Business Growth Specialists

Can your pitch

Posted: Wednesday July 8, 2009 by Paul

This morning I spent another networking meeting listening to another round of lacklustre presentations. I see many small businesses ill prepared to present business in a good light they arm themselves with the presentation or script that they have been told is the way to do it.

It looks something like this:

• All about me and my company – How long we’ve been in business, where we went to school, why I left my ‘job’ …
• What we do or sell
• Who we sell to – throw in a few company names especially if they are big ones.
• Key USPs – you know the ones – quality service, market leader, one stop shop, strategic partnerships, etc.
• How we do it – Process Overview – personal attention/service, bespoke solution …
• and finally Questions.

Remember this may be the only opportunity you have so don’t waste your precious time and the time of your prospects on the “company pitch”, focus on engaging your audience and demonstrating you understand their needs and the problems they are facing (including the ones they won’t admit to).

Your prospects need to be engaged, so organise your presentation or pitch in a way that provokes interest in you and your company.

Treat each call, presentation and message as an opportunity to personalise the conversation between you and your prospect(s). Show a genuine interest in their problems and present your solution and why your solution is the right decision for them.

Stay away from generic buzz words and TLAs that don’t tell the customer anything about your product or service and what you can do for them and customise the discussion based upon the customer and their needs and not your company.

Remember it’s about THEM not YOU