How to Turn Your Sales Pitch into a Compelling Story

“They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel” — Carl W. Buechner

If you’ve prepared well for your upcoming prospect meeting (see the first post in this series here: How to Successfully Close Customers as First Time Startup CEO), you are already ahead of most of your competition. However, no amount of careful preparation can save a bad pitch. A successful sales pitch consists of three sections. Assuming you have 40 minutes for the meeting, below is a breakdown of each section and how you should allocate your time:

• Introduction and Qualification (2–3 minutes)
• Company background and Product overview (3–5 minutes)
• Demo & Discussion (30–35 minutes). Note: I do not think there should be a separate section for Q&A. If your prospect is not asking you questions during your presentation, you have not solved his pain point and have likely already lost the sale.

This post focuses on the introduction/qualification and company/product overview sections of the pitch. The Demo & Discussion section warrants a separate entry because it is such a critical part of the meeting, so stay tuned for Part 3.

When telling your story, your introduction and company overview set the scene for your product demonstration. Your ability to connect with your prospect depends largely on whether or not you can successfully hook the people in the room with a compelling story. If you can’t do this, your prospect is not likely to stay engaged through the demo and discussion section of your pitch.

Introduction and Qualification (2–3 minutes)

Your prospect wants to learn what you’re trying to sell them within the first minute, so kick off the meeting with your 30-second elevator pitch. Make sure your offering resonates with the use cases and pain points for this specific prospect. You may consider adding a hook that piques their curiosity so they start looking forward to your presentation.

Whether you were successful in learning about the use cases before the meeting or not, it’s always a good idea to validate the use cases at the beginning of your presentation by asking 2–3 pointed questions and gathering useful information from the client. You can also do this while going around the room for introductions.

Company and Product Overview (3–5 minutes)

Tell your founding story

Once you’ve gone through the introductions, do tell the story of your startup’s origins. I’ve found that corporate executives, especially those outside Silicon Valley, are fascinated by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and love hearing the stories of how you got started. Plus, it gives your startup a personality, which can be a powerful advantage in moving the sales process along. For example, our CEO at my previous startup voluntarily dropped out of the PhD program at MIT to work as a waiter to learn the restaurant business. I often kicked off the company overview with this story, inserting personal anecdotes where appropriate; it was such a powerful story that every executive who heard it wanted to meet him in person, not to mention the POCs it helped us land! Another moral of this story is to get yourself into the trenches: If you’re selling a solution to warehouse workers, go work in a warehouse. Or at least spend a substantial amount of time with them. The anecdotes you’ll pick up along the way will be invaluable in speaking your prospect’s language.

Start with the pain points

A lot of early stage startup founders make the same common mistake: they spend a lot of time justifying why their product is needed in the market. Your prospect is not your VC; she does not need to know how big the market is and why this is such a big pain point. She already feels the pain. You are trying to solve your prospect’s specific pain point, so sharing the world’s problems is completely irrelevant to her.

However, if your product is disruptive and/or the use case is not immediately obvious, you can educate the prospect. In these instances, spend at most one slide and one minute to talk about the pain point.

Be specific and concise

Instead of saying “our product generates substantial savings,” say, “with our product, customers similar to you are seeing savings of 52%-55%.” For maximum effect, be methodical about the words you choose throughout your presentation. A carefully crafted and delivered pitch will help you stand out from your competitors, who likely rely on slang and generic verbiage. Eliminate as many of the “umm” “Aah” and “like” as possible from your conversation.

Speak confidently — and don’t let your voice crack

You should be confident in your own genuine way, but it’s even more important to exude confidence in what you’re selling. You must believe in your product’s benefits to be able to sell it to someone else. Maintain your voice pitch but vary your tone and add reflective pauses in critical parts of your presentation. Don’t yell but don’t be too soft either.

Build credibility as early as possible

This is especially true if this is your first meeting and you’re an early stage startup. If you already have some reference customers, highlight them. If you don’t have any customers, then use your and other team members’ backgrounds to build credibility with the client. Be humble and do not belabor the point. Remember, enterprise tech startups are very different from consumer startups. Most successful enterprise tech entrepreneurs have felt the pain point themselves that they’re now trying to solve.

Now that you have captured your audience’s attention with your genuine personality and product pitch, it is time to open the hood to your beautiful, shiny car and show them the engine. My next post will cover the Demo & Discussion portion of your pitch, where I discuss why you should never save the Q&A for the end of your pitch.

Saqib started selling at the age of 13, becoming the top salesperson in the company within six months. He was the youngest regional sales manager at General Motors, managing over $250 million in sales. After a stint in Management Consulting, he was the Head of BD at a tech startup before joining Lightspeed Venture Partners. At Lightspeed, Saqib coaches startup entrepreneurs and sales leaders on their go-to-market & growth strategies and works with Fortune 1000 CXOs on solving their most pressing challenges by leveraging leading-edge technologies.