Sales Pitch Mistakes When Closing

Television and other media advertising, marketing literature, and sales pitches are all created with the same aim:

To create an effective advert or a great sales pitch you follow tried and tested sales principles and practices. You use techniques, and words and phrases, which have all been proven to work and call the viewer, listener, or reader, to action. The action can be:

• To call your sales number
• Go out and buy your product
• Visit your retail sales outlet

Whatever the desired action is, a sales pitch, and marketing adverts and literature, are aimed at motivating the viewer, reader, or listener, to take that action.

There are mistakes that you learn to avoid as you gain experience in sales and marketing.

These mistakes can be related to how you deliver your sales pitch using your chosen media, or they can be mistakes made because you choose words or phrases that experienced sales professionals know to have a negative effect on the prospect.

A negative effect doesn’t just mean the sales prospect doesn’t take the action you want them to take. There are some words and phrases that actually influence prospects to react in a way that builds objections in their mind and repels them away from taking the desired action.

One of these negative phrases that repel potential buyers was what I heard on the adverts for 5 large organisations on national T.V. A television advert cost a huge amount of money and there will be no return on that investment because of a very common mistake in the lines used to call prospects to action.

The mistake they made was to use the phrases Why not, and Why don’t you, when trying to get the prospect to act.

At the end of a good advert that presented the benefits of their products and services, they used lines that asked the viewer to think of a reason why they should not buy the product or call the sales number.

Examples:

Why not try it out for yourself.

Why don't you visit your local showroom and take advantage of these great deals.

Why not call us now for more information.

If you use these lines at the end of an advert or a sales pitch you are saying: Give me a reason why you should not buy my product.

You are asking the prospect to create a sales objection, a reason they should not buy. Do you really want to say this to your potential customers. Is your sales offer that good that they will not be able to think of an objection.

When you close a sale you should always use a positive phrase or include benefits.

A positive phrase could use a summary of the benefits that you have presented in your sales presentation.

For example: So you can see from the figures that this machine will save you 25% of your current running cost, would you like to go ahead and make those savings.

You would not say: So you can see from the figures that this machine will save you 25% of your current running cost, why don’t you go ahead and make those savings.

Positive closing lines work really well with impulse purchases such as retail sales. Here’s an example closing question: That dress looks really good on you, would you like to take it home.

You would not say: That dress looks really good on you, why not take it home.

Bring your closing lines into conscious focus and check what closing questions you currently use. If you find that you are using negative questions that repel your buyers then make some small changes and increase your sales.

There are many subtle and effective techniques that you can use to close more sales, experiment and try some out.

You can find effective closing techniques in the eBook How to Close a Sale. This sales training course, in a compact training workbook, will show you everything you need to know about how to close a sale.