A product’s success depends upon a shared vision that finds its approval from all the internal and external parties involved. If you have ever been a part of the product development process, you will agree with this statement, regardless of your role. There are multiple stakeholders, like developers, users, sales, marketing, and suppliers involved in product development. They all need to commit to a common plan and align their work to make it a hit.
When represented in a visual format, this product plan is termed as a roadmap. In simple terms, it is a plan of action that brings all the teams together around the short and long-term goals associated with the product. An effective roadmap tells the story of the vision, priorities, direction, and product progress. The roadmap acts as a guiding document that the teams track and revisit to stay on the course.
It also helps them understand if there are any gaps from their side and comes in handy in resolving conflicts between the stakeholders. More than anything, the roadmap acts as a reminder of the final goal. In this article, we will talk about how to create aneffective roadmap for your first product. So let’s dive into this.
If you are given a new role as a product manager and have been asked to complete the crucial task of developing a product roadmap. You already have a high-level understanding of the product, what it should achieve, and by when it needs to be delivered. All you need to do is to represent this information in a visual format.
You could be working on the release of a new product or upgrades to an existing one. One thing that you must remember is that product roadmaps evolve over time. However, the underlying vision should not change at any point.
How far out do businesses plan their roadmaps?
These are some steps while creating the roadmap of a product:
Define a Strategy
During the product development and subsequent stages, your stakeholders will often have to reflect upon the “whys”.
At such times, you will have to bring their focus to why you are building the product. It is what will define the strategy and the vision of your goal.
It can help you further to answer the following questions if you are struggling to define a clear strategy:
Why are you building a new or enhancing an existing product?
What are you hoping to achieve through this product?
How is your creation going to help the users?
Prioritize the Ideas
When the initial conversations start and also during the product development stage, multiple ideas will pour in. Moreover, there will also be suggestions from your customers that you would want to incorporate. You don’t have to include every suggestion, but some of these could be worth your time. The best way to incorporate them into your roadmap is by prioritizing and ranking them. This way, you will focus on what matters and make your roadmap and vision more objective.
Define the Product Features
Your product features tell your stakeholders what it is that your product will look like. It is also what aligns your development team with your vision. You can also include other associated information that may help them in fine-tuning the solution.
Plan the Releases
Any roadmap is incomplete without a timeline. It gives direction to all the stakeholders involved. It is advisable to break down the timelines into multiple releases for better efficiency. This way you’ll be aware of the deadlines and it will boost your productivity so that you can finish the work on time.
Presenting Your Roadmap
Your stakeholders have varying interests, and a single roadmap may not answer the questions they may have. To align everyone with your vision, you will want to show them something of their interest. It could mean creating a different view for every party. Here is how you can do it:
The Higher-Ups
The leaders will be keen to know about the high-level vision associated with the product. The leaders will need to understand how the product fits into the larger scheme of things at the organization.
Product Development Team
The development team needs to know every minute detail of the product. For instance, the team will need a comprehensive list of the features, requirements and release dates and others. It will help them in prioritizing their work to meet the given deadlines.
Marketing and Sales
These are the teams that engage the customers and are in touch with the market pulse. They will need to understand how your product will make the lives of your customers easy to create a sales pitch.
Support
Here is a team that experiences pressure after every new release. Since the team will be getting more customer queries, they will need to prepare themselves for the critical features and enhancements. They will be more interested in the dates and the associated training for their staff.
The Evolution Of Your Roadmap
With time, your roadmap will evolve as you may add new features or change the timelines along the way. To incorporate these changes, you must first prepare yourself to embrace them. At times, you will realize that a feature is taking more effort than you had anticipated. At other times, you may receive some information from your analytics team that may need some changes in your product plan. Ensure that you send the revised roadmap to all the stakeholders so that everyone is on the same page. The ultimate goal should be to deliver a high-quality product that brings some value to the customers.
Conclusion
A carefully-drawn roadmap is not just another document. It is the basis of your product’s success. Getting the best product owner certification can help you build better roadmaps and propel the organization to success. When you make a roadmap after considering all the crucial information, it will help you align your stakeholder and also prioritize more effectively.
FAQs
What is a product roadmap?
A product roadmap is the basic structure of the goal, vision, direction and the progress of a product.
What are the steps of creating a product roadmap?
Some of the steps of creating a product roadmap are:
Define a Strategy
Prioritize the Ideas
Define the Product Features
Plan the Releases
Who creates the product roadmap and releases it?
