The Best Failing Pitch I've Ever Heard
I've experienced a lot of sales pitches in my career. I imagine that you have as well. But do you remember a pitch that stands out - even if your answer was no? Let me tell you about the best failing pitch I've ever heard.
I was meeting with a master of the relationship pitch. He wasn't just any salesperson—he’s an artist in the field of making connections. Here are some highlights of his approach:
He researched me and everyone on my team well before our meeting.
He dug deep into our website and scoured the internet for information on our company.
After his initial phone call, he followed up with a detailed and specific email summarizing our conversation and laying out the agenda for the next steps.
When we finally met, he was everything you’d hope for in a salesperson—friendly, charming, confident, and engaging. By all accounts, this should have worked. We connected. We built trust. He even made friends. But we didn’t buy from him. Why? Despite all the rapport he built, his pitch wasn’t relevant to our business—it only connected with us as people.
This salesperson approached the meeting with the belief that trust and likability are the keys to building a successful sales relationship. And while that used to be enough, today’s world demands more—buyers want trust, but they also need relevance and value. That’s where his strategy missed the mark.
Beyond building personal connections, he needed to take it further. He should have asked us what problem we were trying to solve. Without understanding our challenges, he couldn’t position his offering as a solution. Additionally, researching our competitors and identifying the threats we face could have provided him with valuable insight to align his pitch with our needs. And finally, he needed to show us exactly how his product or service could solve our specific problem.
Saying no to this salesperson was tough because he was genuinely likable. But at the end of the day, likability isn’t enough. He needed to be relevant and provide value too. If he’d done that, I might have said yes.
President of Geobear USA, the first US subsidiary of the world's largest geopolymer injection engineering company
2 个月Well said Tom! Love these posts!
Vicepresident Key Accounts BES Latin America en Brenntag Group
2 个月Tom, amazing article, simple but acertive, always is about value, this person probably is bringing value as friend but not for your business. We need to work in the real customer need, that need that is inside of the organization and check how this match with our value proposition and put focus where their cross.
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2 个月The absolute, undeniable key to anyone buying is knowing what problem you solve, FOREMOST.