Sales Departments spend time and money developing a competitive sales pitch and presentation to lure new customers. It is important and necessary.
This is the challenge I have for you. Do you frequently ask for feedback from prospects and customers who heard one of your sales pitches? The information you will receive will affirm that your pitch is effective or will provide you with more enlightenment on why your prospects and customers buy or don’t buy your services or products.
When we do customer satisfaction assessment surveys, we always ask the buyer why they bought from our client. We want to hear from the customer about all the things that impressed them about our client as well as the final detail that allowed them to make the YES, WE WILL BUY decision. Hardly ever, very rarely, maybe never, very infrequently…will a customer say they made the Buy decision based on a sales pitch. It was always something else and that “something else” was usually a surprise to our client. It shouldn’t be a surprise to your company. Instead, that “something else” should be known and included each time you canvas for new business.
For instance, one of our clients spoke with great pride about the sales pitch used to win new business after competing against other firms. Our client provided their prospect with solid credentials, past experience and information about the qualifications of the people who would be serving the prospect. An incredible amount of time was allocated to develop this information. That did matter to the prospect, yet the real clincher for the sale was how our client responded to the prospect’s questions and concerns. The prospect believed all the contenders to be equally qualified yet all the companies demonstrated different styles and expertise when responding to questions. That was the real reason for the purchase. Our client would have made false assumptions about why the new customer bought from them had they not taken the time to inquire after the deal was done.
