Don't Pitch, Present What's Best For Prospects

Copyright 2008 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.
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I responded to a post in Advertising Age - http://adage.com/smallagency/post?article_id=132248&message=Thanks+for+submitting+your+comment%21
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My response-

Don't Pitch, Present What's Best For Prospects

I still cringe when I hear "pitch" used when somebody is trying to persuade prospects to buy.

A baseball pitcher throws pitches in ways to prevent batters from being successful. If we want clients to be successful with what we produce, we should play catch.

Delivering "heat in the clutch" doesn't inspire any warm fuzzy feelings in anybody who's on the receiving end (is the victim) of a pitch.

We want to get to 1st base with prospects, so we can run home with them. If we throw pitches, they're apt to give us the run-around.

We should present orientations to prospects.

Orientations can show prospects what we know about their situations & what we feel they should know.

I know it may be a matter of semantics, but it seems like too many sales people (account executives) have the wrong mentality. They seem to think "It's us against them." Too many times, pitches are used to put prospects in their places.

It's the mentality of competition, but the competition should only be between agencies, never between prospects/clients & agencies.

It's the same mentality of the policy, "Put a close on them & shut up. The 1st person to talk loses."

Nobody should lose a sales presentation/orientation just because s/he has a question or comment. I'll even tell prospects I won't work that way. Either we agree to work together & win or we both lose.

If what you offer is what's best for a prospect, then the prospect loses after a rejection. If what you offer isn't what's best for a prospect, why would you offer it? If you offer what's not best for prospects, then you are pitching.

Thank you for using my blog. Please let me know if I should clarify anything.

Copyright 2008 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.
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