As a small business owner and a consultant for the past 10 years, I live and die by my ability to pitch. Pitching is the fastest way to get business when you have nothing. There is also the very real possibility that competition for work is going to get a lot harder. With the millions of newly unemployed people.
Tips for Sales Pitching
Here are my secrets on how to win more pitches.
Get Permission to Pitch
It may seem counterintuitive but you don’t actually want to cold pitch people. Getting permission to pitch allows you to increase your conversion rates with your list. 99% of all cold pitches look something like this.
Hi Mr. Prospect.
My name is Austin Iuliano, I’m a social media consultant. I wanted to tell you about this great new offer I think you will love. Here is a big wall of text about me. But… let me list a series of bullet points so you actually kinda read these points.
- It’s brand new and awesome (but only I think it’s awesome)
- This pitch is completely stock and not personal but you should waste your time reading it anyway
- I know that I need to send out 100+ pitches today so I feel good about myself.
Now that you read it all, let me put the onus on you to tell me when to get in touch.
-Austin Iuliano
I’m sure you have seen this type of pitch before. Aren’t these pitches annoying when they hit your inbox? Come on people let’s do better! Instead of doing a straight cold pitch, try a permission-based lead in pitch.
Here is a real example of a permission-based pitch:
Hey (name)
My name is Austin Iuliano, I’m reaching out on behalf of Josh Marsden of CVO accelerator. You were a speaker for a virtual summit with Josh in 2017. I’m wondering if you would be open to helping Josh promote a new one. The focus of this event is on E-Commerce and we would be happy to set you up as an affiliate to compensate you.
May I send you over more info?
-Austin Iuliano
http://austiniuliano.com
As seen on Forbes, Business Insider, CMO Summit
Let’s break this pitch down to the key components.
- Who I am and how I know this person (through a mutual contact)
- Why I’m reaching out in a single sentence
- What’s in it for them
- A simple request with an easy “Yes”
- Information about me (the stranger) so they can do their own research and learn about me.
This pitch is short and can be read in under 60 seconds like an elevator pitch. It touches on the 5 main components to a good pitch. Ending this pitch with a simple yes, no question to send over more information. Steal this template and start gaining permission to send more information.
Out of 100 pitches I sent to the past speakers at this event, I got a response rate of over 22%. That isn’t to say 22 people said yes. A no is as important as yes, as it crosses off one more person to follow up with.
Focus Pitches On What’s In It For Them
My focus was on signing affiliates and micro-influencers to help promote the event. I was also given free rein to try and snag big influencers with lots of reach. I knew these “whales” aren’t going to sign up and promote someone else’s event without more incentive. That is why I focused my pitches on what’s in it for them.
Here is the exact pitch I used:
Headline: 10,000+ New Email Subscribers For Virtual Speaking Engagement
Hi (Name)
Could you please have someone on your team give me a call about getting you in front of 10,000+ customers for a virtual speaking engagement?
My number is 555-555-5555
-Austin Iuliano
http://austiniuliano.com
As seen on Forbes, Business Insider, CMO Summit
This pitch is also a very simple yet effective pitch:
- A headline that grabs attention
- A simple request that their team contact me about this deal
- My cell number
- A signature that lets them discover who I am
I didn’t know these massive influencers and had to cold pitch them. I sent these pitches through their website contact forms instead of hunting down their personal email addresses. Website contact forms are lead generation tools and my offer is a speaking lead. I also made it very easy for their team to get ahold of me.
Focusing my pitch on giving the speakers new email subscribers worked. New email subscribers are new potential customers.
Win Pitches In The Follow Up
Using my advice by starting conversations asking for permission, you will have a lot of interested parties. To close the deals and win the pitch, you have to be great in your follow up. Once they ask you to send more information, follow this format with your pitch.
- Hi Name + Personalization
- An attention-grabbing paragraph that showcases the value
- Sell the idea
- Sell the benefits
- Get more info to make a decision
- A simple yes/no request
- Signature with more info about you
Here is an example to show you what I mean:
Hey (name),
The summit is E-Commerce Unmasked – How to Start, Grow, and Scale an E-commerce Business. So far we have some amazing big-name speakers lined up such as Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income.
Our goal in creating this event is to help those struggling with COVID-19 to create successful and profitable eCommerce businesses. There are many businesses that are struggling as they don’t have the tools and resources we do. Therefore we wanted to create something to help solve their needs, deliver a ton of value while also creating profit for everyone involved.
As you have been a past speaker with Josh during his last virtual summit in 2017, we would love to offer you an opportunity to be an affiliate for this upcoming event.
The affiliate highlights you will want to know:
- Affiliates are being offered a 50% commission on the front end ($47-$97 tickets) and a 5% commission on the backend ($997-$1197).
- The previous event we converted all traffic at 7% on the front end.
- We have speakers lined up such as Pat Flynn, John Mallott, Greg S Reid, and Roland Frasier.
- We are projecting 10,000+ sign-ups to this event.
- The event registration is coming up quickly April 20th-May 3rd.
- We will provide step-and-repeat email campaigns, text message campaigns, and social media posts that you can customize.
I’ve taken the liberty of attaching the complete breakdown of this event including full list of speakers, compensation breakdown, relevant dates, etc. If this sounds like something your audience would find valuable I’d love to get you set up as an affiliate.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
-Austin Iuliano
http://austiniuliano.com
As seen on Forbes, Business Insider, CMO Summit
Look at the structure I put forth you can see that I have an attention-grabbing paragraph. I grab attention with a big name drop (Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income.)
From there I sell the idea of this event and why we putting it together. You have to sell the idea before anything else, otherwise, this event is like every other event out there. From there I can go into the bullet points and sell the benefits to the affiliate.
I attached a beautifully designed one-sheet that I got from templatemonkey.co. I customized for each person I was pitching. Swapping out their image that I pulled from social media or their website.
Ending with asking them to say yes to being an affiliate. I want them to express interest instead of sending the sign-up link. This way I get permission again before I go for the sale.
Finally, the email signature. Email communication can be days apart and they may have forgotten who I was. This simple formula works incredibly well, use this template and go win more pitches! I landed 2 whales in just under a week.
Stay Organized!
Organization is a major key to winning pitches. When you are pitching for new business there is a ton to keep track of. For example:
- You need to know who you are pitching
- When to follow up
- What personalized touchpoints you can add
- What stage they are on
There are many tools to use to help you stay organized but I use Hubspot’s CRM.
Additionally, I use an analog system to double-check my work. Writing names down on sticky notes on a whiteboard. Having a redundant system helps you double-check your progress.
This system also helps me visualize my workload without booting up my laptop. As I sip my morning coffee I can look over and see who I need to follow up with, and get in contact with again.
Let me know, what is your secret to winning more pitches? Let me know in the comments section.
Image: Depositphotos.com