The Sales Pitch – Is It Really Dead?

It’s odd that when you are thinking of a subject you tend to see it everywhere. If you buy a brand new BMW, it’s guaranteed that you will see that same model car everywhere you look. And so it came to me that I was wandering around prior to writing this article and found Geoffrey James article ‘The Sales Pitch is Dead’. No prizes for guessing what the article is about, but I liked what was said about developing relationships in which Geoffrey said “far from being a “sales pitch,” every customer meeting is an opportunity to strengthen the relationship”.

I will have to admit, that prior to that timely find, I was beginning to feel at a loss as to what to write about pitching. I don’t really pitch an idea to clients without them having some idea of what I’m going to say. Most prospective client interaction that I have is a collaborative process where ideas are arrived at together. By the time I get to a proposal situation, the client has as much of an understanding of all the requirements of the project as I do… so why do I need to pitch?

Then of course, I realised that I am pitching ideas all the time. That’s what brainstorming is, isn’t it? In the movies, a character in a brainstorming session will in all likelihood say something like ‘OK, let me throw a curve ball here!’ – meaning, I presume that the idea is a little way out of left field…..

(I would point out that living in the UK I have little to no knowledge of baseball at all, yet surprisingly the terminology seems to creep in. My apologies if I get it wrong. However, I digress.)

I bounce ideas all the time, with colleagues, management, customers, etc. They also bounce their ideas off me. The process is collaboration. Sometimes ideas are carried and improved upon, another will see the potential of the idea and instantly understand, and sometimes you have to reinforce the idea. To me the term pitching means throwing ideas around and bouncing them off other people. I understand why the term ‘sales pitch’ means the way it does in the way Geoffrey James says in his article, but in this situation pitching ideas is a healthy activity worth pursuing.

Supposing you have an idea that you truly believe in, a concept that you see will be highly successful. What if your idea isn’t understood? You recognise the potential but others don’t initially see it. Do you fight to make it understood? Passion for ones ideas can compel us to try and convince others of the merits of an idea and that is when you get into the realms of the ‘sales pitch’. Entrepreneurs, thought leaders and innovators will undoubtedly go through this a lot, because they are developing technology and ideas ahead of fashion trends and will have to convince investors and early adopters of their ‘vision’.

Is the sales pitch really dead? I think in the sense that Mr James talks about it is, especially in relationship selling. I have to agree with my colleague Colin Wilson; I too don’t like the term and its connotation. It suggests coercing or changing someone’s mind; it’s confrontational. Yet, if TV programmes like we have here in the UK like the ‘Dragons Den’ are anything to go by then the ‘sales pitch’ is still alive and kicking. Certainly, in realms where people are pushing boundaries there is inevitably going to be a gap between the innovators and the majority. At some point, these innovators have to convince everyone else that they have a vision of the future that will be successful and that might require a ‘sales pitch’ if nothing else to show the commitment and passion in the idea. This pitch may not be to us, but a few investors and early adopters to start the ball rolling. By the time we catch on, there’s no need to convince us.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Related posts:

1. The Pitch
2. Ditch Your Pitch
3. Cold Calling is NOT dead!