Every business, be it small business or medium and large enterprise, needs revenue and sales function is the revenue generating engine.  That is why sales team becomes a crucial component of any organization and sales a crucial activity.  To sell your product or service to a potential customer, more so for a startup, you need thorough preparation before moving forward for a sales call, meeting or a presentation.  This post highlights some of the activities that a sales person should complete before a sales pitch.

1. Prepare an Elevator Pitch:  When a potential customer wants to know about your product or service, he should not be required to go through loads of information before making a conclusion about what it actually does.  Elevator Pitch should summarize information about your business, product or service and what it intends to do in not more than two sentences.  As Sequoia Capital puts it, businesses should be able to describe themselves on the back of a business card.

2. Prepare A Paying Customer’s Case Study:  If you have a paying customer, prepare a case study detailing the problem that the customer had, how your solution helped solve the problem, and what were the quantified benefits that your customer had using your solution.  If possible, try to include customer testimonials and reference information by taking an approval.

3. Customize Your Presentation:  Try gathering as much information about the customers, their business, problems and opportunity areas in business and any other information which is related with your product or service.  Use the web, reports, press releases, newsletters, industry journals to find information and then use this information to customize the sales presentation for making it more relevant for your customer.

4. Use Appointment Call Effectively:  The call for fixing appointments can be effectively used to establish rapport with the customer on the basis of common background, contacts, interests etc.  The call can also be used to find useful facts and information about the customer which can later be used during the sales meeting.

Once you have done all of the above depending on your business, you can be sure of making a great first impression because you are already prepared for explaining your business, product or service and that too which is highly customized for them.

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