How to Pitch Your Target Customers
We’ve made it! We have now arrived at Part III of my series on how to identify, market and pitch your target market. If you haven’t read Part I (How to Define Your Target Market) or Part II (How to Reach Your Target Customer) now is the time to do so. For the purpose of our conversation today, I’m going to assume that at this point you’ve begun the initial conversation with your prospect and now they have requested more information or you proposed an initial meeting to go over their situation and your product or service in-depth.
First Meeting — Getting to Know Each Other & Pitching
Before we go into detail, I have to stress that all stakeholders or decision makers need to be present at this meeting. Do not waste your time, energy and breath if you are pitching a person who does not have the authority to execute the purchase. Make sure you are speaking to those who are in a position where they can make the decisions. There’s nothing worse than having the buy-in from only half the team, only to find management will never change. Again, only pitch to those who have the power to make — or at a minimum influence — a decision.
Depending on your product or service, this meeting can be in person or over the phone. I’ve done first meetings both ways. That doesn’t matter too much, although the more complex your product or offering, the more likely you will benefit from a face-to-face meeting.
What does matter is getting the prospect pot-committed to your solution. One of the ways to do this is to spend as much time as possible with them. You don’t want to start the meeting by immediately launching into your spiel. Instead, you are going to want to get to know them better on a personal level.
People do business with those that they know, like and trust. And establishing some initial rapport and common ground will go a long way into getting them to know, like and trust you. Don’t be cheesy here. The goal is to establish a genuine connection, not just use terrible icebreakers. Find out what they like doing when they aren’t working. Find out what interests them. Are they big fans of a sports team, have a passion for boating or are they a movie buff? Whatever it is, try and tease it out of them and connect/bond over something before diving headlong into your offering.
Next, you are going to want to understand who they are and what they value. Are they after an economy solution or the ultra-premium option? Are they concerned with saving time and money or is reliability more important to them? The more you can get them to tell you in regards to what their fears or goals are, the more information you are going to have to tailor the benefits of your offering to them.
While you are doing all of this, make sure you are spending the vast majority of the time listening to the other party. Roughly 80% of your time should be spent listening, not talking. The key is to ask open-ended questions that get the other person talking. Ask those questions and then shut up and let the other person speak! Or as your grandma would tell you, “You have two ears and one mouth for a reason!”
After you’ve spent a long time getting to know one another and figuring out what’s most important to the other side, then and only then, can you go into details about your company and it’s product or service. The reason why you want to hold off on this is because you want to gather as much information from the other side about who they are and what they value. This knowledge will help you craft the pitch precisely for them! It will allow you to use their own terms, vocabulary, fears or curiosities in your proposal — making it seem tailor-made for them. The more you can speak directly to the prospect, in their own language, the better.
During your pitch, you always want to show the prospect how you can help them. The meeting isn’t about you and how great you are. Instead, it is a meeting to show them that you have a solution that will fix problem X or improve Y. It is about showing them the immense value that you can provide to them or their business.
Towards the end of your initial meeting, you need to set clear next steps and action items if it appears there is a good fit for both parties. You can do this by saying something like, “Does it make sense to….” or “Can I get you a quote…”. By setting up clearly defined next steps with deadlines, it shows the other side you are serious and requires buy-in on their part before you can move forward. This should go without saying, but if you give yourself a deadline then stick to it! Do not mess this up! It is tough to win back the trust and confidence of a prospect if you can’t follow-up when you said you would.
Second Meeting — Proposal Meeting
This meeting should be all about the nitty gritty details of your proposal. The ins and outs. The associated costs. Support and warranties. Everything that hasn’t been covered about your product or service should be discussed here. Transparency and honesty are qualities that go a long way in business, and it’s no different when you are trying to make a sale.
Let me reiterate this — all decision makers and stakeholders need to be present at this meeting. This meeting can be in person or over the phone, but my recommendation is to hold this face-to-face if possible. Although that’s not a hard and fast rule — you will know best which meeting to hold — face-to-face interactions give you several advantages over phone meetings. Namely, you can gauge their body language, pick up on other non-verbal cues and generally have a better conversation when you are in front of them.
And at the risk of sounding like a broken record, everything that you say should in some way relate back to a benefit for the prospect. Again — it isn’t about how great you are; it’s about how this will help the potential customer.
You’ll want to spend about 5–10 minutes going back over the features and benefits of your product or service while relating it back to what matters to them. It’s always about the value you can provide to the other person! While doing this, make sure to have multiple touch points where you ask the room, “Does this make sense?” or “Are there any questions or concerns about what I just covered?”. Keep them engaged throughout your presentation.
After a quick review of your offering, it’s now time to dive headfirst into pricing and giving a summary of the value you are providing. Don’t be meek or shy about talking price — that’s why you are there! You are there to talk about in the weeds details, and that includes the price of your product or service. Also, don’t make a mistake that a lot of beginning salespeople make and that’s apologizing for your price. The price doesn’t matter as much as the value that you are providing. If you are unapologetic and can seriously say, “My product costs $XXX. I know that may sound high, but I think we can all agree that by using my product you can save time, money or increase productivity/reliability which makes my product a no brainer” then you on the correct path. The more value you provide, the more you can ask for in return — it’s a simple as that.
It’s at this point that you want the other side to voice any concerns or objections that they may have and do your best to address them. One critical point to make is that don’t be afraid to say, “I don’t know, let me get an answer for you.” There is nothing wrong (and frankly it can be endearing) with saying you don’t have the answer. Remember — they are going to want to do business with someone that they know, like and trust.
