How often do you go through the pitch and feel like it just doesn’t hit?

You know the prospect has a need for what you’re selling, you know it’ll help, but they just don’t register.

If they say anything at all, they’ll share that they don’t really have a need for certain components.

The reason for this is - you haven’t opened a loop in their mind that they have a need for said components.

It’s your job as a salesperson to create a need for the solution. Pitching at them and hoping they like it just isn’t enough in most cases.

To understand this easily:

Pre covid, in supermarkets and department stores, they’d have these stands where they were cooking food and handing out samples.

If you went into that store after eating, you likely wouldn’t be interested.

If you went in hungry, trying to rush through the shop to go eat afterwards, you most likely would go and try a few samples.

Prospects are no different.

We need to make them hungry.

I’ll share an example.

One program I sold for a few years was targeted at successful men, 35-60 who weren’t showing up as they needed to.

It could be:

• As a father
• As a husband
• For themselves
• As a leader

Most of them were quite successful and running their own companies, so it wasn’t like they were coming from a place of scarcity.

What they all had in common - no-one held them to a standard and they had built a wall around themselves.

They came to us because they knew they needed change, most saying they “Just need a nudge in the right direction.”

For reference, the 3 pillars of the pitch were:

Access
To the tools, resources, proven systems to help them move in the right direction.

Association

To other men in the same boat, who understand how they feel and are all on the same journey, most having already done what they want to do.
 

Accountability

Someone to make sure they follow through with what they need to do. And this was genuine accountability, every week with nowhere to hide.

What I found; if I didn’t open loops earlier in the calls, I would get massive pushback on these pillars.

Reason being, they were successful guys who had done what they wanted for years.

They’d say things like:

“I don’t need anyone to hold my bloody hand, I hold myself accountable.”

“I’m not interested in making friends, I just want to know where I’m going wrong.”

I could have tried to objection-handle them after and hope they understood.

Or, I could pre-handle all of that and build a hunger in them for those things.

So, what I would do is build the gap in the call like I usually do.

The gap between where they are now and where they want to be.

I would get them to sit in it and realize the factors that were actually at play.

Often times, it was losing their family, divorce, loneliness and clarity on the regret they were already feeling.

These calls were deep and usually quite uncomfortable for the prospect.

No-one had held them to a standard like this for years and they’d been hiding from themselves.

Once I was sure that they understood and accepted what was at play, I would open the loops.

Association

After they had shared some deep information with me, I’d simply ask:

“When you speak to your close friends about this, what do they say?”

Almost without fail, they’d respond “I don’t have any close friends.”

I’d reply “Did you say you don’t have any close friends?”

“Yes.”

Then we’d sit in silence for a few seconds.

Accountability

Then I’d ask “Well, who holds you to a standard then?”

They’d say “I hold myself accountable. No-one else has tried to for years.”

“You do? How do you think that’s working out for you?”

They’d say “Yeah, not great.”

“Do you think your (wife, kids, whoever they said) would say you hold yourself to the standard required to (be a better father, husband, person? Whatever they said).”

“I don’t think so.”

“You don’t think so?” 

”No, I don’t.”

Another few seconds of silence.

In this silence, I can see how they react.

95% of the time, you see them soften.

You see them realize that they haven’t been holding themselves to the standard they thought they were.

The thinly veiled wall they’ve built up over years just came crumbling down.

Then I would move on.

5% of the time they’d screw up their face, and that’s how I knew I needed to push them on why they would even accept accountability.

If I didn’t do it here, guaranteed I would get pushback later.

Once I opened these loops, the pitch was just the natural bridge between where they are and where they want to be.

They can clearly see they have no friends and no one to hold them to a standard.

So how do you apply this to your sales?

Ask yourself:

• What are the main features of the program?
• Which ones get pushback or fall on dead ears in the pitch?
• Does my questioning make the prospect realize they have a need for those deliverables?
• If not, how can I ask them questions to make them hungry for it?