The Ultimate Sales Pitch: Lessons from Pitching Groupon, Part 1
Crafting a great sales pitch is complex.
In 2010 I recruited and trained my sales team at No Te La Pierdas (NTLP) Argentina. I took my newest recruit Luciano to a client meeting. After 5 minutes he whispered, "there’s no way we’ll make this sale". 20 minutes later we walked out with 4 signed contracts. He was blown away by my pitch. He later became the Head of Sales leading the business until it was acquired by Pez Urbano.
In this article I’ll share how to build a great pitch from my Groupon experience. I’ll also share examples of sales pitches by billionaire entrepreneur and investor Marc Cuban and YouTuber and designer Chris Do.
The anatomy of a sales pitch
A great pitch has 5 parts.
Opener: you introduce why you reach out.
Introduction: you present who you are.
Explainer: you explain how it works.
Closure: you close the deal.
Feel good: you make the customer feel great about their decision.
Let’s first look at a sales pitch from ecommerce discount coupon company Groupon.
Groupon Sales Pitch
Groupon sold highly discounted offers, minimum 50%, to great experiences in your city promoted via a daily newsletter and its website originally highlighting one great offer per city and day. If you want to know more about this company, check out Admond Lee's analysis on its rise and challenges.
Opener
I found your restaurant on the internet and read a number of positive reviews and was really impressed.
I would like to introduce your restaurant to Groupon users online. Our lifestyle portal features the best locations in town and we would like to promote your business as one of the best venues in the city.
Are you familiar with Groupon?
Introduction
Groupon is the biggest online portal for daily promotions.
It has more than 100k regular users in your city.
We want to promote your restaurant as the pick of the day for one whole day on our site with a great offer. This could be a voucher for half price.
We have featured other top restaurants in your area (3 examples) and helped them get 1000s of new customers.
Does this sound interesting?
Explainer
Show a live demonstration.
Today we have this restaurant offer. €15 for €30. The customer pays €15 and eats for €30. The discount is the bait to get people into the restaurant. On average they spend more.
You’re wondering, why do so many people buy these offers?
We have 1MM users. Each morning they receive an email with a great offer. They look forward to our recommendation and if they find it attractive, they buy it.
You would buy it too, wouldn’t you?
Closure
Let’s make an attractive bundle to pull new customers to your venue.
I think €15 for €30 would make a great deal. I think your customers spend €30 to €40 on average. If we get them in with €30 they may spend more and some will bring friends along too. This will result in a total bill of significantly more.
Feel good
Our team will take care of everything for you. A professional editor will write the copy, we have designers who will make a great design using images from your site.
You don’t have to pay anything upfront. We only get paid a commission of 50% if we bring you new customers. You receive €7.5 and a new customer.
In the next part we’ll look at how to handle common objections and more examples of great sales pitches from famous entrepreneurs. If you can’t wait check out the original post here.
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