ask for the prospects full attention, make it sticky and determine the decision makers and influencers—then get it right.