Product managers are the one who creates product roadmap and releases them.
It is not a new fact anymore that the world is staying home. Everything has taken the shape of a work from home model. We all started staying home when forced by the pandemic but now most of us are liking this change. The covid 19 pandemic has led us into rethinking our choices.
We are renegotiating our living, our careers and every factor that leads to a good life. We now include time as an important asset. Many are leaving jobs commitments to shift to less commitment work, or freelancing. You are not bound in time in freelancing.
This change has led to a lot of change, therefore. There has been an increase in the number of freelancers in the world. This is a good thing but it can also be a difficult thing. As a freelancer, you have to find work for yourself, you cannot expect work to come to you.
Only when you are an established person in a domain, will people offer you jobs automatically. You have to pitch yourself to get gigs. This article revolves around pitching and finding a freelance gig. We will discuss how to pitch, write a pitch email, also known as cold emailing, and how to write a cold email.
Freelancing is now probably the most famous job in the world. It is working on a project with no commitments of a normal corporate job. It is portable and can be done from anywhere in the world.
Imagine a freelance writer, he/she can work from anywhere with a computer and an internet connection. Think of a freelance website developer, who is good at developing great websites, he can get a freelance job and after finishing it he is not entailed to more jobs from that employer. So, freelancing is working for someone in short runs of time for which you obviously get paid.
As the pandemic began, the demand for freelancers began too. Everything became remote, and our homes became our workstations, a school and a personal gym. All that transformation led to many changes.
One of the changes was that people started reconsidering their work-life balance. Eventually, people began choosing their careers in the freelance industry. It is not the best option but it gives people the freedom to choose their work timings.
Pitching to Prospective Employers
Imagine someone who is a freelance writer. He is good with words and explanations. He thinks that he should earn something with this skill. At this stage, it is not good to expect someone to offer you a job, without you having gained some experience. So you have to seek a job, a project or something that adds value to you as a writer. This is when pitching comes to mind.
Pitching is seeking work by any means. It can be via an email or a cold call or reaching out to any of the potential employers. As a writer, you would like to work with editors and blog managers. You have to ask them for an opportunity matching your skill sets. This is what pitching is. It is seeking opportunities.
The most common way by which people pitch their ideas is by sending emails to prospective employers. As emails are easier to find online than numbers. It can also be the other way round.
Why do Freelancers Need to Pitch?
Simply because freelancers have to find work. You cannot expect ‘work’ to find you, you have to reach out to prospective or potential employers who can provide you with an opportunity.
As a writer who is freelancing, you’ll need to pitch articles if you want any writing gigs. You could be a significant famous writer but if you don’t find work, work will not find you too. It doesn’t really matter much if your writing or research is strong, you have to seek opportunities to make it work.
When we say seek work, it does not necessarily mean that you have to struggle to get some opportunities. There are fair opportunities out there, you just have to find a place for yourself.
There are many publications out there that don’t have enough resources or budget to hire full-time writers. Publications like these try to have people with short term job roles and they employ part-time writers or freelancers. Organisations like these spread to each and every domain, be it writing, coding, graphic designing etc. In this article we will take the issue of a freelance writing pitch, it is however to be noted that every other field has the same, or almost the same pitching rules and checkpoints.
Let us see how people pitch and how you as a freelancer can pitch for opportunities. There are many checkpoints that you have to keep in check, a few of the most important ones, we are listing them below. Give them a read for better understanding.
Personalisation has a Plus Point (Personalised Emails)
When we talk about personalisation, most people will be scared as hell. We don’t really put in the effort in that domain. An editor or any employer gets thousands of emails every day, what sets you apart from those thousands of anonymous people? This is when personalisation became a necessity. You cannot expect someone to give you an opportunity if you reach out to them very bluntly, speaking only about yourself and your work skills. It does not quite show efforts on your behalf.
What we mean by personalisation is simply that you have done your homework in finding something about the potential client. We are suggesting that you know about the prospective client thoroughly in and out.
It is like creating a world view from their perspective and then writing your pitching email. You have to find out how that client sees the world, what are the things which interest them and what they most want.
Once you develop a theory of their mind maps, it will be easy for you to reach out to that person. It also shows the other (receiver end) person that you have invested some time to investigate and you are really interested in opportunities.
This point also makes it clear that you have to make it clear why you are emailing them. Research shows that people are far more motivated to help others when they feel uniquely qualified to do so. This can be achieved by showing them your place with probably a short story and why you fit where you fit. This will help them understand more precisely what you do and why you should be chosen for work.
