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People are always looking for different things, and they’re often at different stages in the process of looking for things. It may be that you’re at the very early stages of researching a product or service or you could be about to sign on the dotted line and hand over your bank details; wherever you are it means that the type of content you’re being served needs to take on a different message, tone and style. Enter the sales pitch.

The simple fact of the matter is that as you move through the buying journey from your initial awareness and discovery through to the final purchase phase, you want to learn or know different things about what it is you’re looking for and it’s down to the people creating that content or delivering the sales pitch to adapt accordingly.

One of the most common factors that puts a prospective buyer off is being treated as though they know nothing, when actually they’ve already done plenty of research into the product or wider sector. It is the job of the salesperson to ultimately get this person to convert and that means adapting the strategy from the first discussion right through to taking those banking details and onboarding them as a client or moving the stock from the warehouse to the delivery area.

Here we’re going to talk you through some top tips to adjust your sales pitch to match your audience, ensuring that you deliver your message to prospects in the right tone, style and manner to help convert them.

The introductions: the awareness or discovery phase

At the very first stage in the purchase funnel (or buying journey), you have people who are presented with a product or service for the very first time, or who start researching something that has been recommended to them that they may never have heard of before.

Here it is the role of the salesperson to ensure that the approach takes them through a basic introduction without coming across as patronising. The prospect may not have heard of the brand, product or service before but that doesn’t mean that they don’t understand how it might benefit them.

For those at this stage in the buying journey it’s important for them to learn why this particular product or service might be beneficial to them, and how it could deliver something they might not even have realised they needed before. From the perspective of the salesperson it may be that you need to approach this initial conversation in the knowledge that you are highly unlikely to convert the prospect with this particular call, and the most important thing is to ensure that you deliver the kind of information that leads to a follow-up conversation where your chances of conversion increase.

The best way of looking at this particular phase is that this is your chance to inform them about what it is you do and how you can make a difference to them, giving them something to take away and consider before picking up the conversation again at a later date. They might not know about you or what you do, or how it could benefit them. By giving them something to think about, to consider how it could change their way of working and to discuss with decision makers within the company and come back with further questions you have a great opportunity to start and develop a relationship with the prospect.

The follow-up: the consideration phase

Having now discovered your brand, product or service through one method or another, the consideration phase is where your prospect starts to weigh up the pros and cons of investing in what it is you have to offer.

If you first introduced your prospect to your brand and service during a phone or email conversation then you can start to adapt your sales pitch away from the angle of how great your company and product or service are, and towards meeting the needs of your prospect.

After that initial conversation they will have gone away and thought long and hard about whether or not the service is right for them and how it could be incorporated into the day-to-day running of their own business. If they’ve already decided that it’s not for them, the chances are that your next conversation will be fairly short and sweet, but if they’ve not decided either way then be prepared to do a lot of listening and explaining, enabling the prospect to ask questions and for you to provide the answers that could lead to an eventual conversion.

The initial discovery phase of the process enables the prospect to find out that you exist, and that you provide something that could help them. Now it’s time to explain not only how it can help, but how it can make a difference and take the company forward by either saving time or money – or both – encouraging growth and bringing about additional income.

The final hurdle: the purchase phase

The final stage in the purchase process is the actual purchase phase, where the prospect is between 90 and 100 percent ready to invest. As a salesperson this is the all-important stage that makes all that hard work worthwhile and enables you to mark up another sale on your board or chart.

Having put in so much time and effort to a prospect it can be soul destroying at times when a person walks away at the purchase phase, so it’s up to you to seal the deal by delivering whatever it takes to get that signature – within reason, of course!

Here the prospect has already bought into your company and product, it’s now just a matter of ironing out any finer details such as length of contract, the initial payment process and immediate deliverables. By using your power of negotiation, and freedom to speak to members of management relating to any deal or offer that could sweeten and guarantee the deal, you can finally get that big sale you’re looking for and the praise of your colleagues!

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Of course, the hard work doesn’t stop when you make that sale – it’s over to the rest of your team to ensure that the overall experience and new partnership works seamlessly.