Ultimate Sales Pitch Guide
â Introduction / Chapter 4 of 8
by Steli Efti, CEO
Last updated November 17, 2020
If youâre doing inside sales, you know that a phone call can be an incredibly effective tool to reach out to potential customers and close deals.
One hour after coming up with the idea for ElasticSalesâthe on-demand sales company we launched before Closeâwe had already created our first sales script.
We didnât waste time on market research, a website, a logo, or a name. We wanted to validate the idea as quickly as possible, so we got on the phone.
Our goal was to close 1 deal in 4 weeks. Instead, we landed 7 paying customers in 14 days. We even had to reject customers because we didnât have enough capacity to service them.
Our secret? A great sales pitch script. (You can download the same free template we've used here.)
If youâre looking to level-up your calls, having a sales pitch script can make a huge difference.
But you might be wondering: Doesnât a script just turn reps into robots?
Nobody wants to be a robot. And actually, a script can help you NOT sound like a robot (when you use it right).
So, what are the benefits of using a sales pitch script? And what lessons can you learn from the script we used to get 7 paying customers in 14 days?
This is what youâre going to see in this chapter:
Rather than turn you into a robot, a well-crafted sales pitch script can actually boost performance for your sales team.
Here are 6 reasons you should consider using a sales pitch script:
An effective sales process is in a constant state of refinement. When you create sales pitch scripts, you take a step towards refining an essential part of your process: your cold outreach.
As we talked about in Chapter 1 of this guide, your sales pitch must be based on customer research, not guesswork. So, as you work through the research and start to write things out word-for-word, youâll add a level of polish and finesse to your cold outreach that couldnât be done without a script.
This is a process that you should do with the rest of your sales team, since each member will have valuable insights and clever phrases that will help your pitch reach its full potential.
Having a script also allows you to A/B test different introductions, conclusions, and phrases in the middle. As the whole team uses variations of the sales pitch script, you can see how prospects react and build a pitch that is truly outstanding.
Whenever a new sales rep comes onto the team, thereâs a learning period where they must develop their knowledge of the product, the brand message, and the sales style of the company.
When a sales team already has a carefully developed sales pitch script, those new hires can start hitting the phones even sooner, knowing that their pitch is effective and builds on solid research into the ideal customers.
While a sales leader may depend on their high-performers to reach the teamâs sales goals, different factors can affect their performance on a day-to-day basis. Whether itâs because of issues in the office, trouble at home, or a global pandemic, your high performers will have some bad days.
Using a sales pitch script can help minimize the effect of a low performance day by giving everyone a baseline to follow. While most high performers will ad-lib off the script on a normal day, they will always have that safety net to fall back on when theyâre not feeling as creative.
Doing cold calls is stressful. Everybody knows it, even those who donât want to admit it.
But when youâre so concentrated on (and stressed about) what youâre saying, it becomes very difficult to listen effectively to the other person.
Sales leaders: do you want your reps to listen better on the phone? Then give them a sales pitch script.
With a written script, reps have their thoughts and words clearly in mind. Then, when they ask questions, they can actually listen to what the prospect is saying instead of scrambling for their next line.
This empowers sales reps to engage in meaningful conversations with prospects over the phone, giving them the ability to focus on the prospect and not stress excessively about what theyâre going to say next.
When your high performing sales reps are at the top of their game, they probably feel like they donât need a sales pitch script.
And itâs true: these people know how to sell.
But a script gives the call structure. It gives reps the right words at the right moment, and it also allows them to take that structure and give it some of their own unique flair and pizzazz.
Once they know that script, they can experiment with their own ideas and add some personality. Ultimately, you want to empower your reps to trust their instincts and be better than the script, but only once they've internalized the script.
What is your brand message? What tone of voice does your website display? How are things worded in your pricing page, or within the product?
The words you use and the style theyâre portrayed in should be uniform across all aspects of sales, marketing, product, and customer service. So, when you create your sales pitch scripts, take into consideration the thoughts and suggestions from these other teams. Let the product team take a look at how you pitch certain features. Let customer service help you explain use cases concisely.
Scripts that are made with the help of all these different teams will bring your brand message to the fore, and keep your reps on-brand at all times.
