Last week I left you on a cliffhanger. We set the tone for a pitch situation, and I recommended starting the pitch by answering the question on everyone’s mind:
“Who are you, and why are you here?“
Establish your credibility right away, so that you have the attention of the audience for the rest of your pitch.
How do you fill the rest of the time?
Time to make it about them (share the bad news)
After you establish credibility, the next thing you want to do is establish why that credibility matters to them. Sure, you have awards and certifications, but why should they care about those?
I’ll tell you why: because your expertise is the key to growing their company. Your expertise has uncovered that they are doing things incorrectly. Or sub-optimally. Or painfully. Or mind-bogglingly stupidly. Or any other adverb you can throw at them.
You dug deep into their existing efforts. The results are bad sub-optimal. Your expertise says they desperately need your help.
Hit them right where it counts. Start with telling them you are awesome.
Then spend even more time telling them specifically why they are not currently awesome.
Now they are starting to get reeled in.
Show them how you help companies in their situation (share the solution)
“Here is how working with us will help you become more awesome!”
You are the expert, and that’s why you were invited to the pitch table. By this time everyone knows it. You established your credibility up-front, made it personal to their situation, and now it’s time to build a solution.
This one should come naturally for you. In fact, your pitch might already be heavy on providing solutions to problems. Generic problems that everyone has.
Make your solutions specific. Based on your review of their existing activities, you have developed a solution that will solve their problems… and here’s how it works.
<Insert your secret sauce here, but don’t give away trade secrets>
You have everyone’s attention by now.
Give them examples of how this solution worked for others (case studies and methodologies)
If your presentation goes according to plan, you have established your credibility, their deficiency, and your solution.
The final piece of the puzzle is to show how this has worked for others. Specifics.
Show how your result has worked in industries like theirs, but not direct competitors.
No industry experience? Then show how your result has worked for businesses like theirs. This could be based on business model, company size, geography. Anything common ground you can find.
The key is to be as specific and relevant as you possibly can. Your entire pitch to this point has been funneling their attention toward you as the perfect solution.
Don’t let irrelevant case studies spring a leak in your funnel.
Let’s take this to the next level
The end of your pitch should leave them wanting more. Wanting to formalize this relationship, and to get your solution in their hands.
You won the pitch, but the business is still yours to lose. At least until the ink dries on the contract.
In our latest offering in the Agency Jumpstart Course, I share my optimal contact strategy for closing deals. It’s one of my all-time favorite videos. But it’s for members only. Next week we will start to talk about how you can become a member.
P.S. In the upcoming sales module of Agency Jumpstart Course, I provide you with a 23-slide pitch deck template that you can download and use to create your own pitch. It’s nothing fancy, just the structure I have used to close millions of dollars in deals over the years. The real magic is when you enter your own story, solutions and case studies to bring the deck to life.