How Persuasive is Your Pitch?

Here are three excerpts from three possible pitches on the same subject. Read all three carefully, then vote for the one you think is the most persuasive.

• Pitch #1: "We helped G.E. get into the China market. Our state-of-the-art solution was installed over a five-year period and included inventory control over a wide variety of key product categories. We improved the efficiency of the overall inventory management by an average of 35 percent and were recognized by top management as a key strategic element.
• Pitch #2: "Our solution will save you 35 percent of your inventory costs through elimination of excess inventory. We're willing to contractually commit to this figure because we had a similar engagement at G.E. that achieved a 35 percent savings or roughly $1.1 billion, as evidenced in their annual report."
• Pitch #3: "Did I tell you when I met Jack Welsh? He was at the debriefing that we gave to G.E.'s board of directors. He's a lot shorter than he looks on camera, but let me tell you, when he smiled and said that we had done a good job, I never felt more proud in my entire life. And with good reason, because we saved them $1.1 billion a year - according to G.E.'s annual report!"

Did you vote? Then read on...

Those three pitches came out of a conversation with the lovely and talented Terri Sjodin, author of the bestselling book The New Sales Speak and one of the world's top trainers on making sales presentations persuasive. Based upon what she told me, here's how those three pitches rate in terms of persuasiveness:

• Pitch #1 is informative, but not persuasive. It quotes some facts and figures, but they're not in any context that would make much sense to the listener. The prospect is forced to map the ideas into their own needs and wants.
• Pitch #2 is persuasive. It contains a verifiable argument why the prospect should buy the solution. Note that it contains just as much information as pitch #1, and that the emotional content is carried by the contractual guarantee, which communicates willingness to satisfy the emotional desire for risk avoidance.
• Pitch #3 is emotional, but not persuasive. While it contains a striking anecdote, the anecdote is about the sales pro, not the prospect. It's not clear how GE's experience maps into the solution that's being proposed to this particular client.

The best approach would probably be to combine 2 and 3 to come up with an emotion-laden pitch that included both the logical argument and some form of the anecdote/endorsement. However, if the two were mutually exclusive, I have to agree with Terri that the contractual commitment probably carries more persuasive oomph.

READERS: What do you think?