When you use a sales pitch script that is well-developed, it gives you guidance on the phone to go from one step to the next in a proven model that actually delivers success and produces positive outcomes.
Back when we started ElasticSales, we saw how this works in real-life.
Ready to hear the sales pitch that got us 7 paying customers in 14 days?
Here it is:
Hi, my name is Steli Efti. Iâm calling some startups in the area to find out if they are a good fit for our beta program.
What we do in a sentence is we provide companies with a sales team on demand.
Does this sound generally interesting to you?
Why did this work so well? Letâs break down the opening lines:
With this opening line, we established context right away.
It seems like a no-brainer to start with your name, but youâd be surprised how many people ignore this step.
Forget your pitch for a second. You need to let prospects process who you are: otherwise, thereâs zero chance theyâll pay attention to anything else youâre saying.
Some salespeople recommend small talk after the introductionââHowâs your day going? Is it raining there, too?ââbut we donât. Maybe small talk sets a friendly tone, but who has time for that?
In a cold call, assume youâre interrupting prospects on a busy day. Get to the point. Prove that you value their time.
We chose these words carefully. In one sentence, we were able to let our prospectsâSilicon Valley startups whoâd raised a few million dollars in venture capitalâknow:
We chose âgood fitâ over âcustomerâ for a reason: these were exploratory calls. And âbeta programâ because many prospects were in tech. It was a subtle way to let them know that we spoke their language.
The details of your script will ultimately depend on your target audience and your ideal customer profile, but keep these ideas in mind as you write your own.
This was our elevator sales pitch. No fluff. The key to a great elevator pitch is clarity and brevity. Try to keep this to one sentence. If it takes thirty seconds to explain what you do, thatâs a problem. Prospects donât have patience, especially during cold calls.
We cared how they responded to this question, but it never really mattered what they said.
The truth is that neither of us had enough information to decide whether the call was a waste of time. I still had a few qualifying questions to decide if they were a good fit for our beta, and they still had time to decide whether to continue or hang up the phone.
Hereâs the other reason why this question was important: it gave prospects an opportunity to say no. If the pitch didnât sound interesting and they werenât able to verbalize a quick objection, theyâd be thinking, âHow do I get off this call?â for the rest of the conversation. Iâd never get any information out of them. The early no actually allowed me to keep the conversation going, even if it was only for a few more seconds.
Now that weâve covered the opening lines, letâs take a deeper dive into the overall sales pitch call.
The basic structure involves these 6 steps:
These 6 steps should all be included in your sales pitch script, allowing you and your sales team to follow a clear, relevant structure throughout the call.
Here is the sales pitch script template you can copy and adapt to your own process:
Swipe this script template and adapt it to your own sales process.
Pro tip: When moving from a call to an email follow-up, donât forget to log each touchpoint in your CRM. Keeping organized will make the entire deal process run more smoothly, and gives historical context to the rest of your team. Close saves you a step by logging calls, emails, text messages, and even Zoom meetings automaticallyâtry it free for 14 days.
Then youâre not using them correctly. When you mindlessly read your lines, youâre going to sound like a robot. But scripts arenât meant to lock you into a conversation. Theyâre meant to help you refine your process, maximize performance for all members of the sales team, reduce stress, and keep messaging focused.
True, having a script wonât give you a 100% success rate. Here some quick sales pitch script hacks to help you face objections:
When you include creative workarounds to common objections in your sales pitch scripts, youâll be better prepared to continue the conversation despite the objection.
Pro tip: Check out some ideas of how to answer these two common objections: âI donât have time right nowâ and âSend me an emailâ.
There are few things more important to your long-term sales success than a winning script, so apply what youâve learned here.
And remember: creating a winning sales script is a never-ending process. If you regularly revise your script, youâll keep finding new ways to close deals. This doesnât have to take a lot of timeâjust set aside 15â30 minutes every month for a focused sales script session with your team. Even if you only do it once a year, that alone can make a huge difference to your bottom line.
Wondering how to take this sales pitch to your email outreach? Jump ahead to the next chapter: Writing a sales pitch email: subject lines, email examples + 5 steps to close