Stand with Credibility
When you research someone and find something interesting about them, it is important that you have some credibility. This will help them recognise you in the first instance, which will increase your chances of getting the project.
Remember, when you do some research or investigate the employer, you know about them but they don’t really know about you. They have to get some points which make them believe in you. They have to know who you are and why you should matter to them. This is what is called the “Showing credibility” act. Editors are busy people, and they aren’t willing to spend a long time verifying things.
You need to make it clear that you are credible and they can trust you. There are many ways to do that. You can mention someone you both know, a mutual friend. It is in fact by far the best way to start a stranger conversation.
You mention someone directly who is common in each other’s network. Even when you mention someone who is mutual, it entails that both of you are not strangers anymore. The point is to figure out some common relations/ thoughts/ goals so that you become less of a stranger to prospective clients. This is good to start a conversation from zero. This will make you a little more important than a stranger. The more important you are, the more you will have the chance to get a reply.
Provide them with Something they want
This is a very basic thing to know. There is no free lunch. It is a question on why the recipient should care about your email. Why does this person take his busy time out to read and respond to your email? You have to make sure that you are adding the value of some sort.
It is important because if you are adding value, only then there is some chance to get a response, otherwise not. If you cannot add value, then you should probably refrain from sending any pitching emails as it will degrade your views in front of the employer.
Once you are clear of the fact that you are here to add value, begin at once. Knowing your value will also help you to reach a certain level of respect for the work that you do. If you are of some value, show that. Show that explicitly. It will help the employer to judge you on the basis of your value addition to the organisation which is the best measure.
Keep it Concise and Actionable
As a freelancer, all you are doing is simply increasing the response rate of an email that you type with all the good words you know. It is very crucial then, that your email is small, concise and quite actionable.
Just make sure you are clear and actionable. You call someone out on an email and then you ask them for an opportunity. This is a great thing, asking for help in real life is amazing and in fact, you are giving them the chance to feel good about themselves.
Now when they see your email and they know what you are asking about, that means you are clear enough. Then, it becomes easy for them to take action and all the resistance in between seems small. Your email should also be small. This is very important as a small email has a better chance of being read, than a very long email.
No one has the time or a big enough attention span to look through your thesis on why you should be given an opportunity. So keep it short and increase your chances of being seen and read. This also is to be noted that if you are counting your words, make every word counted. Precise does not mean a small paragraph but it means a clear and to the point reply.
Vulnerability and Appreciation
You are emailing some random dude who you don’t know and you are emailing that someone for a favour. This is hard to grasp. Don’t make it a hard thing for the receiver, a hard thing to grasp. Make it clear and show some vulnerability.
When I say vulnerability, it does not mean to shed all your weapons and appear like a kitty. Rather be mindful and appreciate the fact that they will help you out. That can be packaged in a form of gratitude but it is the same thing.
Respect them with a little power and status and hope that they will return the same favour to you. When writing to a prospective client, you can use phrases like “Thank you so much” or “I am really grateful” to sound grateful. This will increase the chances of getting a response.
You can also add that they can choose to reply at their own pace or they can ignore the request. This will make them more obliged to answer your email. Simple, simple things but can add layers of protection.
Things You Should Know Before Pitching as a Freelancer
Research before you pitch
It is important that you target your pitches and you research about them, not researching to write an autobiography on them but to make sure that you know them thoroughly. This will help in a more tailor-made approach. Also, make sure that the people/organisation to who you are pitching lies in your skillets.
The topic of your article/email should relent to the prospective clients. It should be within the style of content that they produce. If you are a writer, know their publishing domains. Then match the pitch accordingly. This will help you as well as them to sort pitches and pick prospective clients.
Think about your specialisation and pitch people according to that domain. Know that the world always respects specialisation and you can benefit from your domain. If you have experience in one specific domain then it can be largely used to pick the next pitch and next project.
Demonstrate your Skills
Show your writing skills and prove that you are worthy but don’t be too wordy. Yeah just like the Marvel movie ‘Thor’. You have to prove that you are worthy and only then do things become easy and worthwhile.
If you have prior experience, show that, showcase that experience explicitly and properly. It will explain your exposure and will make you stand a better chance of getting selected. Make sure you are not too overconfident. Make it subtle, the employer is not here to read all your victories. He just wants to get his/her work done.
