How can you make the “Best Sales Pitch”?

Often, we see individuals who are specialists take on client-facing roles as they grow within their organization. While their expertise allows them the ability to advise in certain areas, whether or not the client is willing to listen to your advice is what we have to consider first. In today’s world of sales, the customer is smarter and more informed. Buyers research independently, compare vendors, and validate claims before ever engaging in a sales conversation. This shift in buyer behaviour has been widely documented in Gartnerv research on modern B2B buying journeys.

The internet and digital communications are abundant. Clients can easily access information, pricing comparisons, reviews, and competitor alternatives. What they cannot easily find is someone they genuinely trust and feel comfortable working with. This is a principle that has never changed since the beginning of sales. Trust-based selling continues to be emphasised in leadership and sales research published by Harvard Business Review.

When I began in sales, I was working in a startup. Our initial sales training was on-the-job. There was one time I had the opportunity to enrol in some sales courses in Singapore. Even when these sales courses were offered by different operators, the key message was uniform: “Clients buy from who they trust”. This principle continues to appear consistently in leadership and influence analysis by Forbes Leadership, particularly in discussions around advisory credibility.

So the question is, how do you build that trust in a modern sales environment where scepticism is high and attention is limited?

Sales Pitch Mistake #1

Talk, talk, talk….

Many misconceptions about sales professionals is that you have to be “good talkers”. Not true. Radio DJs maybe. Think about it – how do you feel when someone just keeps talking at you without listening to what you’re looking for? Research on advisory selling and active listening discussed by MIT Sloan Management Review highlights that excessive talking is often perceived as self-interest rather than expertise.

The reason why too much talking lowers the perception of your value as an advisor is because you show too much self-interest. When self-interest is perceived to be imbalanced and weighted heavier than client-interest, we stop caring about being advised. We begin to feel the need to protect ourselves and naturally do this by blocking whatever the other person is trying to put forth towards us. This defensive reaction has been explored in behavioural psychology research and client decision-making studies referenced by Psychology Today.

Talk less, listen more. Let the customer share their views, concerns, and motivations. Think through the way forward together. This consultative selling approach aligns with customer-centric models outlined in Bain & Company Insights on building long-term client relationships

Sales Pitch Mistake #2

Sales professionals usually run on targets and timelines. Making numbers by the quarter or trying to get into the sales club of the elite is common in the lives of sales executives. When people feel pressured or rushed, they begin to get anxious and sometimes pushy. Pressure often leaks into tone, body language, and word choice, even when unintended.

When this happens during sales interactions with clients, the sales pitch becomes “pushy”. There’s an old and outdated saying from sales training courses – “Always Be Closing”. This was called the “ABC” acronym. While it once reflected a transactional sales era, it is increasingly misaligned with today’s buyer-led environment.

Think about it from the client’s end – if you feel pressured to make a decision, what would you feel? What would you do? Research on decision-making under pressure, referenced by PwC Insights, shows that perceived coercion reduces trust and delays commitment.

It’s important to get closure and move forward in sales, but it has to be a decision which all parties are moving towards and happy with. The progression must be aligned, and we know whether we are aligned if we stay connected with our clients during the interactions. Perhaps the old “ABC” acronym should change to “Always Be Connecting”.

Sales Pitch Mistake #3

Twenty years after attending that sales training in Singapore that I mentioned above, I now had the opportunity to deliver sales training as a facilitator. This week, I was working with an experienced group of experienced investment banking experts who were now taking on client-facing roles. That experience inspired me to write this blog – because I thought, “Why are these intelligent experts not getting the buy-in they deserve?”

As I listened to their situations and ways of dealing with clients, it was consistent that they were being too rational with their clients. Too “black & white”, per se. They would give figurative estimates, show graphs and charts to prove they were a superior option. Yet, they did not consider the emotional element of their audience. Research on emotional intelligence and influence, frequently discussed by Fast Company, highlights that logic alone rarely drives commitment.

In this business scenario, if they were to enter into any business relationship with their clients, it would be a long-term partnership. This would require almost daily interaction and a lot of joint decisions. When choosing long-term partners, social fit is always evaluated, even if it is rarely spoken about explicitly.

It is almost as if the client is silently asking, “Can we live with these folks?” Leadership research published by London Business School Review shows that perceived alignment and shared values strongly influence collaboration and trust.

In the earlier section, we discussed how self-interest lowers trust. Similarly, if social connection is missing, alignment weakens. Clients may feel there is not enough in common and may fear that differing values could lead to more conflict than cooperation.

So what did we do with the participants of the sales training in Singapore which I mentioned above? They learned to build rapport before pitching anything. They learned to take time to understand where their clients were coming from and how they were feeling throughout the interaction. Relationship-led selling approaches like this are also reinforced in insights shared by McKinsey & Company and HubSpot on modern sales effectiveness.

Sales pitches do not land unless we connect.

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