Quick side note — I hate high-pressure sales tactics. I think they are scummy and conjure up the worst stereotypes about sales people. Remember this: if you are providing value to your customers, then you won’t need to resort to high-pressure sales tactics. Let them come to their own conclusions after you’ve presented all the evidence why your product or service is what they need. If you listened and asked the right questions in the initial meeting, this should make your job easier. So leave the high-pressure sales tactics behind and commit to providing more value than you receive in return.
At the end of this meeting, you will have a signed purchase order, or you will have additional work to do. That all depends on the product or service that you are offering. In either case, you want to again set up clear follow-ups with due dates, deadlines, check-in times, etc. before departing. It also never hurts to send a thank you after the meeting. Depending on your price point and product/service, that can range from a simple email to a handwritten letter all the way to a bottle of wine or a night out on the town.
Maria the Stager
Once again, let’s turn our attention to Maria and her home staging business. Good news for her is that her sister has a close friend (Dorothy) that is selling her house to take a job out of state and she has referred her to Maria.
The first thing Maria will want to do is to reach out directly to Dorothy to set up a time to walk through the house to give an accurate quote. While on the phone with Dorothy she should be setting proper expectations for the meeting — things like how much time to allot, stressing the importance of Dorothy’s husband, kids or other stakeholders attending the meeting, anything that she needs to know up front and to answer any initial questions Dorothy might have.
One word of caution here. I’ve seen many people fall into the trap of starting to talk pricing, terms, guidelines, etc. over the phone while setting up this meeting and that is a big mistake. The goal for this call is to get the meeting on the calendar and set proper expectations. If you have a prospect that is asking a bunch of questions, use this as an opportunity to stress the importance of a face-to-face meeting so that you can answer their questions directly and with more information about them and their situation.
When preparing for the meeting, Maria should do some initial research. How long has Dorothy owned the house? Has the house been updated at all? Are there parks, schools, museums, etc. in the immediate area? By getting as much information as possible before you walk in the door, you can tailor your pitch to them much more precisely. And while some may find this a bit creepy, I advocate for a little social media “stalking” upfront if possible. Go on their Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. to see what they are talking about. You never know — there might be a wealth of information in those posts that can help your cause.
On the day of the meeting, Maria should be fully prepared to have a productive and engaging meeting. She should spend the time upfront to get to know Dorothy on a personal level. Things like:
- Where is she moving?
- Is she excited or nervous?
- Is it a new job or a promotion within the same company?
- What field is she in? How long has she been in it?
- Are there kids to consider during the move? How will they assimilate to a new school?
- What is she most excited about for her new city?
- How long has she lived in the house? Any great memories that she especially cherishes?
Questions like this will get Dorothy to open up and feel like she knows Maria better and can trust her.
After the introductory phase, Maria will go over the process — taking measurements, understanding what rooms Dorothy wants to be staged and how she determines the pricing. While she is explaining her process, Maria should use phrases like, “Does that make sense?”, “Sound good?” or “Any questions?” to make sure that Dorothy is following along and she is gaining consent to move forward. During this conversation, Maria should ask Dorothy questions about her timeline for moving as well as making a decision. This information is important for her to gather, so she knows when to follow up and how much of a timeline she has to stage the house.
Now let’s fast forward. Maria has completed her walkthrough and has all the information she needs to generate a quote. Her next step should be to review the action items and impose deadlines on herself before leaving. Maria should explain to Dorothy that she is going to go home, figure out the square footage and the estimated number of pieces that are needed to stage. From there she will be able to generate a quote which she will email over within 48 hours. This next part could be the most crucial. And that is when you say you are going to do something — DO IT! If Maria tells Dorothy, she’ll have a quote within 48 hours and doesn’t deliver, guess what? Maria has lost a ton of credibility and Dorothy’s confidence in her to perform. One of the most important rules of sales is do what you say you are going to do every time — even if that means missing a show, hanging out with friends or a little sleep. Do what you say you are going to do. Every time and without fail.
Once Maria completes the quote, she should email it over to Dorothy for her review. In my opinion — and opinions will certainly differ here — I would advise Maria to call Dorothy to let her know that she sent the email and wanted to ensure that she saw the quote. While on the phone, she should let her know about any particularly tricky or thorny issues upfront and let Dorothy know she is available in case there are any comments, questions or concerns. The key for Maria is to let Dorothy know she has done what she said she would do while at the same time making herself available for any future conversations before a final decision is made. Again, people want to do business with people they know, like, and trust.
All that there’s left to do at this point is wait for Dorothy’s response. I advocate giving the prospect a bit of space to “breathe” and make a well informed, rational decision. I would advise Maria to follow-up in a reasonable amount of time if she has not her back to she where Dorothy is at in the decision making process. The term, “reasonable amount of time” is important here because that is going to vary spending on what the prospect tells you. If they say they need to make a decision in 24 hours, then you can call the next afternoon to get an update. However, if they tell you they are waiting 30 days, then you should probably wait at least two weeks if not three before calling back and following up.
(Since the point of this post is to understand how to deliver a proposal, we are going to stop there. Future posts will go in-depth on overcoming objections, following-up with prospects and more!)
Well, folks, we did it! We sure did come a long way. We went from finding our target ideal target market by going through an exercise to narrow down our target audience. After that, we learned a few different avenues for how to market to and get our target audience’s attention. And finally, we wrapped up with an in-depth look at how to pitch your target prospect. I hope you received a ton of value out of this series! I would love any feedback you can give me. What you liked, what you didn’t, what you wish I would’ve spent more time on. Feel free to pass this along to anyone you think would benefit from this detailed dive into reaching your target audience. Thanks so much for reading!
