The Pitch Episode 7: Pick up the Phone and Pitch
Learn:
Technology has made it easier for everyone to avoid talking to each other, but pitching with your live voice is making a comeback. Learn how to perfect your phone pitching skills.
Pick up the Phone and Pitch
Read:
Technology has made it easier for everyone to avoid talking to each other. Between emails, texts and online chats, Picking up the phone to Pitch is becoming a lost art. But I’m here to tell you, as I speak to you through emerging talk technology, that pitching with your live voice is coming back with a vengeance so perfecting your phone Pitching skills now will pay dividends in the long run. The best part about phone pitching is few people are currently doing it so there’s very little competition and you’ll find that people tend to answer their phones more readily than ever before. Before you pick up the phone, write your pitch first. This will force you to think through what you are going to say in 45 seconds or less because that’s usually the threshold of someone’s attention span on the phone. Don’t waste time with statements like, “How are you doing today?” Everyone is busy and this opening is a dead giveaway that you are about to be pitched, so this statement generally just annoys a person who may be in the middle of something else or on deadline. Be direct, ask a question, and consider what’s in it for them. Once you have your pitch written, rehearse it using your voice and a stopwatch. Sometimes the written word doesn’t translate the same verbally so you may need to adjust your pitch. Make sure it’s under 45 seconds and work on your voice inflection. Your pitch should sound conversational, not like you are reading from a script. “The Pitch” challenge today: Write out your pitch, rehearse it, tweak it, then pick up the phone and pitch it. If you don’t get the person live, leave a voicemail. You can always follow up with an email, but combining a written pitch with a well-spoken verbal pitch makes it real and really hard to resist.
Apply:
If a solicitor calls you, what do they say that makes you want to hang up on them?
How many forms of communication do you usually attempt before calling someone on the phone?
What’s your go-to greeting?