This is a sample sales pitch we created after reviewing a cold call recording from a salesperson who was selling business insurance. If you would like to listen to that cold call and hear our analysis, you can do that here – Sample Sales Pitch for Business Insurance.
Step 1 – The cold call introduction
On the call recording, the salesperson uses the “this is a cold call” introduction. While that can be effective at opening calls, we feel it is unnecessary and can trigger the prospect’s guardedness, even if they do allow the call to proceed. Below is a different and much simpler way to start a cold call.
Hi Tom, this is Michael Halper calling from Insure Pros.
Did I catch you in the middle of anything?
Step 2 – Share your value proposition
On the sample cold call recording, the salesperson uses a value proposition cold call opener, but he rambles a bit and can improve by saying less. Here is a refined version of this sample sales pitch:
The reason for the call is that we help businesses to reduce risks for IT-related events and reduce their insurance spend.
Step 3 – Use a sales takeaway
A really nice addition to a sales pitch is a sales takeaway. The only thing to figure out is when to use it, and right after your value proposition is a place for a takeaway because it can create a “push/pull” effect. Here is what that sales takeaway can look like:
I don’t know if you are a fit with what we do or not, and that is why I was calling with a question or two.
Step 4 – Ask a few questions to learn about the prospect
After your sales takeaway, quickly transition to asking a few questions to learn more about what is going on with the prospect. If you sell something like insurance or another commoditized product, it’s a good idea to start with current state questions to see whether the prospect already has what you sell. Here is what that might look like:
- Do you have coverage for IT risks?
- Cyberattacks? Data breaches? AI-related issues? Software or service failures?
- Who are you currently with?
- How much are you currently paying?
- What does your coverage look like?
- Does your business process credit cards?
- Do you store and retain customer or employee data?
- Have you ever had a cyberattack?
- Have you ever had a data breach?
You can transition to or mix in pain questions, which are questions that probe to see if the prospect has challenges, concerns, or areas with room for improvement.
- How do you feel about the coverage you have for IT risks?
- How concerned are you about cyberattacks?
- How much would a cyberattack impact your business?
- Are you aware of some of the risks that come with AI?
- How concerned are you about legal exposure from software or service failures?
Step 5 – Share some common issues or pain points
The main goal with your questions is to uncover areas where there are challenges or concerns. But if you are not able to find any pain or problems, you can share some common concerns or pain points by saying something like this:
- You might want to keep in mind:
- Tremendous legal and financial risks for IT events
- Increasing possibility of a cyberattack
- Cyberattacks and data breaches can be extremely costly
- AI brings new and additional risks to the business
- Legal exposure with software and service failures
- Always need to reduce costs (for insurance)
- Are you concerned about any of those areas?
Step 6 – Introduce your product and company as a solution
If you are able to find areas where the prospect has needs, you can then introduce your product and company as a solution to their needs by saying something like:
It might make sense to talk more because we provide:
- Cyber liability coverage
- Errors & omissions (E&O) coverage
- AI liability coverage
- Data breach coverage
- Business interruption coverage
Some ways we differ is that we specialize in IT-related risks
Step 7 – Share a story of a current or past customer
A really nice step to take is to share a story about a customer you helped right after introducing your product. Here is what that might look like for this sample sales pitch:
- We worked with Bean Shippers and they were concerned about risks from cyber attacks.
- We help solve that by providing coverage for cyber attacks and data breaches.
- This not only helped to decrease their risk and exposure, but it also helped decrease stress and worries about what could happen.
Step 8 – Close for the next step in the sales process
After all of that, it is time to close the prospect for the next step in the sales process, which should be talking more in the form of an appointment, meeting, or call. Here is what that might look like:
But I have called you out of the blue, and I don’t know if this is the best time to discuss this.
Are you available for a brief call where we can:
- Learn more about your current coverage
- Discuss how we are helping businesses improve their protection against IT risks and reduce their insurance spend
- Take a look to see if we can reduce your costs
We hope this sample sales pitch provides some new ideas for your sales efforts!
