Developing your story

Let’s move on to the next part of the episode where we look at developing our story. The purpose of a story is not to tell people how great you are, this is not how you build credibility. The purpose of a story is to RELATE to your audience. You need to show them that you are an average person who shares the same pains and doubts as them.

The story is where you establish trust with your audience. This is achieved by getting on the same level as the person you are trying to pitch to. You need to get them to see that you are just like them. Remember, you need to be humble, if you try and show them how wonderful you are with all of your fancy degrees and 20 years of business experience, then you are alienating yourself from them. Nobody wants to be made to feel inferior. You need to position yourself as a down to earth person who they can relate to.

Once someone trusts you, they are willing to listen to you and believe what you say. I am not saying that you are going to lie to someone about your products or services, this is the absolute wrong thing to do. Never make claims about a product or service that you cannot fulfil.

Remember, we are the humble guy who shares the same pains as our customer, if we want to talk about how amazing we are then don’t, this is actually what we need to be applying to our product or service.

So, let’s take a look at how we can develop the content or our sales argument.

Providing content

The first rule of content is to provide AMAZING value. Nowadays most people have seen most sales arguments. You need to be sharing something of genuine value. Again, don’t make false claims, you just need to know more than the person you are pitching to. They need to see that what you can offer them can solve their problem. So, again, this is linked directly with our introduction. What is in it for them. The thing that is in it for them must provide real value.

When you are providing value, what you are actually doing is building your credibility. People are not impressed by your experience or your degrees, they are only interested in the what. What is the what? The what is the thing that you are going to teach them or provide them that is going to provide them with success or solve their problem.

The key to this part of the process is to provide evidence and examples that shows your potential client that you can do what it is that you say you can do, or your product can provide the solution that you are claiming it can make.

It is important that we show people what we can do but never HOW we can do it. If people want to know how to solve their problem or get the success, they desire then they need to purchase your solution. Your product or service is the HOW.

To be able to develop this part of your sales pitch effectively you need to be able to create a “light bulb” moment in the mind of your potential client. They need to be provided with valuable content that makes them think, wow, I didn’t know that. This means your content must be unique or not widely known. The more “light bulb” moments the more convincing your argument.

So, by now you have the person sold already. Wait, what? But Andrew, I haven’t even pitched them the offer or the price yet. I know, it seems strange, but once you have built trust with your story and then shown all the value with your content most people will be ready to buy or not buy from you.

Transitioning to the pitch

Right, now we are moving on to stage four of this process, which is the transition. Here we need to make this stage short and sweet, if we lose confidence here or we drag this stage out, we are going to ruin our chances and lose all of the momentum that we have created.

Many people feel bad asking someone to buy their products. You should feel super proud of what you offer, and you should be confident about the value you bring and how you can help your audience. If you don’t feel great about what you are selling, then you shouldn’t be selling it.

The transition and pitch part of your presentation should be done with passion and with a smile, not with a softly spoken voice. Make your transition about getting your audience to give you permission to move forward.

For example.

The secret to this stage is to ensure that we make the purchase seem like the idea of the client. That is why we ask them for their permission to move forward with the pitch. Remember, we have made the sale in the content stage of our argument, so you shouldn’t be scared to ask for permission, furthermore you shouldn’t do it in a weak voice. You need to ask with confidence, this step is only a formality to make the idea THEIR idea.

Making the pitch

OK, the final stage of this process is that actual pitch. By now the person has subconsciously decided if they will make the purchase or not. Generally, if we are this far along and the person has agreed and stayed with you until this part of the process, they are interested in purchasing your product or service. If they are not, then either they are not your target audience, or they do not see the value in what you are offering them. If a person doesn’t feel they are getting an amazing deal, then they won’t fight for it. If they feel the value to them far exceeds the price, then they will do anything to get the deal. Therefore, you must provide a valuable service or product.

Personally, I think this is the best thing about this process, you can’t sell some rubbish to people. You need to be a serious professional and really have your customer’s interest at the centre of everything you do. If you are not making a product or service that transforms people and solves their real-world problems, then you should reconsider your business.

So now we make our pitch. Again, we need to be full of energy and not apologetic, if we are not confident and excited about our product or service then you will lose the sale at this last stage.