A Tale of 2 Pitches

How do I express what I do so that my favorite kinds of clients are receptive?

A woman approached me at the end of a two-hour Chamber luncheon last week, to let me know she now offers credit card processing services. She asked if I have a merchant account, which I do, and how much I pay per month.

When I demurred (who carries that number in their heads?), she continued to sell me. Here’s her point-by-point pitch, along with my inner monologue:

1) You know me (We’d met once before)

2) I can review your current plan for free (Free for her, maybe, but I charge $200/hour and this is not a top priority for me right now-I have QuickBooks to learn and taxes to do. Time spent on this takes away from time spent achieving my goals.)

3) I saved another client $400 a month (RED FLAG: This isn’t me! I spend way less than that A YEAR. She doesn’t know who I am, or what I want.)

4) Can I call you to discuss further? (I’ve already given her at least 2 clear NOs, and she failed to listen to my objections or to answer them in a thoughtful and receptive way).

I’m all for persistence, but I left the conversation feeling like I had to beat her back with a stick. She had her “sales process” down, but she wasn’t using it artfully.

Pitch #2

The next day, I was at my bank opening a business savings account. The banker who helped me looked up from his screen occasionally to offer helpful hints. Like: choose credit even when you use your debit card, because there is a greater chance for fraud when you use your PIN. Hmm… never knew that.

He asked about my business, and how I came up with my business name. He listened to my answers. Then he asked if I had a merchant account. When I said that I had one through another vendor, here was his pitch, point-by-point:

1) I’m so confident that we can save you money on your merchant account that if we can’t, we’ll give you $500 for taking your time to review your current plan. (= risk free guarantee)

2) Your charges go through in one day, instead of 3-4. (HOLY COW, you have my attention… this is a whopper of a selling point. It drives me NUTS that my merchant account takes so long to deliver my hard-earned income to my bank account. Talk about a “pain point” for a small business owner!)

Again I demurred, explaining that I had other priorities for admin and finance right now, but that those 2 points alone were enough to move me when I was ready. “Of course,” he said, and left it at that. We returned to the business at hand, and I walked away wanting a service that I had just turned down the day before.

So, what can you learn from these 2 pitches? You need to be clear about the benefit of your service—and on the ideal client who is hungry for that benefit.

Also, it helps to think of your sales process as more of an exploratory conversation, where you know the outcome you want, but you are present and receptive enough to receive any and all objections… and to “bless & release” the people who actually don’t need (or want) to work with you.

Mighty thanks to Will Folsom’s flickr photostream for the image. Oh - and there are still a few spots left in Charm School for Sales Pages, the 4-week course with me to show you how to write a great sales page, and get super-clear on your talking points for your program, service, or product… and your online sales process, with plenty of time to get your questions answered and your sales page up & selling by the end of April. To register:https://stellaorange.com/charmschool.html