How to Write a Sales Pitch?

No matter your industry or vertical, the world of B2B sales is a fiercely competitive arena to operate in. Yet, in order to survive, a steady influx of leads and sales is paramount. Pitch well, and your business will thrive and prosper. Fail to hone this skill to perfection, and face joining the leagues of businesses who have come and failed before you.

Selling in today’s technologically advanced, digitally-driven world is an entirely new beast as compared to that of the sales greats that came before us. The landscape of communication is rapidly evolving, with the need for a client-centric, solutions-based, and relationship-focused approach taking the helm as the leading strategy to turn prospects into raving lifeline customers.

Below we’ll cover a number of valuable “hacks” you can implement today to take your pitch game to the next level. By employing these tactics, you can quickly and effectively close more deals faster, earning you and your company the recognition, sales, and revenue you both deserve.

1. Qualify Your Prospects & Leverage Data

There is a reason why marketers focus so much on the data. They understand the importance of narrowly focusing on those ideal customers most likely to take action. As a sales representative, you too need to have this mindset when writing a sales pitch.

As a sales representative you have hands-on experience dealing with a broad range of prospective customers with a whole host of individualized needs, concerns, wants and desires. Yet you don’t always have the right information to make the best decision.

Consider working with your marketing department to determine how to write your sales pitch and identifying what types of prospects (customer avatars) are most likely to convert for any particular service. You may be surprised that they have just what you need to prioritize your lists and qualify (or disqualify) certain prospects from your efforts.

After all, you only have so many hours in a day. Best make them count.

2. Put In the Time – It’s Worth It!

We get it. At some point, a sales manager early in your career told you the more “contacts” you save to your CRM system the more sales you’ll make, because “it’s a numbers game kid”. While there is some truth to that old sales mantra, there is a much more effective way to increase your pitch acceptance rate.

Here is where we hit you with another time-tested favorite piece of advice: quality over quantity. If you want to close more pitches, you need to know everything about the prospect you are pitching. Thorough research takes time and who has any of that. This is why “Hack #1” above is so important. It allows you to hyper-focus on those individuals or companies most likely to be amenable to your pitch and get the deal done.

Once you’ve narrowed down your target list into priorities based on the “best fit” and most likely to convert to a sale, move on to the research phase.

Write a sales pitch to the right company

You’ll want to understand where the company has been, where they are now, and where they aspire to be in the future. In other words, find out:

• How they achieved the success they have had thus far
• What got them to this point
• What stumbling blocks did they hit or overcome
• What challenges do they face today both in and outside of the company
• What are their current and future aspirations
• Who are their major competitors
• And so on…

Next, take the above information and relate each to how your solution, product or service would play a role in helping them reach a particular goal or objective.

3. Before You Pitch Your Offer, Pitch Yourself

Today business is about more than just matching a solution to a problem. It’s about forming lasting, genuine, mutually beneficial relationships.

According to Contributing Editor Kate at INC. Magazine, people buy from people that they:

• Find common ground with
• Like (and who likes them)
• Trust
• Think appreciate them

Part human nature, part psychology, making a real and meaningful connection with your prospects is a surefire way to improve the odds of closing your pitch. In order to do this effectively, you’ll likely need to do a little reconnaissance. This leads us to “Hack #4”.

4. To Write a Sales Pitch, You Must Know Who You’re Pitching

First up, make sure you know not just WHO you are pitching but that they are THE decision-maker. The last thing you want to do is spend valuable time on the clock and under the gun with prospects who don’t even have the proper authority to pull the trigger and sign the check.

Once you know you’ve got the right person, its time to dig in and do some research. Luckily for you, the majority of people put all of their lives online for the world to see.

Places to Search:

• Social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.)
• Company employee profiles/bios
• Personal websites or side projects (if they have them)
• Any Forums they are active on

Points of Interest:

• Past employment
• Professional and personal achievements
• Hobbies (sports, games, etc.)
• Media interests (books, TV, movies, podcasts, etc.)
• Sports
• Past education/alma mater
• And anything else relevant

Use this information to find anything where you have a common ground or interest. The more personal (within professional reason) the better.

Know that your prospect runs marathons? Perhaps you run 5ks and haven’t had the courage to make the leap to a full marathon. You can use this to make a connection and perhaps even (genuinely) ask them for help. This puts them in a sense of control and establishes a psychological connection (we tend to bond with those we help).

5. Let Them Know (Subtly) That You Did Your Research

Anything that isn’t creepy can be used to establish a real connection. Use this when writing your sales pitch.

We once came across a sales rep who found out his ideal prospect (that no one could reach) had a child who played soccer. The sales rep’s daughter was also into soccer so he did everything he could to make sure his daughter played on the same field as this prospect’s daughter and that they became friends. Which they did. By association, he also met the father (the prospect) and they too became friends and later business partners on a number of deals.