Avoid Templates
There is one more thing that is silent in pitching. That is, you dare not use a template. You can google cold email templates and you will find hundreds and thousands of them but that does not set you apart.
The world is filled with templates, what it needs is a trailblazer and a person with courage. Have some bravery and carve your own template, this really shows the other person that you have the nerve. Moreover, it is impossible to personalise a template according to your target client. It is hard because it has already been set with some general idea of a pitching letter.
Proofread and make sure that you don’t comment on any grammatical problems. It is a huge red flag. If you’re applying for a writing pitch, a grammatical error can literally end the whole hope for you. Make sure that you are clear and clean of errors.
Respect the other person
You are pitching an idea and asking for a favour from a random dude. You don’t know the person, you only know the email address. That person has no reason to take you seriously. He can just delete or ignore your hard work of writing a pitch. Give them a reason to take yourself seriously. It is like meeting some stranger in real life.
You start by introducing yourself and then you appreciate what they want to say and have. That is how you build a relationship with literally anyone, this is almost the same scene here.
You write an email with an introduction, you mention some point of contact or mutual person and you go on to build a professional relationship by appreciating what the other person is saying. Simple and straightforward.
Follow up
This may sound simple but most figure this out very late. If you are applying somewhere, remember to take a follow up after some time. Employers and clients are humans too and they can also be left behind with the pressure of work.
Don’t take it too soon or too late. If the client hasn’t replied for two weeks, then take a follow-up. Check by asking if they have had the chance to read your pitch email. Even then, if you don’t get a reply, then you can safely assume that your pitch is lost somewhere in translation and others. Have patience but take proper follow-ups. The time of both parties is important.
Embrace failure
It is not that you will not get selected anywhere and it is the end of the world but embraces trying and work. Even if your pitch is not accepted, be grateful and work on the next pitch with perseverance. There is no failure, only lessons in disguise.
Conclusion
In the above article, we discussed the art of pitching. Obviously, there can exist more than one way of pitching to your favourite workplace. Keep in mind your perspective, the industry and the recipient.
We went from explaining what a pitch is and why it is important. To a more comprehensive approach to writing a perfect pitch. It is always important to take care of what you write on that email/any other means of seeking.
Your pitch should sound interesting — if your hook piques the editor’s interest, they know it will pique their audience’s interest, too. If you’ve ever written for the publication before, Showcase those writing skills and explain why you’re a good fit. It is important to provide some common touchpoints.
Once you and the prospective client are on the same ground, it becomes easier to negotiate. It is however important that you should be able to add value with your skill sets. Developing a rapport with prospective strangers and showcasing value addition becomes the recipe for a perfect pitch.
FAQ
What is considered a successful pitch?
A successful pitch is when you hook the editor in the first few seconds and get your points across.
How do you start writing a pitch?
Research about the company or publication, Write an appealing subject line for your email pitch, Explain how are you different from others and why should the publication publish your story.
When you don’t have the necessary funds to launch a startup, the pitch you deliver to potential investors can make the difference between a dream come true, and one swept under the rug.
At the end of the day, the profitability of your business idea weighs the most in the eyes of an investor, but that’s not the only factor you should keep in mind. Affluent investors can receive dozens of great business opportunities every week, and in that case, it’s the quality of the presentation that balances the scales.
Although not all of these common Powerpoint music mistakes are fatal, it’s always a good idea to be prepared. You only have one shot at a good impression, and you don’t want an otherwise brilliant startup idea to go to waste because you didn’t put a few extra hours into your pitch.
Perhaps every entrepreneur out there has fantasized about bumping into an investor in the elevator and convincing them in 60 seconds that their idea is the next big thing. Unfortunately, this is the kind of elevator pitch is one-in-a-million scenario that creates unrealistic expectations.
In reality, you should never deliver a pitch without the investor agreeing to a meeting in advance. Investors are busy people, and they won’t be impressed by your gesture.
Even if you send an unsolicited pitch via email, in 99% of cases, it will go straight to the spam folder, so, to be safe, schedule a meeting to make sure your pitch is actually heard and given the investor’s undivided attention. Also, always make sure you prepare a short and engaging pitch about yourself.
Having a limited Understanding of your Business scope
The worst moment to realize the flaws in your business model is during a pitch meeting. No matter how great your idea sounds in theory, the moment when an investor realizes you don’t know your product or the market, they will lose interest.
