14 Trimming Your Sales (Pitch)
It is my ambition to say in 10 sentences what others say in a whole book. —Friedrich Nietzsche
Long story, short. Buyers and sellers will benefit from shorter pitches that are on target.

Shut Up and Sell
Everyone is in the business of buying and selling ideas. And whatever side of the table you’ve sat on—either as the seller or buyer—you’ve seen what both great and terrible look like when it comes to brevity.
Early in my career, my first sales manager wisely cautioned his recruits: “Don’t talk through the close—shut up and sell.” It was meant as a bold reminder of brevity. Although it’s tempting to think that talking more means you’re smarter, more prepared, and more convincing, the opposite is true.
Everyone needs to keep answers short.
I’ve seen so many train wrecks in this arena: salespeople who get overexcited, overenthusiastic, overcaffeinated, and overexplanatory. It’d be better for them to be more conversational and ask more questions. The role of active listening is absolutely vital, yet rarely practiced.
Regardless of which end you’re on, people should feel balance, respect, and restraint throughout the buying and selling process.

Tell; don’t sell

People would much rather hear a story than endure a sales pitch. According to Kendall Haven, author of Story Proof, “People are eager for stories. Not dissertations. Not lectures. Not informative essays.” Storytelling is a lost art that needs urgent rediscovery. Persuasion is an art too, but storytelling always satisfies, whereas selling leaves people cold.

Billboard on a Bumper Sticker
Kristi Faulkner is the president and founder of Womenkind, a small New York City advertising agency that was featured on the AMC network’s reality show The Pitch in 2012. Her team battled for an account and Faulkner said the brevity of the pitch was a key consideration to determine the winner.
She’s well aware that in the advertising world, it’s cut or be cut.
“I think that ideas in particular have to be extremely brief. Three words are better than four, or four words are better than six,” she said. “When you’re trying to get an idea across to someone else, it should be crystal clear and easy to communicate.”
Faulkner explains that having a distilled idea is more likely to impact and inspire a potential client during a pitch.

“You’d think that the more you throw at them, the better chances you have of selling something, but it’s actually not the case,” she said. “You’re going to have a better chance by throwing one ball at one target.”
People react immediately when Faulkner is pitching a singular idea that sticks. “They jump in, and they always build on it,” she describes.
However, it can be difficult to get everybody on the same page about the core idea.
“You need to get it down to as few words as possible,” Faulkner says. “That’s fewer opportunities for people to become confused or to go off on tangents. Fewer words lead to greater clarity.”
Faulkner cited successful slogans like Volkswagen’s campaign in the 1960s: “Think Small,” and even the Declaration of Independence.
“You have to reduce your message to its simplest version,” she said. “It should be able to fit on a billboard or a bumper sticker.”
Faulkner continues, “A lack of confidence and security usually make people add those two or three extra words. If you think the idea needs an explanation, then it’s not a good idea yet,” she said. “But that’s the work of writing. Writing is about rewriting. You keep rewriting, and it’s boring—and that’s the truth.”
Even though she’s a successful creative leader and entrepreneur, Faulkner admits that she sometimes has trouble describing her own firm.
“It’s difficult, and I think that this is where every company has a challenge,” she admitted.
But after some work, Faulkner whittled down Womenkind’s tagline to “Marketing communications that respect the economic power of women.”

“We want to tell all the chapters and all the verses, but it’s not really that memorable or compelling,” she said.
Her agency’s narrative, in fact, starts with the opportunity to recognize women. Her company is successful because it focuses on resolving this issue and respecting their economic power.
Faulkner’s simple pitch helps Womenkind stand apart. Your campaign should be just as tight and catchy

Time to Be Convincing and Concise
Elie Maalouf is an experienced business executive and the former head of global food and beverage concessions provider HMSHost. He has had many opportunities over the course of his career to present to various boards of directors and make high-level sales presentations.
Maalouf knows that even if you have all the right experience and recommendations, you still need to convince the board during your presentation. He says that those critical moments are the time to tailor your material to the audience.
“The key to brevity in the boardroom is to always start by asking, what does the board already know?” Maalouf said. “You really must have a good feeling for what the shared platform of information is. It’s vital to first understand that common ground.”
This is also true for sales presentations. Don’t waste time introducing yourself to clients who already have access to basic information. It’s your job to convince them why your recommendation should merit their support. Sharing only new and meaningful information will transform your presentation into a conversation.

