Before taking ownership of a sales organization or division, you were probably a professional salesperson yourself at one point or another.
As you go about building a sales force to present your products and services, it’s easy to forget that an effective sales process starts with what you likely learned in your first days as a salesperson; a compelling 30-second elevator pitch.
While there are a lot of sales articles about why the 30-second pitch is important for selling customers, I wanted to explain why I think it’s important for developing a sales team.
Training new salespeople is easier when you have the bedrock of a proven elevator pitch to build on. It’s something that our most successful client companies, have down pat.
A 30-second pitch can make recruiting and training a sales team simpler. It can also open a wider opportunity for less experienced sales reps to sell for you.
From a sales management consultant’s view, a proven 30-second presentation helps improve sales staffing and training, for the following reasons:
- A new sales representative, just like a new customer, does not understand your product or service. Having a 30-second presentation gives them an anchor to build their product knowledge, activity planning and closing skills.
- It makes it easier to sell. Retaining representatives obviously becomes easier if you have a well-thought out sales plan. The 30-second presentation can speed the process to the first sale for a new sales rep.
- A proven value opener shows new reps that you are committed to giving them a sales process that succeeds. Good sales candidates will accept a job offer based on judgments about the quality of your product and the quality of your sales process.
- It really helps if your sales team operates in a market vertical that has higher than average salesperson turnover. If part of your day-to-day job is hiring and training, a proven 30-second pitch can help build a cultural common point in your sales training. provide a simple concept to build initial sales training around.
Despite the salesperson stereotype of the “lone wolf” doing things their own way to make the sale, in reality, sales representatives don’t want to make up everything from scratch. Instead, they want to take what makes your best people successful, and make it their own. Impress them with a well-honed 30-second sales pitch that sets the table for winning and trainees are more likely to believe in your sales training and make a home at your company.
A final note on developing a 30-second sales pitch. We’ve found that while the heaven’s may part and all of a sudden you have a great 30-second elevator pitch, more often it’s a result of trial and error. You’ve used variations of the pitch in hundreds of sales calls, and crafted it to deliver value across the spectrum of your different customer segments. Make sure staff understands its history and value.
