In the service of your customers you have a choice between being reactive and proactive. Reactive would be responding to their requests for products or services, whereas being proactive would be making suggestions for products or services that they might not know about or know that they could use productively.
A proactive approach obviously gives you a much better chance of growing your business. If you have a great idea that one or more of your customers could use, doesn’t it make business sense to pursue this potential win-win possibility? This is where you have to pitch the customer. But how?
The nature of the relationship with your customer and the circumstances will determine the nature of the pitch. It could be a formal pitch or it could be quite casual. But whether it’s formal with a pre-set appointment in a meeting room or in the course of a casual conversation, you want to do it appropriately.
If you don’t pitch the customer appropriately, even a brilliant idea that could make you and the customer a lot of money might never happen. If your preparation is inadequate and the presentation is poor, you’re going to leave a bad impression. An “unprofessional” pitch raises questions about how “professional” the idea or product delivery is going to be.
So for a successful pitch, you have to cover off these things:
- Carefully plan your conversation.
- Be clear, precise and offer immediate value.
- Show examples and prototypes.
- Deliver a confident performance.
- Create a conversational atmosphere to encourage questions and discussion.
Sometimes we forget that, like us, customers are looking for ways to boost their business too. A well-prepared pitch could do the trick, to everyone’s benefit.