Not doing your research comes across as unprofessional and lazy and raises red flags – especially if you don’t have prior experience. So, know your audience, know your product and your competitors because you will 100% be asked about these things and, it will help you deliver a perfect pitch.
Not bringing enough materials
Even if your pitch is short and sweet, the investor will still need documents to back up your claims, provide a roadmap of business development, and expand on aspects that couldn’t be addressed in the meeting. Even if the investor did not request anything specifically, you should still bring with you the following:
Executive summary (a shortened version of the business plan)
Revenue forecast, cash flow, and operational expenses
Resumes for members of the upper management, detailing their experience in the field.
To be extra safe, you should have both digital and physical copies of these documents. Referring to them during the sales pitch shows that you’ve done your homework and that you’re committed to your idea.
Lackluster Presentation Skills
A great presentation can’t turn a bad business idea around, but it can prevent investors from losing interest and forgetting your file in a drawer. Unfortunately, not everyone was endowed with Steve Job’s charisma and presentation skills, which is why the more you rehearse at home, the better.
You never know how you react under pressure, so having a script to refer to can save you from all those umms and errs that weaken your language and make you sound like an intimated high school student. It also helps to keep your presentation short.
Don’t show up to the meeting with a 50-slide presentation filled with large blocks of text. Instead, keep the number of slides to a minimum, use appropriate Powerpoint music, and focus on strong, impactful visual elements. The PowerPoint presentation should include key figures and ideas, but you’re the one controlling the conversation. In general, 15 to 20 minutes is more than enough for the investor to understand your business idea, so structure your pitch around this interval.
Pitch meetings aren’t a one-way street. The investor won’t give you a yes or a no after you delivered a monologue. On the contrary, expect lots of questions and don’t panic if they insist. What makes your idea so special? Why should they pick you out of all people? Can you guarantee that customers want your product? It’s just a way for them to check that you know what you are talking about and clarify some of the things they should know before going into business with you. And, when the questions inevitably get tough and touch on vulnerable points (after all, no business is immune), don’t react negatively.
By working with you, investors are taking a risk, and it’s normal for them to address problematic topics. If you become too defensive, rude, or downright avoid the questions, you may come across as unprepared or difficult to work with. Instead, try to answer difficult questions as transparently as possible and avoid the scripted “I’ll get back to you on that later.”
Making the pitch without a demo
You can’t make a demo for every business idea under the sun but, if your business model allows it, then creating a demo, even a rough one, can make your pitch more persuasive – especially if it’s technology-focused.
First of all, a demo helps investors visualize concepts that may sound difficult in theory. And secondly, it shows that you already have a capable team and that you went the extra mile and that you’re serious about your product.
Many times, investors meet up with entrepreneurs who only have an idea but don’t believe in it enough to put it into practice, so a demo helps you stand out from the crowd.
Forgetting to follow up
No matter how the pitch meeting went, you should take the time to send an email to the investor, thanking them for their time. Avoid generic, template messages and personalize your follow-up in a way that’s relevant for your interaction. It’s a small gesture, but it goes a long way.
FAQ
How long is napkin elevator pitch?
A good elevator pitch should last no longer than a short elevator ride of 20 to 30 seconds.
What is a common mistake of pitching?
The most common mistake you should avoid while pitching is not overloading your audience with information.
How do you end a pitch?
A great way to end a pitch is to ask them to join you on a mission or journey.
A basic theory by David Mayer (as published in Harvard Business Review) is that a good salesman must have at least two basic qualities: empathy and ego drive. Are you a salesperson? Or just want to learn to sell for your own product. Selling is a skill which will help you not only in business but for the whole life. A salesperson is not just an employee of the company but they are as important as CEO.
According to a report, 80% of sales require 5 follow-up calls after the meeting. Selling things is one of the most difficult things. It is very difficult to convince someone to buy a thing. That is why it is one of the most required and highly paid jobs in the industry. You have to be soft and confident in your approach. Success in this field can only be achieved by having a positive approach towards your customers. Good communication skill is another important skill a salesperson should have. You can never be let down by failures but need to improvise with each. Here are Good Salesman Qualities which every salesman should have.
Good Salesperson Qualities- Must Have as Salesperson
Feel Your Customer
While it is not very important to agree with the feelings of the customer, a great salesperson makes an empathetic connection with the customer to understand their standing completely. It is a central quality to be able to sell him a product or service, which must be possessed in large measure. A salesman simply cannot sell well without the invaluable and irreplaceable ability to get powerful feedback from the client through empathy.
