Magic: The Secret Ingredient for the Perfect Pitch

I love a good quote. Recently, I was revisiting Seth Godin’s advice and this one is still one of my favs: “People do not buy goods and services. They buy relations, stories, and magic.” In my previous post How to Create Value-Based Messaging, I talked about how to tie your messaging to what problems your customer might be facing, and that is important. However, I’d argue that creating a compelling pitch story about your product or service is even more critical, as that will begin to build those all-important relations with your customer.

There are four key ingredients to creating a perfect pitch.

Create Connection

This step will be familiar from our previous post on value-based messaging. Show your customer you understand them, you feel their pain, and create an emotional connection by showing them you can relate to their problem.

Show Confidence

Avoid iffy words and phrases.

• This will likely solve your challenge → This is the answer to your challenge
• You should feel relief → This takes the pain away
• This could be all you need → The only X you’ll ever need

Build Engagement

Sometimes a customer finds out about your product or service and buys on the spot. But in most cases, you’ll need to do some wooing from your introduction to the time they purchase. (Or if you want them to re-purchase.)

• Start the journey with clear tasks/steps
• Include a little humor if possible, or add a little rapport to continue to create connection
• Check in with them at least once a month (or more frequently if your sales journey is shorter)
• A drip / nurture campaign and social media are great ways to continue to engage with prospects, well after your introduction.

Close Them

A strong CTA and a sticky slogan will get you part of the way there. For sales with a longer close cycle, a more complex nurture campaign that includes scoring is a strong choice. With scoring, once a prospect engages with a certain amount of assets, posts, or web content, they get moved to the sales funnel for personalized follow up. P.S. Remind your sales team to not be afraid to ask what is keeping them from moving forward.

So where does magic fit into creating the perfect pitch?

The short answer is EVERYWHERE! Think of the customer journey as one beautiful story, where you are the weaver.

• When you are creating connection, include a personal story and even a little pizzazz showcasing how you have solved their problem before.
• While you could include magic tricks in the confidence part, instead lead with know-how and a clear path to continue on the journey.
• For engagement, a contest, promotion, or a good social media campaign can all be ways to include some fun in your efforts. Where there is fun, there is magic.
• When it’s time for closing the sale, remember that personal values shine though. Show them that what’s important to them, is also important to you.

The relationship you build is key.

At the end of the day, The relationship you build with your customer is more valuable than how many sales you close. When that relationship is good, and it’s time for an upgrade, they’ll reach out to you first — if you haven’t already been cross-selling/up-selling them on other problems you can help solve. When a competitor comes calling, how you are always there to solve their problem will be more valuable than a discount or the challenges of migrating in many cases.

Next Steps

If you are not ready to revamp your entire website and collateral, do some testing with social media, drip emails, or ads and see whether adding a little magic to your pitch makes an impact on performance.

How I can help

Crafting the perfect pitch and messaging are some of my favorite things to do. Let’s connect if you need to add a little magic to your sales process. I am your go-to marketing expert for print and digital graphic design, writing and editing, website development, branding, strategy, social media, email, and CRM management. When you hire one — instead of a separate marketer, designer, writer, and project manager — the savings add up!