If you consider that you need to do a sales pitch or have a conversation that will end in the sell, then you might be setting yourself up to not sell much at all. See the problem with a ‘pitch’ is that it sounds so much like a convincing situation that you’re already in the defensive. If you go into a sales conversation seeing it as such (with the thought running through your head of "Must sell, must sell") then you’re already creating an energy around the situation that may prevent you from doing the very thing you want to–sell.
The thing with a sales pitch is you’ll go into pitch mode–you’ll start to talk differently, change your energy, perhaps feel uncomfortable (as will most likely the person you’re pitching to) and you’ll feel less like you and more like a salesperson. And while some of us are salespeople as our Thing, most of us have a Thing we’d instead merely like people to buy.
Allowing people to buy from you is a very different dynamic. Setting up a situation where you’ll explain there’s a next step, set out a solution to a problem that people have, talk through options, or explain they way you work–then you’ll ask if they would like to buy. Selling is a conversation where you show you have something available and then give the option to buy it. It’s NOT about convincing, tricking, pushing or forcing anyone to buy anything.
That’s not to say it doesn’t help to be smart about helping a conversation–that includes an offer to buy–run to a point where people are given a clear choice and perhaps encouragement to decide now (that’s always a good idea). But what selling is never is a full-on assault or icky feeling pitch. And just by you changing how you see it will change how you sell.
Don’t call it a pitch–call it a possibility. Don’t think of it as selling, but as an opportunity to buy. By all means, help people decide while you’re with them–give them all the information they need, remind them of the results (and the problem they said they wanted to solve) and, if needed, an encouragement to say yes or no right now. But don’t force a pitch on anyone unless they ask for it, of course.
As actually sometimes we want to be pitched to–if we walk into your showroom, or ask you what’s on offer, we're OK to hear your pitch because we gave you permission. At all other times, just explain what’s on offer and allow us to buy.
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