Introduction

A good sales hook is essential for grasping your audience’s attention and letting them know you are worth hearing out. It can also prevent your prospect from hanging up on the phone or ignoring your email. But if your sales hook is great, you will be able to start your entire conversation off on the right page. Check out the tips below for you to create a great sales hook.

1. Do your customer research

When you receive a name or any details regarding your client, the first thing you should do is research them. There is nothing worse than calling a client or a lead and not knowing the product or service. This could result in losing an easy lead just because of a lack of research.

When you start researching your clients, see their unique challenges, pain points, and needs. You do not want to make a mistake by speaking to a B2B client in a B2C e-commerce space. Consider what your prospect’s goals are and work backward. What challenges are they facing from reaching their goal? What are they missing in their current strategy? How can you save them time and money?

2. Figure out the customer’s pain points

Your sales hook needs to focus on the pain points of your client’s struggle instead of on the benefits of your product or service. These pain points can include positioning pain points, financial pain points, or process pain points. By figuring these out, you will create a pitch around why this product or service is necessary for your customer’s success. If your product or service does not fit into your client’s pain point, it is a good time to move on to the next client and not waste any more time.

3. Ask a question as your sales hook

If you cannot find the client’s pain point, make an educated guess on what your prospect’s challenge may be. Then address that challenge through a question. When doing so, make sure you tailor your question that hook the prospect and encourages a positive response.

4. Practice active listening skills

Giving a compelling sales hook is not about making a statement and walking away; instead, it is more about spending your time listening to the prospect and not talking as much. One thing you will only find out by listening is your client’s goal and what they want to accomplish. Actively listening and asking questions are critical. This helps the customer in a way that gets them excited and makes them feel confident in your solution.

5. Make it personal and have some fun with it

Remember, this is your first impression when connecting with your client. Make it personal, but also have fun while doing so. Look at it not as work but as grabbing dinner with a close friend.

When you were researching and found something you guys both have in common, by all means, bring it into the hook. Figure out how to connect with them on a personal level, and you will find it easier to gain their trust and establish a strong relationship from the beginning.

Learning how to create an effective sales hook will take some time, and there will be trial and error. Some of the tips listed above might not be effective, but when you do not try them, you won’t know. Take a minute and use these tips as inspiration to create new solid sales tips that will attract new customers.

Looking for more sales tips to stay ahead of the competition? Read our article on 5 Steps to Increase B2B Sales!

The Five D’s to a Successful Sales Pitch

1. Development

You want to make your presentation professional. Make sure the message you want to convey comes through to the audience. You want to be clear without throwing too much information at them and confusing to overwhelming your prospect. Be sure to spend plenty of time understanding your prospect. If this sounds easy, it’s not, but if you prepare properly, your level of success will increase significantly.

If you want to become a top sales professional, you must know your customer’s requirements prior to delivering the sales pitch. You need to understand their areas of pain and discomfort and how your product or solution can solve that problem. You should know their needs better than they do. Good salespeople spend a significant amount of time understanding their audience before they make their pitch.

You’ll also want to spend time understanding the makeup of the management team and their performance over the past few years. All this information will assist you in developing pointed questions during the meeting and make them feel comfortable that you understand their needs. A quality sales pitch weaves a story, so it’s essential your pitch weaves the correct message and has the happy ending that you and the prospect want.

2. Details

Pay attention to the details. The most important details are specific to the prospect, so you should personalize your presentation to fit their requirements. The client will appreciate and recognize the extra effort you put into your pitch. Remember, you’re developing the relationship from the beginning; anything that sets you apart from the competition benefits the long-term goal.

Find their pain points! Every prospect has different areas of pain that need to be addressed. Ask my favorite question to the CEO: “Right before you fall asleep at night and you’re rubbing your ulcer, what are you thinking about?” If you solve that problem, you’re a hero! Whether it’s a lack of growth, internal cost pressures, personnel issues, or boardroom issues, all companies have areas of pain they are looking to solve. If your solutions can assist in relieving their pain, your sales cycle just got significantly shorter and easier!

3. Differentiation

Establishing market differentiation is one of the most important elements of the sales pitch. If you can’t stand out from the competition or show your prospect the value of your product, your pitch is over. After hearing a thousand sales pitches and reviewing hundreds of business plans, the most significant problem companies have is narrowing down their message. The goal is to present a clear and easy-to-remember message that can be translated into a solution for the prospect.

You can’t just tell the product that your solution is great; you must show them. Give examples like case studies of companies similar to the prospect. Detail how you’ve solved similar problems and how successful the solution was. Again, don’t just tell but show. Provide data that demonstrates the success of your product for other clients. Show things that represent revenue growth or increased market share.

Be prepared to discuss what the competition has said about your company. You should know your shortcomings as well as your differentiators. Address your shortcomings before the prospect brings them up; diffuse the issue before it becomes an issue.

4. Decision-Makers

Know your audience and what their respective roles are. Each prospective client will have multiple decision-makers. The role of a professional salesperson is to know each decision-maker and what makes them tick.

First, identify your gatekeeper. This is typically the first person you connect with from the prospective company. You want to develop a close relationship with them, so they provide you with inside information about the company’s pain points and why your product or service is the solution. The gatekeeper also gets you to the next level in the sales cycle, so they are crucial to closing a deal.

Next, you will need to identify any influencers within the organization that will be involved in the decision-making process. These influencers can include employees in the finance, IT, and/or customer service departments. You will want to identify how your product or service will specifically impact their jobs. Don’t overlook the influencers; they can make or break a deal. If you understand their pain points prior to the sales pitch, you can deliver a targeted pitch that addresses each influencer’s specific needs.

If your product is great and your sales pitch is excellent, but you haven’t gotten your message in front of the right decision-makers, you’re wasting your time. If your competition is inferior but has a good relationship with a top decision-maker within the prospective company, they will likely win the sale based on that contact. This is why networking and doing your homework to get through the gatekeeper and make the influencers happy is so important.

5. Delivery

Practice the presentation before meeting with the prospect. You should never read a presentation for the first time in front of a prospect. You may only get one chance to make a first impression; make it count!

Incorporate several people into the sales pitch. One person talking for a long period of time can cause the customer to lose interest. Make sure the content isn’t too technical. If an engineer is presenting, don’t let their message get lost in a technical discussion.

Never get confrontational with a prospect, but don’t be afraid to test them, either. You can challenge them without becoming confrontational. Ask questions that make them think and question their business decisions. The right questions create a deficit in the comfort level of the prospect. Most salespeople want their customers to feel comfortable and have more knowledge. Wrong! The more the customer knows, the less they need you. The goal is to make your prospect comfortable in your presence but uncomfortable about their problem or pain point.

At the end of the day, pricing often becomes the main deciding factor for customers. Once the prospect thinks they know too much, your service or product becomes a commodity, and they think they can just go with the cheapest provider. Cheaper is not always better, so be sure to know where your pricing stands compared to the competition. Be prepared to show your prospects the added value that comes with added cost.

Conclusion: Implementing Your New Sales Hook

In today’s competitive environment, building a successful sales pitch is essential to the success of your organization. Using these five essential requirements to develop or alter your sales pitch will help you improve your win ratio. It’s imperative that you and your organization develop a clear message that is consistent across all departments. There’s no question businesses have plenty of options to choose from. If you put in the work to prepare and plan, you are sure to succeed in showing prospects why your solution is best.