Although that is an extreme example of using something in common to make a real connection, the overall strategy holds true. By the way, that “prospect” now laughs about the whole approach and they are both friends to this day.

Don’t be afraid to take chances and get “outside the box” with your thinking. For example, does your prospect LOVE a certain band? Consider putting a couple of song lyrics or relevant references into the pitch.

Not only will you lower your prospect’s guard and get past any initial filters they have, but you’ll also come across as thoughtful and prepared as they no doubt will realize you did your research.

But even if you do verge on going in with a more casual pitch- don’t skimp over basics things like good spelling and grammar, as you may sound “sloppy” rather than friendly. A good grammar checker will be your friend here!

6. Remember, It’s Not About YOU, it’s about THEM

We get it. You have a great product/service and your company is impressive. But guess what? Your prospect doesn’t care. Sorry to be blunt, but it needed to be said. According to Forbes Magazine, you want to present solutions custom-tailored to the prospect, not deviate into spewing out the features of your offer and how great it is. Your customers are interested in how your offer can impact their business in a positive way, from hitting KPIs to overcoming a particular challenge they face.

This is why hitting them with the WIFFT right off the bat is so effective. WIFFT stands for “What’s in it for Them”. You need to be able to clearly and concisely pitch them on what it is they will get out of this transaction.

What this looks like will vary widely based on the type of product or service you are pitching, but you must find some way to quantify results in a way that makes sense for their industry or the problem you are trying to overcome.

7. You Aren’t Writing a Novel  – keep it on point

If you operate in a competitive space (what isn’t these days), expect that your prospect is “pitched” multiple times daily, from cold calls to unsolicited emails and everything in-between. If they have granted you the privilege of making a pitch, do them a favor and stay on point.

Innovaccer - US-Based Healthcare Startup Reducing Healthcare Costs

In the US, which is considered to be one of the most advanced countries in terms of healthcare, citizens have to choose between paying mortgages for their house or paying their healthcare insurance premium, thus revealing the high-cost burden that an individual has to bear for a treatment.

To help the already stressed healthcare system in the US along with preventing the customer from falling sick, three Indians founded Innovaccer in 2014. The San Francisco-based healthcare organization leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics to automate routine workflows and reduce manual overhead.

In an interaction with Entrepreneur India, Kanav Hasija, co-founder and chief customer officer of Innovaccer, talks about how they began from nothing to managing 7 million lives.

From IIT-Kharagpur to onboarding NASA as client

Hasija came in touch with Abhinav Shashank, another co-founder of the startup since their college days in IIT-Kharagpur. After graduating, Hasija went abroad to the US to study patent law, while Shashank worked in the automation space. However, the longing to innovate something in the data-driven world kept them connected. Hasija returned to India in 2012, and this is when he along with Shashank met Sandeep Gupta, an IIM- Ahmedabad alumni. The three observed two macro trends. “We saw the cost of digital storage for data going down without significant advancement in the data management technology,” Hasija added.

He said that they knew there would be a massive rise in data ponds and data lakes without data management technology.

This is when the three founded Innovaccer to prevent the practice of storing data in a siloed manner and unifying them together to increase the efficiency of an organization. The startup while working for organizations across the verticals onboarded marquee clients such as NASA and Harley Davidson.

However, the three founders decided to shut their all verticals and focus on the US healthcare sector.

“We realized that building a data platform across verticals is irrelevant and decided to go for healthcare because the market was huge and it’s gratifying to save a life with data,” Hasija added.

Saving lives with data

According to Hasija one of the major pain points in the healthcare sector was that it was moving from ‘right to left’, meaning the sector was first finding the use case and then identifying the technology to deal with it.

“Healthcare sector was already suffering from multiple point solutions as they were siloed. We realized we need to move from left to right by building a platform that can unify a patient’s record from multiple endpoints that can help every stakeholder in the healthcare system,” Hasija explained.

The platform connects analytic insights, automation, and applications for use by physicians, care managers, payers, employers, and patients to support an individual throughout their healthcare journey.

Hasija said their data activation platform prevents a patient from stepping to a hospital due to preventive medicine assigned at the right moment. The platform with the help of collected data enables physicians and care managers to monitor a patient's health.

The patient’s data is collected from multiple endpoints which include hospitals, clinics, labs, medical devices, and applications, among others.

Explaining further, Hasija said one can only save the cost of healthcare when he/she is cured without going to a hospital with the help of preventive medicine and proper care.

According to Hasija, a single entity cannot provide preventive medicine. He said data from multiple entities such as hospitals, labs, clinics, medical devices, and Insurance companies are required to cut the cost of healthcare. This further lifts off the pressure from the already stressed-out healthcare sector.

The startup is working closely with more than 25 healthcare organizations across the US and streamlines data integration and care delivery for over 1,000 geographies.

To date, the startup boasts of saving $600 million in health care costs and has a unified record for 24 million lives.

