Why It’s Time To Revamp Your Sales Pitch To Clients

You hear it in their voice over the phone, see it in their eyes in a meeting, or read it in the lack of enthusiasm and slow replies to your emails. Your prospect—the big client you are desperately wanting to sign on—is bored by your pitch.

The problem is, they’ve heard it all before, and recruitment companies are all starting to blend into one for them. In their minds, one recruiter might have a more attractive pricing structure, but in this competitive market they know that another company will soon match it.

What they’re looking for is something that elevates your recruitment services above the pack.

Stop! You’re going about this all wrong.

You need to make it about them, not you. Social proof (testimonials etc) and detailed service information is important, but that’s for later in your pitch.

If you want them to sit up in their chair and actually engage with the service you’re offering, you need to hit them with the information that matters: how your recruiting service and the candidates you can bring will transform their business.

Ways to revamp your sales pitch

Point out challenges their business or wider industry might be facing, and how your recruitment solutions fill that gap.

Be precise, use quantifiable examples of your past success, and leave no doubt in their minds that you have carefully considered their business and that you are the recruiter to best serve their interests.

Don’t talk about how great you are- show them how great you’ll be for them.

Talk about current market and recruitment trends-and how this might affect their business.

We are facing a time of immense change and volatility, so you need to mark yourself out as highly informed in their industry and ready to adapt your recruitment offering to anything their business might be facing.

By starting your pitch with some fascinating statistics or market projections, you capture their attention and teach them something, thereby setting yourself up as an expert and developing trust. #easytodo #lookongoogle

Include a case study with proven past results.

Include an example of where you achieved solid results for a company (ideally a competitor or at least in the same industry.) Use powerful, quantifiable results and discuss how you helped the business overcome a problem. Ideally you should choose a case study with a problem that your prospect is also likely to be facing, such as skill shortage or a declining market.

Cut the content short.

If it’s a face-to-face meeting, then go easy (very easy) on the PowerPoint slides, and please scrap mission statements and company photos etc. To be brutally honest, they probably don’t care.

Remember, this meeting is not an opportunity for you to talk about your business, it is an opportunity for you to talk about theirs and discuss how you can work together for their success. If it’s an email, put powerful points in bullet-form, and don’t feel the need to include everything- there will be plenty of time for that in a later meeting if you get this pitch right. Same goes for detailed service descriptions: keep them for a follow-up meeting, not your initial pitch.

Ask them questions to get them engaged.

You might have a good prediction of what their challenges are, but you’re an outsider and it’s ultimately them who is best-placed to explain their business concerns, goals and obstacles.

So after you’ve opened the pitch with the points above, ask a couple of key questions- perhaps whether they’ve experienced any fallout from market volatility, or whether the case study you mention has any similarities to their business.

If your pitch has been as engaging as it should have been, then they’ll be itching to explain their own experiences- and this is the ideal time for you to capitalise by explaining how your recruitment strategies will benefit them. (This two-way conversation also gives you some brilliant inside information to formulate later pitches.)

Finish with social proof

Knowing that other big companies (particularly market-leading competitors) use your services is powerful and might be what gets you over the line. Save testimonials for last and keep them very short.

Pick a couple of stellar examples. When you send a follow-up email, include a link to your complete testimonials page if they want to read further.

If you’re using the same tired old pitch and getting tired hearing the same old ‘no thanks’, then it is time that you updated your pitch to focus on their story, not yours, and adapt your offering to current market conditions.

Until next time,

Cheryl