A Driving Force
The second of the basic qualities of salesperson absolutely needed by a good salesman is a particular kind of ego drive that makes him want and need to make the sale in a personal or ego way, not merely for the money to be gained. His feeling must be that he has to make the sale; the customer is there to help him fulfill his personal need. In effect, to the top salesman, the sale—the conquest—provides a powerful means of enhancing his ego. His self-picture improves dramatically by virtue of conquest and diminishes with failure.
Know Your Product
While many tricks in the past have worked for reps, the increasing access to information has made it tough for people to be fooled. Hence, it has become increasingly important to know your product in and out as much as you can before you make the pitch. Nothing is more off-putting for a buyer than to find an ignorant sales rep.
Be An Active Listener
Active Listener | Salesperson Skills And Qualities
It is human nature to wait for your turn to speak in any conversation, but a smart sales rep listens deeply for multiple reasons. Listening leads to forming stronger bonds and trust with the client. Also, the information contained in the conversation can help them position the product or service better to the customer in real-time.
Work Hard Than People Can Think
There’s no such thing as a born salesperson. Great sales reps make it look easy, but superior performance usually indicates a salesperson has taken the time to hone their skills and is constantly iterating to better help their prospects.
Follow Up
Hubspot CRM for Salesperson
Even if you think sending a proposal will fetch you a reply, a quick follow up call can open many unsure doors for the salesperson. Many times, the sales rep don’t know if their email was opened by the client. Hubspot sales help with this issue, letting salespeople know when and how often a prospect opened an email. With this information, they can follow up at the optimal time.
They Personalize Their Approach
To learn as much as you can about the prospective client and then using that information in your conversation with them can be effective in understanding the real pain-points people are facing at the time and help build their product up to suit the needs of the client.
Always Sell
As they leave the office, their selling practice goes beyond the hours and they engage with the prospective clients at dinner, parties, social gatherings and even a barbers shop if the opportunity presents itself. Bottom Line: It is not a job anymore, it is in fact a habit to sell.
Having A Positive Attitude Throughout
A good salesman is a person who never gets affected by others behavior or performance. It is very important to mind your own business and never gets into trouble by entertaining other’s problems. You need to focus on the job you have got in your own hand and never let others affect you in any kind of way. You should always be dealing with your customers with a smile, irrelevant of the mood they are in.
Maintaining A Good Relationship With Your Customers
Customer Relationship
Now this is believed to be one of the most important qualities of a good salesman in Marketing. There is always more than just buying and selling, is the bond you share with the people you are dealing with. Having a healthy relationship with your customers is one of the most important things for you to become a good salesman. You have to be patient about the work you are doing. A good bond with your customers will always help to boost your business profits. They will be willing to refer your product and services to their contacts. Yes, of course, it’s important to maintain a good business relationship so as to make your business to the next level.
Being Disciplined About Your Work
One thing you have to keep in mind is that you can’t be successful without being punctual or serious about your job. You can never get things served to you on a silver plate. You have to work hard for every single thing. You have to always lead by an example and be a good colleague and a person to another.
Knowing Your Work
A good salesman should always know what he is selling. There should be perfect clearance in the mind as a seller. You should never try to fool your customers as it can prove to be bad for the bond,
A good salesman should always know what he is selling. There should be perfect clearance in the mind as a seller. You should never try to fool your customers as it can prove to go wrong by all means. You should always try to create an impression by being soft-spoken and polite. You must know your customer will agree to buy. On that way, you have to talk differently with the different customer as well. By speaking softly and polite they can add more and more customers in their kitty, this will not only build their customers but also maintain they are personalized brand as well. So keep maintaining good relation is most important for every salesman
Always Act Like A Professional
Being a salesman can turn out being a difficult job. As it can never be easy for having so much knowledge about the work you are doing. You can’t be unprofessional. You should never try to fool your customers as it can prove to go wrong by all means. You should be able to provide deals which can pique the interest of the customers, hence making them impossible to refuse the deal. A good salesman should always be a step forward, you should be able to improvise and thus engage the customer in a good deal. Every day would agree with me that the salesmen job is difficult for sure. They got tired easily. But it’s important for them to act professionally. Good salesmen should always take the first step nicely to look forward to the customer they are working. They should keep in mind that the customer is their first priority. Maintaining a bad relation with the customer can ruin their professional life.
