Sales Pitch: How to Craft a Story to Stand Out and Win

"Let’s look at the five components of positioning and how they relate to each other (see Figure 3). 1  Competitive Alternatives: These are the alternative ways of solving the problem in the minds of customers. This could include whatever the status quo solution is. For B2B technology, that might include things like Microsoft Excel, manual processes, or “hire an intern to do it.” 2  Unique Capabilities: These are the capabilities of your offering that the alternatives do not have. They can be traditional features of a product, as well as capabilities of the company such as professional services offerings or specialized expertise. 3  Differentiated Value: This is the value your product enables for customers. This could be something like “helps customers save money by reducing development costs” or “speeds time to market by streamlining operations.” 4  Best-Fit Customers: This is the definition of a target account that is a good fit for your product. This usually includes firmographic information—for example, company size, revenue, number of employees—but it may also include other characteristics such as: the target account is already a Microsoft shop, or it has over one hundred gigabytes of internal data to be analyzed, or it has a distributed development team. 5  Market Category: The market category is the answer to the question, “What is it?” It’s the context within which you position your product and serves as a starting point for customers to understand what your product is all about."

"That means a great sales pitch should: 1  Help prospects understand the entire market, including other common alternatives beyond your product and the pros and cons of those alternatives mapped to their particular situation. 2  Accommodate the salesperson’s need to do in-depth discovery. 3  Help prospects clearly understand your differentiated value versus other alternatives and why the unique value only you can deliver is critically important. 4  Accommodate a product demonstration (should you choose to do one) as a natural part of the narrative flow of the pitch. 5  Include a clear call to action for what the prospect should do next."

"Immediately establishes your credibility as experienced and knowledgeable about the space. 2  Frames the customer’s situation in a way that orients the discussion toward your differentiated value (and nobody else’s), right from the beginning. 3  Sets up a discussion with the prospect about the overall market. Starting with market insight makes it easy to transition to talking about the other approaches to solving the problem and space to do discovery."

"Instead, it always started with a discussion about IBM’s point of view on the market. Reps would talk about what IBM perceived to be important considerations for companies looking at any solution in the market. They would then discuss how different approaches to providing a solution stacked up. Reps were doing discovery at this step, but also giving the customers a big picture of the entire market and teaching them how to make informed choices."

"Fear is the granddaddy of B2B emotions. Fear of failure. Fear of the repercussions of making a poor decision. Fear of looking stupid. Fear of getting fired. In a sales situation, invoking feelings like trust and confidence can go a long way toward helping buyers overcome their fear."

"Discovery usually happens in a first sales call. Done well, discovery is a conversation during which the buyer teaches the seller about their pain, problems, and situation, but the seller is also teaching the buyer about their point of view on problems and solutions in the space."

"What he did was give me a way to categorize all of my options so I could make an informed choice for myself based on what was most important to me. He was acting like a knowledgeable guide, and in doing so, he taught me how to confidently make a purchase."