How to prepare and make a pitch

A pitch is a set of activities (including a talk or a way of talking) intended to persuade someone to buy a product or take a specific course of action (e.g. embrace a new idea). It can be seen as a planned sales presentation strategy of a product or service designed to initiate and close a sale of the product or service.

A pitch is essentially designed to be either an introduction of a product or service to an audience who knows nothing about it, or a descriptive expansion of a product or service that an audience has already expressed interest in.

A good entrepreneur should have more than one business pitch ready to deliver.

The most important pitch to bring to your first meeting with a potential customer is the elevator pitch.

The elevator pitch is a very concise presentation of an idea covering all of its critical aspects, and delivered within a few seconds (the approximate duration of an elevator ride).

If executed well, this short pitch will spark the curiosity of the client and encourage them to ask more questions (leading for example to the scheduling of a face to face meeting).

Another type of pitch is the live plan pitch, which relies on visual aids and on speaking.

The general idea of this pitch is to produce a neatly formatted single page (or a presentation) containing relevant information about the product / service.

To help with your pitch structure, we’ve put together seven simple steps for you to use in order to create your best sales pitch that’s guaranteed to sell:

1. Find the perfect hook

If you’re planning to send your sales pitch via email, crafting the perfect subject line is imperative. Your subject line or opening sentence will be the hook to capture your buyer’s attention. It is the difference between your client reading or simply dismiss your pitch altogether.

Taking inspiration from the points stated above, your hook needs to connect with your buyer’s needs while also communicating the story of your business. By getting these two aspects right, you can successfully engage your customers and convince them to read on.

2. Solve the problem

Once you’ve convinced your buyer to continue reading your pitch, you next need to show how you can help them. Are you aware of a common issue that your buyer faces, which your product or service can solve?

In your written pitch, directly address the issues that your buyer faces. Then focus on how your product or service can help fix these problems. By tackling the problem head on, your customers will see that you have taken their needs into account and found the fix. What better way to prove the brilliance of what you have to offer?

3. Back it up with facts

Your pitch needs to be full of facts and statistics that back up your claims.

When it comes to writing your pitch, be sure to include testimonials and case studies, which also contain statistics and figures to prove the success of your product or service. If you claim you can solve your buyer’s main problems, show them how with facts.

4. Ask for the sale

You should now have a pitch that addresses your buyer’s problems, shows how your product or service offers a solution, and backs this up with facts and statistics to support your claim. The next step is to give your buyer some clear instruction on what they need to do next.

So what would that be?

Ask for the sale of course!

Incredibly, 85% of the interactions between salespeople and prospects end without the sales person ever asking for the sale.

Yes, you read that correctly, 85%!

By now, you’ve convinced your prospective customer of the brilliance of what you’re offering and next up is how they can take advantage of your product or service. Do they need to click a link to your website? Or pick up the phone and call you directly?

Whatever action is required; make it clear with a well-written call to action.

5. Short and sweet does the trick

The length of your pitch is important. If it’s too long, there’s a good chance your buyer will lose interest and fail to read on. But getting your written pitch to the perfect length is likely to result in your buyer maintaining an interest right through to the end.

The number of words you use differs depending on the recipient. Try to be strict with your word count to avoid information overload, which will result in your buyers ditching your pitch.

What could be worse than your pitch being ignored because it’s simply too long?

6. Grammar and spell check

Finally, once you’ve written your sales pitch, don’t forget to check your spelling and grammar. There’s nothing worse than being let down by a few mistakes that could be corrected before clicking send.

Once you’ve checked through your written pitch, it’s time to send it out to your buyer. Remember to tailor your pitch to each individual and make it as personal to him or her as possible.

7. Don’t forget to follow-up

A recent study from Yesware found that 70% of unanswered sales email chains stop after the first email attempt.

However, there is a 21% chance you will get a response to your second email if the first goes unanswered. These statistics further prove the importance of a follow up email after the initial sales pitch.

The conversation doesn’t stop at the first attempt of your sales pitch. Don’t be shy to try and try again. After all, there is a 30% chance of you hearing back from your prospect after several follow-up attempts.

Remember to keep your individual buyer’s needs at the forefront of your mind. Tell the story of your brand and the success of your products and services and back up with facts and statistics. Work hard to engage your audience and you’re sure to find a winning formula to close all future sales pitches.

Main sources:

http://www.investorwords.com/3706/pitch.html

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/elevator-pitch.html

https://study.com/academy/lesson/business-pitch-definition-types-importance.html

https://www.superoffice.com/blog/sales-pitch/

Script of main ideas to use in your pitch

In order to prepare a winning pitch about Accessible and Inclusive Tourism, you need to master the contents of the previous Modules, namely:

• What is Accessible and Inclusive Tourism?
• What are tourists with specific access requirements?
• What are the main types of specific access requirements?
• What are the requirements for Accessible and Inclusive Tourism?
• Some examples of tourist needs and requirements that are different from common clients.
• What are the advantages of providing Accessible and Inclusive Tourism services?