Improvise
A good salesperson is the one who knows how to improvise. You can’t always work on a given plan. There will be situations when you will get outsmarted by the person on the other end. The only thing you can do is to hold your end tight. You should never try to fool your customers as it can prove to go wrong, by all means, Focus on your own strengths and you will get your our self of the moment. You have to always learn to be focused on the work. You will always succeed in your mission.
Take Your Unique Approach
Everybody wants to give 100% to their career goal. But selling a product required a unique approach. This varies from person to persona and product to product. most common is that you need to be polite while talking to customers who have no liking for the product even. You have to be very patient till then. So being focused is the first way to achieve your career goals. You can say after using this product, you can think differently better then I keep telling you about good or bad about it.
A company stands there because its products are selling. If their products stop selling, will they standstill in the market for a long time? And the only person product selling depends on is, salesperson. But, the salesperson does not always succeed. They do fail. And in this post, we will see some reasons for salespeople’s failure.
They See It As A Job
Most of the salespeople do this as their job. They have no personal interest in selling. They do it all because they have to do it. You cannot succeed in something you are not passionate about. So, if you don’t like to sell, don’t do it. You are just ruining the whole company’s image.
Shut Up!
We have two ears and one mouth, that means, we should listen twice as much we talk. Don’t talk more but listen more. Listen to and analyze what your customer is interested in. No one likes to listen, neither your customer. Try to make them happy. Just shut your mouth if there is no necessity to talk.
No Confidence
This is a very important part of life. If you lack confidence in yourself, you lack everything. People are not gonna buy from a person who is not sure about himself. So, as they say, fake your confidence till you make it. It might not make any sense, but confidence makes the perfect sense. So, work on your confidence before going into the sales field.
You are not a magician. But you are a salesperson, who is no less than a magician. Try to figure out what the customer is interested in? What they really want? If you don’t know your customer, you can’t sell anything. Read their minds, talk to them in their mother tongue, analyze their behavior and then pitch the perfect product for them.
They Manipulate
Many people fail in selling because they always try to manipulate customers to buy the product. People may buy that product from you, but they will never come back to you. So, do not manipulate the customer, pitch your product instead.
I know More Than You” Attitude
The worst thing you can do to your customers is to underestimate them. Never underestimate your customers. They might know much more than you. For instance, when a computer engineer goes to buy a laptop, he knows exactly what he wants. But the salesperson still acts like they know more than them. So, listen to the customer, if they are wrong, then correct them. But don’t show off your knowledge.
They Do Not Follow The Process
Although selling is an art there is a proper process a salesperson has to go through while pitching the product to customers. Most of the good companies provide training to salespeople. But most of the salespeople don’t follow it while selling. The process is made after very deep research, so don’t think it’s just a theory. Follow it while selling the product.
Lack Of Patience
Many salespeople give it up after some attempts and failures. Selling is not an easy skill to learn. You cant learn to sell just in 2 or 3 months. Even a year is very less to learn it. Give it some time. Polish your pitching skills. Work on your confidence. Be patient. You can be a great salesperson, you just have to give it some time just like any other skill. Unlike skills like football, cricket, dancing, etc. you don’t do selling from your childhood. So consider yourself a child, and a 5-year-old cannot compete with big players. It will take time but will show the results for sure.
How to Improve As A salesperson?
These are the successful sales techniques to improve as a salesperson:-
Understand Your Market.
Focus on the Right Leads.
Prioritize Your Company Above Yourself.
Leverage Your CRM.
Be Data Informed.
Really Listen to Your Prospects.
Build Trust Through Education.
Focus on Helping.
Conclusion
Persistence is the key to unlock the bonus treats in the business. A good salesperson hits their quota, most of the time. Great skills of a salesperson knock it out of the proportion with their quarters. They do make mistakes but if they repair their mistakes on time, they can excel in the skill.
Business is not everybody cups of tea. It’s not like a job in which you can come at home to 5 pm, and have fun after that. It is something which needs to think differently. It takes your mind to think deeply. You have to work really hard to get your good results soon. You can never be lazy with your work. You have to always learn to be focused on the work. So it’s up to you what you want in that. So go and sell your product!
Ability to identify and react accurately to the behavior and emotions of customers. Identify other people’s feelings/frustrations objectively without necessarily agreeing with them. Ability to establish rapport easily and put people “at ease” in their presence.
What are the strengths of a salesperson?
Win-driven: They have a self-derived motivation to win (or not lose) that transcends compensation plans, campaigns, and coaching efforts.
