#419: Great Salespeople Don’t Push. They Pull.
The 5 things that top salespeople and visionary founders have in common (and how to pitch like one)
Imagine walking into a room of investors with nothing but a dream. You have a whiteboard to sketch on and the conviction that the world needs your idea. That’s what a great sales presentation is: it’s not pushing a product; it’s pitching a vision.
No matter if you are presenting the next Uber idea or selling the latest engineering design that will replace a fastener, there are five basic steps in every pitch or presentation that you must follow to get to the close. Whether you are enticing investors for millions for your start-up or a junior account manager meeting an industrial prospect for the first time, skipping a step could mean the process's catastrophic failure.
Define the Problem (The Pain Point)
Every great pitch starts here. Before anyone buys your solution, they have to feel the problem. What is it that you sell? It’s not a product or service; it takes a problem off the buyer's desk, whether they knew they had it or not. This is your starting point.
Tell a story, get the buyer understanding, and nod along as you explain a market situation. For example;
Small businesses lose an average of 20% of potential revenue yearly due to poor follow-up. Prospects may have been interested, but inconsistent communication turns war leads cold. Retention of your current customers is below 90%, and according to Forbes and the Harvard Business Review, it costs your firm somewhere between 5 and 7 times more to attract new customers than to retain old ones.
This isn’t a CRM issue, it’s a human one.
What was your retention rate, Mr. Customer?
What was your closing rate on new prospects last year?
How much did you spend on new customer acquisition last year?
Here, you have described a known problem the buyer can relate to. You can add more specific statistics to their industry that you have found during your customer discovery, but at this point, you have ‘hooked’ them. You’ve asked an open-ended question to move on to Step Two.
Present Your Solution
Once you have shown the pain, show them there is a painkiller. You could ask more open-ended questions here, like “What have you done to reduce this problem in the past?” Or you can just introduce your solution and keep it simple and clear.
Enter “FlowTouch,” our AI-enhanced sales cadence engine that automates follow-up actions based on your prospect or buyer’s behavior. It’s like having a digital sales assistant who never sleeps, never forgets, and always knows what to say next.
No, the process isn’t close to over, but you have an interested buyer. Notice, we don’t spend valuable time listing all your features and benefits now. We touch on having a solution to a known problem, and before we get to the laundry list of things your product development team has designed in, let’s give them Step Three.
Show the Value (Prove + Outcomes)
Your elevator pitch went well enough for them to be curious, so let’s start answering questions BEFORE they ask them.
Mr. Customer, before I list FlowTouch's features and benefits, let me give you some examples of how we have beta-tested this solution. In a 90-day pilot, one client closed 17% more new prospects than in any previous quarter in their history. And here’s the kicker: We only tested it on the top 10% of his sales team. When we introduced it to the rest of the sales team, the next quarter, the sales team increased by 22% using the system. And that was only the new prospect closing averages. We have since implemented the retention tool, and their rate went from 83% to 94% in the following 6 months.
Here, you can list more examples of success stories, not just the best; give them some marginal wins. This will create value in their minds, but you need to ask them one last customer discovery question here.
Mr. Customer, what would a 17% increase in your closing average mean for your team? And if you retained over 10% more customers year over year, what would that look like?
This leads into Step Four!
Why Now?
How do you create a sense of urgency? If they haven’t seen the value yet, they may not have the urgency to buy, but you have set them up using their own words. You’ve created a value proposition that implementing your tool could mean, let’s say, $200,000 per quarter in new business, and $25,000 in retention. But what if they miss this opportunity?
Mr. Customer, AI-driven engagement tools are becoming standard, and the opportunity is massive. The shift is already happening. How long do you think it will take for your competition to get this tool?
There could be other ways to grab the hook and pull, and it’s up to you to get comfortable with this part, because you are getting ready to reel in the big fish with Step Five.
The Ask or Commitment (Call to Action)
I wrote in February, The 50+ Ways to Win More Deals … if you want to revisit that post for closing ideas, and where you are most comfortable. But at this point, you want to move the ball forward.
Is it a 15-day trial or a 90-day beta test, so they can prove to their management why this is important? You’ve laid out the value prop, and here you are, more than likely making an offer. In theory, if your sales price is anything less than the value proposition, your customer could see a positive return on their investment. But you don’t know their power or the process they must go through. You want to keep them on the hook and get one step closer to the sale.
At its core, every great sale is a transfer of belief. You start with nothing but an idea, a voice, and maybe a whiteboard. But if you’ve done your work, defined the problem, introduced a thoughtful solution, demonstrated real value, and created urgency, then asking for the next step isn’t a close. It’s a natural conclusion to a story your buyer wants to be part of. Whether in a boardroom full of investors or across the table from a skeptical customer, remember that you’re not selling a product but leading someone toward a better future.
Before you try to fit all of this into a single sales call, remember that sometimes it’s not possible. It may take several meetings to get to and through each of these five steps. It’s a process that needs to be followed, and keeping your focus on the step you are on is important.
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