Customers - whether b2b or consumers- will gravitate towards your products or services based on whether or not your offerings solve their problems.
As an entrepreneur, it is vital that your sales pitches and proposals communicate this very clearly.
It is also important that your proposals and sales pitches employ every mechanism to connect with your prospective customers in a natural way.
Engaging with your prospective customers to offer your product or service should be treated as one of the most critical aspects of your business.
In fact, whether you and your team are able to successfully grow your company will, for the most part, depend on how successful you are at creating compelling offers and presenting value to your identified prospective customers.
After careful review of thousands of sales proposals and various product pitches, we have identified these top three features associated with every single successful sales pitch or business proposal.
Communicate solutions, not features.
As product creators, entrepreneurs, business owners, it is very easy for us to get caught up in the bells and whistles of our products.
I often hear product pitches and sales scripts that are riddled with product features. We are quick to highlight all the cool things our offering does without inquiring as to whether or not it means anything to our prospect(s).
The truth is, oftentimes, it does not. Our "great" product features mean nothing to our prospective customers and customers alike if said feature doesn't address a pain point the prospect has.
We must create proposals and sales pitches that specifically addresses a problem the prospect has and tell them why our solution, our way of doing things, is the best out of all the other products out there.
Talk about cost
Let's face it, price matters, right? I mean, we all try not to talk about this topic, especially among business folk. We use various buzz words to address this issue.
"Long-term value", "value", "initial investment", and so on. These are the various terms we employ (often) as salespeople and entrepreneurs to hide from openly discussing how much - short-term, and long-term - our offerings cost.
Believe it or not, pricing is one of the biggest reasons your prospect will choose your product over someone else's and vice versa. All things being equal.
Now, for some, pricing will not be such an issue. To some prospects, it will be worth paying a little bit more for what you offer for many reasons: convenience, bespoke services, ease-of-use, status, etc.
I could write a whole book about this topic. For now, the major takeaway here is that you directly address the topic of pricing in your sales proposals and pitches, especially if that is the thing that sets you apart from your competitors.
Convenience is the new normal
If your ideal customer is a busy person, one who has less free time than the average person, then it is super important that you set very clear expectations, precise calls-to-action, and do your very best to deliver on both.
I am sure I don't need to tell you this but in the 21st-century, convenience and ease-of-use have become two features every product or service should incorporate and highlight.
We do not like to do more than is needed. COVID-19 and the availability of tech created, in 2020, the perfect storm for folks to start looking at ways to make it easier for their customers to consume their products and services.
Going forward, we must all take a look at ways to take the pain out of delivering our products to our customers. From our customers' perspective, of course.