Client-loyal: They are driven to understand what success means for their clients and to actively contribute to that success.
What are the five basic principles of selling?
The 5 Undeniable Principles of Selling:
Value comes with a price tag.
Consumers only buy products and services that benefit them.
The most valuable gift you have to offer is yourself.
Credibility is dependent upon two factors, trust and expertise.
Business does not run merely on the products and advertisements. It runs on the people of the company and the investors which supports it time to time. You will have to go through sales pitching someday. You might have to pitch your product in some seminar, some meetup or to the investors. In this post, we will tell you about some sales pitch tips to generate leads.
“Filter everything you’re doing, saying and pitching through the customer point of view, and you’ll improve just about every metric you care about today.” – Matt Heinz
1. Tell a Story
No one gonna listen to you if you come on the stage and start bragging about your product. People don’t wanna know about your product if you don’t make them feel good. You can start the pitch by telling a story of someone or something which inspired the creation of the product.
Once you get the people’s attention, you can get into their head and pitch your product directly to their minds. Just don’t talk only facts but some personal experience in the form of a story to make the people feel connected to the pitch. You can generate leads when people will be connected with you.
“How you sell matters. What your process is matters. But how your customers feel when they engage with you matters more.” – Tiffani Bova, Sales Innovation Evangelist and Salesforce Speaker
2. Understand their Need
Understand the need of your audience. You have to observe what your audience wants to hear. Make your speech according to your audience. Even if your audience is not interested in your product, you can tell them something which balance their interests and your product. It will motivate them to listen and engage in your pitch. Nevertheless, the key is to sell your pitch to the investors or audiences. So, cater their need to generate leads through your pitch.
“Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers.” – Seth Godin, American Author
3. Create a beautiful Presentation
Create a beautiful and interesting presentation which grab people’s attention. Use infographics and interesting pictures in your presentation. Make it more colourful. Add real life expediences of the presentation to make it relatable. Put up some straight facts about the product to make it more effective to the customers or investors who you are pitching the idea.
You can create an explainer video to pitch your product. However, you cannot leave it all on the video alone. You will have to explain the explainer video after it ends, to add it with your sales pitch presentation.
Videos are always great to grab the mass attention. It will be great if the video is full of facts, stats and clips showing customer experience and maybe some funny memes to lighten up the mood, in midst of the heavy, strong pitch presentation. Facts and stats are not only interesting but they will create a buzz and people are not gonna forget them so easily and neither your pitch.
It is so obvious. Focus on benefits but explain the problem first. Once you let your prospect realise how big the problem is, they will start listening to you and will get convinced why they should start using the product. Because the more you let your public realize that their problem is huge, the more they will listen that why they should use or invest in the product.
“Sales is not about selling anymore, but about building trust and educating.” – Siva Devaki, CEO – MassMailer
6. Your Own Story
People love life stories. While pitching, you can tell people how you got to where you are today. Let them know your good and bad moments. But focus on emotional moments. It touches their emotions and forces them to see themselves in your position. It will make their mind concentrate on your story. With this, you can easily get their attention and they will not forget about your product for a pretty long time.
You don’t have to stretch it all. In fact, you have to make it short. Keep it all short and simple. But, of course, you can’t do this all in a short period. However, the easy way to make it possible is to divide the time for each task and topic. This way, you will be able to plan it all better. You cannot pitch a product just in some seconds, anyway. So if you have 5 minutes, you will have to focus on the main aspects of the product and pitch whats important for the client, investor or the audience to know.
“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” -Thomas Edison, American Inventor
8. CTA
CTA or the Call To Action is important for all types of marketing. And the sales pitch is the most important marketing opportunity. At the end of the presentation, you can ask them to sign up on your website, visit it or provide you emails, etc. But call to action is very important at the end of the pitch. Just don’t do it if you are pitching it to investors or clients.
Lastly, wear a smile and put on the coat of confidence. A smile makes you more attractive as people will not fear to reach you out and talk to you. And confidence works as a shield to your bad moves. If you make any minor mistake, your confidence will cover it.
“There is little success where there is little laughter.” –Andrew Carnegie, American industrialist
Conclusion
Sales pitching can be one of the toughest work for you, but once you did it, you will realize how wrong you are. Maybe not in the first chance, but you will develop yourself gradually and become an expert in sales pitching. Experience is the best teacher. These tips are just words unless you go and do it yourself. Prepare yourself as you will never get another chance.
How was your first Sales pitch experience? Please comment below.
