Sales

The Secret Behind the Perfect 15-Second Sales Pitch

February 3, 2014

Having trouble capturing your prospects’ attention or getting your foot in the door? Sales expert Jeff Hoffman says the solution is to take a less-is-more approach with your cold call sales pitch.

Imagine for a moment that you’re driving a car with total control of the gas and brake pedals, but no clue about where you need (or want) to navigate the vehicle. More than likely, you’d find yourself in one of three scenarios: stuck in park, driving aimlessly, or plowing through a series of obstacles.
According to renowned sales executive and consultant Jeff Hoffman, that’s often the scenario that prospects find themselves in when they begin their buyer journey, which is why Hoffman says salespeople need to take control of the metaphorical steering wheel as quickly as possible.

Jeff Hoffman“In sales, you have to drive. Why? Your customers have never bought what you’re selling before, but you’ve sold it hundreds or thousands of times, so who’s better to drive the car than you?”

— Jeff Hoffman, M. J. Hoffman and Associates

 
“You know the road that customers need to take, so don’t let someone steer who doesn’t know where to go,” Hoffman explains, “because they’ll just lead you to the wrong place.”
Of course, that’s often much easier said than done. That’s why Hoffman advises using a simple, 15-second sales pitch that involves three simple phases:

Step 1: Tell Them Why You’re Calling

Hoffman says this can simply be sentence relating to the “sales trigger” — the event, information, or relationship that initially inspired you to call that person.
“Maybe it’s an interview an executive gave in the Wall Street Journal last week or a recent blog post they published, but this initial sentence needs to be special or relatable to the customer,” says Hoffman. “One of my favorite things to do is type in an executive’s name into a search engine and then type ‘.ppt’ after it. You’ll see all the Power Points that person has presented on over the past 10 years, and that can be great cold call or email fodder.”

Step 2: Introduce yourself

Now that you’ve led off the call by focusing on the customer (a step that should always come first in any sales call), it’s time to tell the prospect a little bit about yourself. Tell the customer who you are and which company you work for, but make sure that the language you use ties back to the sales trigger you mentioned in the first step.
“This step should serve as a connection between you or your company, and the prospect or their company,” Hoffman says. “But whatever you say about yourself there should be fewer syllables than what you said about the customer. The goal is to be disarming and engaging. You want to almost make half of this 15-second message about the customer.”

Step 3: Quickly Navigate to Closing Time

Finally, you need to finish with a compelling close.
Hoffman stresses this is not the time to ask for an order or a signed contract. Instead, it’s time to pose an open-ended question. Ask for a referral, try to setup a follow-up meeting, or request more detailed company information. Whatever it is, Hoffman says your request needs to be relatively easy for the person on the other end of the line to do, and it needs to help you walk away with something specific.
“Even if all you get is the name of someone else in the company, that’s a major step,” Hoffman says. “With that, you now have the ability to call that person and tell them you just got off the phone with someone else in the company. That can be the difference between eventually closing a deal and getting hung up on.”

Remember: Cold Calling is Not Cold Selling

Ultimately, Hoffman says the biggest mistake many salespeople make is thinking they’ve got to push too hard on their initial sales call.
“Prospecting is all about trying to get attention,” Hoffman explains. “You want to get eyes and ears, so that you take a customer’s attention away from the ‘stuff I’ve got to deal with’ pile, and to adding you as a new entry in their ‘I’m doing this now’ pile. It’s all about initiating engagement, and then building up acceleration and momentum.”

Start Perfecting Your Prospecting Calls Now

Getting your prospect’s attention quickly and effectively is just the tip of the iceberg.
Watch Jeff’s complete webinar presentation, Getting Attention in 15 Seconds: How to Turn Any Cold Call into a Warm One and download the slides by filling out the form below. Don’t miss out on discovering:

  • Why traditional cold calling techniques don’t work anymore
  • Tips on what to do after you get your prospects’ attention in 15 seconds
  • How to leverage Hoffman’s proven “Why You? Why You Now?™” prospecting strategy

On-Demand Webinar

Hoffman Webinar Cover
Register now to watch the full webinar recording.

More Webinars in Our Sales Prospecting Series

kyle_porterTop 6 Free Sales Prospecting Tools You Need to Use
Want to take your sales and prospecting teams to the next level at no cost to your company? Join SalesLoft’s Kyle Porter as he shares the top free tools your sales team needs to use to boost your performance and increase your efficiency. Click here to watch.
Michael HannaShow Me the Money: Sales Compensation Plans that Won’t Fail (Webinar)
Compensation plans are extremely powerful tools for influencing sales results — but only when done right. Sales strategy consultant Michael Hanna shares the keys to designing and implementing a sales compensation plan that keeps your team focused and motivated. Click here to watch.
Stay tuned for upcoming webinars by subscribing to our free weekly newsletter.
Photo by: William Warby

Founder & CEO

Jeff Hoffman is President at <a href="http://www.mjhoffman.com/">M.J. Hoffman and Associates, LLC</a> and creator of <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Your-Sales-MBA-4322365">YourSalesMBA</a>. A renowned sales executive and entrepreneur, Hoffman has consulted with industry leaders throughout the world on the topics of sales, sales management, and sales operations.