The Perfect Pitch.
Life’s a Pitch. Consciously or otherwise we pitch every day, frequently many times.
Some people appear to be naturally brilliant at it whilst others struggle. I suggest it’s not a talent anyone is born with but simply down to using a proven process and then perfecting it by applying over and over again. Here’s one that works really well.
1. The world has changed
Most bunglers kick off a pitch talking about their product or service or the problem they can solve.
The pro-pitcher begins with a depersonalised statement of how the world has changed. This removes the automatic, defensive response as the prospect thinks, “I can see this is a major problem for lots of people, not just me.”
Let me illustrate:
“Since you bought your home 10 years ago the process of selling and buying has changed beyond all recognition. There have been 30 major changes in legislation and regulation surrounding the sale of property, the majority of which, if not adhered to, could cause delay, deals to fall through and a loss of value.”
2. Winners and Losers
The next statement you make should highlight that there are winners and losers.
“There are over 1 million properties available on any day on Rightmove and yet just 1 million a year will actually sell. The time from going onto the market to moving has extended on average to almost 6 months, although it is possible to halve this time. Almost a third of all sales agreed fall through, many just before exchange of contracts after weeks of being on the market, and yet it is possible to mitigate this risk, not completely but very significantly.”
3. The desired result
Picture their desired result but resist crowbarring your products and services into the pitch at this point.
“You’ve said you want to move home in three months. You want to get the best possible price and to know for sure that it is the best possible price. You want to be confident that when we commit to run with a buyer that they will be able to complete the transaction enabling you to move to your beautiful next home.”
Get the prospect to confirm that’s what they want.
4. Your compelling proposition
Now you can start to introduce your features. But these need to be communicated in such a way as to cause the prospect to see them for what they should be: your features, not the ones everyone else has.
“We’ve developed a profiling system that enables us to accurately identify the thousands of potential buyers least likely to perform and more importantly the few that can and will.”
“Our in house marketing team create a bespoke plan for every property to ensure it’s presented into the market optimally, using a methodology supported by Rightmove and Property Academy who created the Best Estate Agent Guide in which we not only feature but are in the top 5% in the whole country from an assessment of 26,000 branches.”
“All the properties we offer for sale are legally prepared which cuts in half the time taken from offer to exchange of contracts and thereby significantly reduces the chances of the deal falling through.”
5. Prove it
Provide the evidence to support the claims.
“As I mentioned, the biggest assessment in the industry is carried out each year by Property Academy supported by Rightmove. As you can see from their independent assessment, we are in the top 5% in the country.”
“Over the last 10 years we have developed our Property Launch* service which has resulted in achieving £7,000 extra on average in half the time it takes the industry as a whole, here’s the supporting data…”
(* I’ve used in this example “Property Launch”, a branded service developed by Preston Baker to illustrate how to do it).
6. Close
All that’s left is to ask for the business – I find this simple question works better than most:
“Shall we go ahead?”
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