Many salespeople operate by using one sales pitch, and they essentially say the same thing to every prospect that they talk to. You can get by with this approach and be an OK salesperson. But if you want to operate at a high level, you really need more than one pitch and we will outline why.

 

Different Benefits and Problems

You may read that and think that you only have one product or one group of products, so one pitch is all you need. The thing that needs to be considered is that your products help different people in different ways.

When you change the audience in terms of who you are talking to, you likely change the benefits that you offer. You also may change the problems and pains that you help to resolve. All of this will impact your sales pitch.

For example, in my previous life, I sold software to help companies manage their employees. I could sell this product to hospitals, manufacturing companies, and retail companies. All three of these businesses have different types of employees and operations – highly skilled with different certifications, union workers, and part-time staff.

Even though each of these different businesses used my product in basically the same way, I offered different benefits to each audience, and I also helped to solve different types of problems. If I wanted to really operate at an optimum level, I should have a different sales pitch for these different audiences.

 

It Goes Way Beyond Industry and Type of Company

You may read that and think that you only sell to one industry or type of business, so this does not apply to you. But this really comes into play when you change the audience in terms of who you are selling to in a few different ways.

Here are some different categories that you might want to consider when you are building your sales pitch:

Industry
We just pointed out how selling from one industry to another may make you alter your pitch. We won’t go through that again but just know that the industry can be a factor in what you say when selling.

Size of business
You may be able to sell your products and services to companies of different sizes, and this can be a factor. When selling the same product, you may benefit from saying something different when talking to a small business versus a large corporation.

Department
When selling B2B, you can often end up talking to different departments of a company. You might be able to sell to both Operations and Finance.

Just as a manufacturing company has different problems than a retail company, an Operations department has different problems and needs than Finance. Even though you are trying to sell the same product to both departments, modifying what you say so that it addresses the needs of the department you are talking to will improve your results and effectiveness.

Level of the organization
The last factor to consider is the level of the organization that you are talking to. During your sales cycle, you may talk to C-level, VP, Director, Manager, and Frontline User levels.

Just like different departments have different needs and interests, so do the people in one department that are at different levels. A C-level or VP definitely cares about different things than a Manager or Frontline User.

You can improve your sales pitch by thinking about some of the different audiences that you often talk to based on these factors and having a unique talk track for each.