The startup in February raised $70 million in a Series C round from Steadview Capital, Tiger Global, Dragoneer, Westbridge, Mubadala and M12 (Microsoft’s venture fund). With this round, Innovaccer has raised $120 million till date.

Revolutionary Advancements in AI Mobile Marketing

What should marketers do as technology is changing the shape of marketing? 

Today, consumers are absorbing information at a previously impossible rate. In a world where everyone walks around with a cell phone in their pockets, instant gratification has become the standard people expect. Digital upgrades are important for a company to stay on top and can make the biggest difference in increasing a company’s consumer base. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one technology that companies are using to stay ahead of their customers.

 The invention of mobile phones has given people the power to have any number of answers available at their fingertips wherever they are. This has also given brands the ability to build deeper, more meaningful relationships with their customers. AI gives brands the power to not only reach customers but to connect with them based on their interests at a personal level. Brands can also learn new things about their customers by analyzing the data that they leave behind while browsing the internet. As the world of business changes, companies are fighting to keep up with the rapid pace of technological innovation.

What exactly is AI?

Artificial intelligence is a way to describe how computers can collect and analyze data then conclude from that data to make assertions or learn about customer tendencies. To the tech world, AI is just a fancy way of describing how well a machine/computer can interpret data in the way a human would, only at a much higher level of efficiency.

Mobile apps like Google Maps or Waze are prime examples of AI already being used in the real world. These apps gather information from users and analyze it in real-time to provide information like traffic reports, alternate routes and arrival times. Waze also can update users in real-time about any advisories or alerts pertinent to their route the same way a human navigator would. This is one example of AI already being implemented in the real world to improve the functionality of their app.

How do we effectively use this data to promote our brand?

AI can bring a level of personalization to any brand by matching customer's interests and brand attributes that they relate to. Even though AI is still in the early stages of development, many brands have taken advantage of its broad and diverse capabilities, giving them a leg up in the marketing world and increasing consumer expectations. By using ads relevant to the user’s personal search history, AI can predict future interests of that customer and tailor their ad experience accordingly.  

As a result, users feel as if they relate to your brand building a deeper connection and improving customer loyalty. When you couple this with the amount of personal data collected through an individual’s mobile phones, it allows your brand to become a superpower, relating closely to each customer and having the ability to personally reach billions of people and to predict the actions of potential new customers at the same time.

Adding value to B2B marketing

AR may provide an engaging experience in consumer marketing, but it has great utility even in the B2B domain.

Imagine you are selling a complex product to a demanding client. AR can help your customers see and interact with the product, just the way they want—from drone’s viewpoint to up close and even through (cross-section). When you leave nothing to the imagination in a room full of decision makers, it becomes a lot easier for you to close the deal, without flying them all the way to your factory.

Does your customer want a say in the very design of the product or its customization? AR makes it easy for all to see the what-if scenario, making it possible to visualize the advantages and the otherwise unanticipated problems. That helps you make productive use of WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get).

As seasoned marketers know, customer loyalty is won or lost more after the sales than during. When the customer has no time to flip through the pages or scroll infinitely in search of the solution they seek, AR can provide a show-and-tell solution that is more likely to ensure a repeat order than a fat discount.

AR as experiential marketing

AR is not about dazzle or novelty. It is about an engaging experience that enhances the value on offer to the customer. It must facilitate authentic communication and meaningful interaction with the brand.

If you are trying to add a piece of furniture to or repaint your house, you can use a tape and your imagination. Or you can let AR help you place the furniture in various spots until you are happy with the position. You can think and debate colors with your spouse or AR can show your house as it would look with various colors on the walls. The moment you hit a color that shows off your furniture (that you just placed) well, just click on the button and the painters would be at your doorstep the next morning.

Instead of struggling to relate to a communication that is meant for all, AR can make the customer feel as if the entire marketing muscle behind a brand is at one’s personal service.

What is the future of AI?

Over the last five to ten years especially, artificial intelligence has made rapid improvements, but what more could the future hold? As AI technology continues to grow and evolve, it will likely become an even larger part of everyone’s daily lives.

When users think about AI, they typically think about it as a big idea that could have catastrophic consequences which are far from the truth. You can see artificial intelligence popping up in more and more products every day, most of which are “tech” products like out social media streams, digital shopping recommendations or automation and driver assistance in modern vehicles.

The tipping point for AI is going to be when the absence of AI becomes noticeable in daily routines. It is currently on course to expand beyond the limited scope of current assistant technology like Alexa or Siri to the point where we could potentially have AIcompanions that can be interacted with like old friends.

Like any other technology, there will always be room for improvement. We can expect to see continued improvements in terms of functionality and error handling. As technology improves, using AI will become more naturally seamless.

The future of AI is extremely open and with new technology being discovered every day. The future of mobile marketing and AI integration is promising and is expected to become an even larger part of daily life.