“People spend 50 percent of their time telling you about themselves and about their company’s history and products. [But customers] just want to know what’s different and what’s better,” Maalouf explains. “I want to make it a discussion; a monologue shouldn’t come until the end.”
“Going over traveled ground just dilutes the strength of the punch and the time that you have. I learned to appreciate those people who have studied the circumstances.”
Timing is crucial in these situations. As Maalouf explains, “If you don’t make an impression that you have something different and valuable in the first 5 or 10 minutes, the chances of the next 20 minutes being of use to you are slim—because people are going to fault that impression very early.”
Observe the impact your statements are making by reading the audience’s body language. You can tell if the information you’re sharing is sinking in, or whether somebody wants to stop and dive in somewhere. Doing what Maalouf calls machine-gunning will always lead to failure.
“Speaking slowly and sensing the mood in the room will give you command of the situation. You’ll also be able to stop where you need and to take a question,” Maalouf said. “Because when people are festering on a question, they’re not hearing the next 10 pages you go through.”
You also need to be prepared to condense your pitch at a moment’s notice. Recently, while presenting to a CEO in India, Maalouf saw his allotted time shrink from 2 hours to 30 minutes. Don’t get caught off guard by unpredictable changes.
“I always assume that I have half the time formally available,” he said. “You never know when there’s a delay in start, an early finish, or an interruption.”

Ditch the PowerPoint slides when stepping into the boardroom. You can use them to prepare yourself if that helps you outline your points in your head. But you will seem more prepared and competent if you don’t need to lean on the technology.
“I didn’t use PowerPoint, but I prepared as if I was. I had my talking points ready and rehearsed them extensively so that I was confident and comfortable going through them in person.”
Remember: simple and clear doesn’t mean trivial and juvenile. Relieve your audience by delivering the right information clearly and at a pace that doesn’t cause people to fall behind.
“Brevity should not be conflated or confused with lack of information,” Maalouf warns. “Give your audience brevity and assurance.”

Cut to the Customer’s Chase
Tom Searcy, an expert in large account sales, recalls cutting off a $20 million pitch from IBM when the presenters failed to answer his questions in a short amount of time. Although both the buyer and the seller felt pretty strongly that IBM would get the deal, the speakers were totally missing the mark.
About 20 minutes into the presentation, Searcy interrupted them and said, “I’m sorry, gentlemen; I will respect your time, and I appreciate your willingness to respect my time. So let me tell you what I need to hear from you today.”
Searcy told the presenters specifically which questions he needed answered. They responded by saying, “We’re going to get to that, but right now, we have some additional things we want to show you.” And they continued to plow through their preset agenda.

After going on for another 20 minutes, the speaker still didn’t get anywhere close to what Searcy wanted to talk about.
So Searcy interrupted again and said, “I need to be very clear about this: I have three problems I’m trying to solve right now, and I believe you can help me solve them. But so far, we haven’t spent any time on the three problems that I need to get solved. Can you tell me how you would solve these three problems?”
The speaker said, “Absolutely, we’re just about to come to that.”
But then 10 more minutes passed and they still hadn’t covered any of Searcy’s questions. So he said, “Stop. You will answer my three questions now or I will ask you to leave and when you have someone who can answer my questions, send them back.”
Within 5 minutes, Searcy ended the meeting. He said, “Send me somebody who can talk to me about my issues.”
Some people are stuck on delivering their presentation their way—no matter how detrimental it ends up being to them. IBM’s representatives were so disconnected from their audience they destroyed any chance of giving an effective presentation and selling to the customer.
Long story, short. Buyers and sellers will benefit from shorter pitches that are on target.
• Imagine that you’re in an office elevator with a potential customer. Can you deliver your pitch in the time it takes to get to your floor? Practice giving it in 2 minutes. Time yourself.
• If you’re the seller, listen to your customers instead of focusing only on the pitch. Ask them thoughtful questions to determine their needs—and listen to their answers.
• Don’t make the mistake of assuming that the more you say, the more prepared you will sound. Busy executives will cut you off or tune you out.