js2458

Enterprise SDR

Valued Contributor

Slow Pitch/Rushed Off by Prospects

Hi all! Recently transitioned to being an AE from a SDR at a tech-events producing company.

I have found, throughout my entire time as an AE, that I am never able to finish my pitch within the allotted time. We schedule meetings w prospects for 30 mins, and then conduct a first pitch with them that pretty much is just telling them about the event, its format, and asking them a few questions.

The most important part of the pitch is the close, where we ask questions pertaining to DMP, pricing, next steps etc. But, I am finding that I can't get there in time, so prospects are rushing me off the phone before I get a chance to close. Thus, deals are blowing out and it's been difficult for me to get the next steps.

A few things to note:

The pitch is very wordy, a lot of conditional statements are included that are supposed to entice buyers to have FOMO
Little rapport within the pitch, a lot of product offerings
Incentive to quantity>quality, we are told specifically in Q4 to get out as many pitches as possible
I speak slowly and don't like to rush conversation; much prefer to dive in deeper to pain and understand why our events would be a good fit

Given the above, how would you suggest getting my pitch down so that I can fully run through everything that I'm supposed to?

👑 Sales Strategy

21

23 comments

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antiASKHOLE

Tycoon

7

Bravado's Resident Asshole

How can you make it more of an elevator pitch? Meetings should never be seminars or monologues.
Really needs a new starting point it sounds like.

js2458

Politicker

5

Enterprise SDR

I've already tried cutting some of the bs sales jargon: "ok that's great to hear bc every single person is blah blah blah blah". Still too long though.
Ideally, I'd like the format to go: 1. Ask who they target 2. Ask what their GTM strategy is 3. Show them event and ask if attendees fit 4. Explain format and ask questions about how they like to talk to prospects 5. Pricing/Sponsoring Offerings 6. DMP questions 7. Callback/Intro to someone else on team 8. Conditional Close
This would probably take me 45+ mins. Too long!

braintank

Politicker

4

Enterprise Account Executive

This sucks.

You're talking *at* people for 30 minutes about an event. How unique is your event that it takes 30 minutes to describe?

Ideally you want the prospect to talk majority of discovery call.
Ditch the script and start over.

js2458

Politicker

1

Enterprise SDR

I feel the same way. Our events are somewhat unique, but there are aspects of them that can be found at many companies.
The hard part is that I agree with the amount of talking, but my hands are tied. And, I eventually want to get into tech but can't do so without starting over unless I get a year or so more under my belt here.
And, if I ditch the script, I will get yelled at and told to follow the script. Fun!

braintank

Politicker

2

Enterprise Account Executive

Don't start over as an SDR, ever.

Who is going to yell at you for modifying the script?

How do other successful AEs get through the whole thing?

js2458

Politicker

1

Enterprise SDR

My CRO will. We are a small company and my team is run directly by the CRO, who is excellent but also a hard ass. And he believes the script is god-like.
Senior AEs don't pitch on the sales floor. They go in separate rooms and have their own, shorter pitches. Not one successful AE that I know of follows the pitch precisely.

jefe

Arsonist

1

🍁

Is he going to hear it? Is he listening in on every conversation!?
Something's gotta give here

CuriousFox

WR Officer

3

🦊

If you only had 30 seconds what would you say? That should help you weed out the fluff.

js2458

Politicker

0

Enterprise SDR

Would probably leverage competition lmao. Seems to be a great driving factor to get people involved.

Diablo

Politicker

2

Sr. AE

Did you review how your other peers are doing the same job? Have you taken any insights from your CRO?

Sunbunny31

Politicker

2

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Yeah, this exactly. Is anyone having success with this script/process?
If anybody is, see if you can shadow that rep.

js2458

Politicker

0

Enterprise SDR

Shadowed a few more senior people. As stated - no one follows the pitch exactly and most cut it down significantly/have their own twist.

Unfortunately, this still doesn’t solve the problem that I’m supposed to - as a junior person - follow the script to a T.

Goldleader

Fire Starter

2

Senior Sales Manager

What pain are you trying to solve for them? Find that. Focus on it!

Sounds like you’re being taught the old school features and benefits styles of selling. It isn’t effective.

sales1206

Contributor

2

Senior Account Manager

Use the script as a guide and revert back to it when you need to highlight certain points, when it comes up in the deep dive analysis. A quick 1 min intro pitching your companies USP

Let your customer do all the talking and home in on their paint points addressing how your business can solve it, improve it etc…

HVACexpert

Politicker

1

sales engineer

Have you practiced and timed yourself? Try that and limit yourself to a certain amount of time per slide

js2458

Politicker

1

Enterprise SDR

I have in the beginning. For the first few days, I locked myself in a room and just kept on practicing the pitch, trying to get it down within 30 mins.

Quickly got told to get on the phones and start actually pitching people. But, I def should put in more work outside of working hours to nail it down.

HVACexpert

Politicker

0

sales engineer

Trying recording yourself, you can review it later and it can help point out spaces where you can cut out some time and areas you can streamline/improve.

AnchorPoint

Politicker

1

Business Coach

Sounds like you are showing up and throwing up... "few questions" is the give away.

ChumpChange

Politicker

1

Channel Manager

Are you proposing during the disco? Meetings should be hyper-focused and have an agenda of the content being discussed. If you're taking 30 mins to pitch and have no time left for Q&A then something is definitely off. IMO - Proposals should be less than 10 minutes because the majority of the "why it matters to them" has already been fleshed out in previous interactions. Q&A should take the majority of the time you have scheduled.

js2458

Politicker

0

Enterprise SDR

So basically we do disco in our pitch. It’s a mesh between the two. The format we are supposed to cover in abt 15-20 mins and then the rest of the time is covered w questions, rapport, and figuring out their DMP.

If I had it my way, would have two separate calls altogether. A first call to make sure they are a good fit, and a second to talk logistics and how we could help out.

ChumpChange

Politicker

0

Channel Manager

Disco within the proposal is cramming a ton of information into a small window of time. I've typically seen Disco first to gauge intent, use-case, technical/business requirements, PMF, pain points, competitive intel, budget, and timeline.

Once you have all that info... follow-up meeting will encapsulate all these fine details and support it with your proposal. Quick highlights with some value prop nuggets sprinkled in here and there. Then you get to pricing (you can either lead or end with pricing) and then it opens up to Q&A. From my experience... Q&A is where the majority of the meaty stuff comes from because this is where the negotiating starts happening.

GDO

Politicker

0

BDM

Introduction call -> present solution in next call

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

0

Sales Rep

Focus on the pain, not the features

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