I try very hard to take the esoteric jargon out of my blogs and posts and discussions with business owners because so much of it is rather nonsensical vocabulary created by sales directors and vp’s to turn into catchy training material. Harsh, perhaps. Accurate, definitely.
So when putting on the finishing touches of a course I developed after coaching several business owners and non sales people through a natural sales process I went in search for the perfect title—which didn’t take long: “Don’t Sweat the Pitch: Take the Fear Out of Selling”. I knew it was obvious. I knew it beautifully communicated the problem and solution you could expect from my product.
Like a proud momma, I announced the arrival of my baby to my mastermind group on our next call . . . crickets. Huh?
How was that not a home run? How did they not all break out in applause and volunteer to beta test this new product right away?
Well, as it turns out, this group of brilliant people—mostly all business coaches or advisors in a service capacity—would never and have never used the term, “Pitch”.
Something that I’ve never thought twice about referring to as common for people selling a product, the word pitch didn’t resonate at all with these professionals. And it’s not just because they’ve not been in sales or managed sales teams in large corporations. It failed to pull them in because to them, as business owners, how they describe, position and endorse their service/product is not a piece of sales jargon, it’s their Passion. It’s what they do, who they are, why they get up in the morning and sure, they can tweak the way they talk about it, but I was out of bounds to lump that in the same category as what a sales person would use to sell a product.
Ahhh, my eyes have been opened . . . even wider. I have been in both positions . . . small business owner and sales manager in a large corporation . . . and I have sold my services and products to thousands of business owners, but I overlooked the important difference between these two ideals: Sales Pitch vs. Passion.
Lessons learned by the eternal grasshopper. I humbly take this insight from my brilliant business mentors and have applied it to refine my online course and consulting practice even further. What was great before is now even greater: Earning the Business: Sell Your Product or Service without Fear or Anxiety is now more intuitive, more refined and an even greater return on your investment of time and money.
Until next time, keep kickin’ butt!
—sks
