Sales Pitch and Movie Trailers

We all may have heard that for a successful sale or a deal, your sales pitch has to be perfect and because of this many sales people forget that, selling is a process and not just “the pitch”.

Definitely, the pitch will get people excited but what about the complete product? It’s like focusing way too much on making the trailer and forgetting what the movie is all about. And let’s say that the trailer was indeed perfect but the movie was disappointing . How many times have we experienced that?

For a perfect movie to do great at the box office , the trailer has to be good but the movie has to be great. It has to have great characters, it has to have great music, and more importantly a great story. If these things don’t meet viewers expectations, after a couple of days, because of the bad reviews the movie will not be a success at the box office.

Likewise in sales, you have to have a great product, a great pitch, great marketing but more importantly the great value it will add to your customers lives.

We have heard about many surveys and research that suggest that the investors or your customers listen only to first 30 seconds of your sales pitch and rest is ignored which is true. But let’s say, the investor liked your pitch and would like to know more. Do you have a process in place to keep them excited? Do you have product that they think is different than the millions of other product already in the market? Do you add value? And if the answer to any one those questions is a No, then am sorry to say, but you are not getting the deal.

If only the sales pitch was important, why did J.K.Rowling had to go to several publishers before she finally got a publisher who agreed to publish her work? She had a same pitch to almost all the publishers even then, she was declined by many of them.

She really believed in her product and many publishers may be did not take a look at her complete work or may be, they did not see the value. Until eventually, one publisher liked it, believed in it and got the value in return when “Harry Porter” became a huge success.

Your sales pitch has be good and there is no question about that.But, are you delivering a great product and greater value, is what makes companies stand apart.

For instance, remember the super bowl advertisement of Apple in April of 1984? ( If you haven’t already, stop reading this and watch it on youtube now ) You will never experience an advertisement like that ever again. It was the advertisement that many say revolutionised Apple Inc. But the same people are undermining the product Apple had at the time, they undermine the value it brought to its customers. It was not just the advertisement, It was the product, and the value it added in its customers lives.

So, for all the sales people and startup owners out there, focus on the company or the brand or the product first and then worry about the “pitch” Because if you don’t have all of those in place, just your “pitch” is not going to save you.