In a typical enterprise sale, the people making the decision (to buy your solution) are usually too senior to be the ones actually using it. There is a subtle corollary to this that I did not appreciate at first... often, these people are responsible for the profit of their group but less responsible for the costs associated with the technology. Thus, teams are less sensitive to cost than they are top-line revenue. There is a lot of theory about how silly focusing on top line is instead of profit but we all know the difference between theory and practice.
So how did I change my pitch: I ripped out all the slides that walked through my site and all the neat ways we saved time, automated workflows, etc. I focused on the data we generated (in one page) and threw in two case studies that highlighted how decisions made with our data generated more revenue.
It is important to highlight that the pitch-deck is not what is selling your solution, you are. The key is to tell a story worth listening to and I use my pitch decks to guide that story. My pitch today has X pages:
- Cover Page
- Page with client logos (demonstrating social acceptance)
- Page with big picture showing our platform works on all browser enabled devices (a major innovation on wall street)
- Page demonstrating the insights our data creates
- 2x case studies
Hard to put an exact number on how well this new method of focusing on the outcome rather than the solution has helped but I do not believe I am exaggerating by saying it improved close rate by 1-2 order of magnitudes.
If you want to read some great books that I believe will dramatically improve your close rate, I recommend the following in order:
1) Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People - if put in practice, this will pay a life-time of dividends. I wish this was taught in schools.
2) Getting to Yes (on negotiation theory) - a powerful negotiation framework allows you to create and preserve value in very measurable ways.
3) the Psychology of Influence - great case studies on how people make decisions, often in ways that are irrational. I incorporated a lot of the learning points into my pitch and in our slides and absolutely saw a shift.
I love thinking through this stuff so to the extent you want to chat more, happy to hop on a call or grab a coffee if you're in NYC. Shoot me an email (in my profile).
