No customer wants to sit through a boring presentation listening to you talk about your company.

Even a seven-billion-dollar industry aerospace giant makes this disastrous mistake.

A few years ago, our sales rep from a large conglomerate came to my office. We were buying roughly $500,0000 worth of aircraft material every year.

We chatted, or "built rapport," and slowly migrated to the conference room, where he sat his old Dell laptop on the table.

He opened his Powerpoint, which took an eternity to load.

Then, he launched into his pitch.

I learned:

• How much revenue they generated.

• How many locations they had.

• How many OEMs they worked with.

Nothing helped me address my current challenges or taught me something about the future that I should be concerned about and the key ways he would help me overcome them.

Instead, I looked at him and said, "I don't care about any of this. I'm already buying a half-million dollars a year from you. So how does any of this impact what we're currently doing?"

He didn't have a reply.

It wasn't all his fault, either. That's how he was trained. It's a terrible habit he learned from bad managers and ineffective mentors.

I walked away from the meeting, thinking, "this is our sales rep?" "Why did I agree to this meeting? What a waste of time."

I could have found all the information he gave me on their website.

The biggest problem most companies face is converting new clients.

No new clients mean the company will dwindle to zero at some point.

Or a company decides to bask in the sun of mediocrity, clinging onto a few legacy accounts and praying nothing ever happens to them.

Maybe your best client went bankrupt, or perhaps, the United States government seized their cargo aircraft for transporting illegal currency—which happened to me.

You can't risk your company's results on a few clients.

Generating new revenue is a top priority.

It's the most significant limiting factor for most teams—not converting.

To win new business, you have to make it nearly impossible for the right clients to say no to you.

You have to pitch things that matter to them.

You can't sound like every other annoying salesperson knocking on your prospect's door who relies on explaining how long their company's been in business, the snazzy pictures of their balding executive team, and how many locations they have.

Nobody cares.

Prospective clients want to meet because they want a desired outcome.

Your primary job is to be an irreplaceable consultant to your clients.

Sales isn't customer service.

If you're riding on the whims of a few key account's repeat business, you're not in sales.

If all you do, is process orders, you're not in sales.

Being a great sales professional means you generate new revenue and help clients improve in some meaningful way.

This means you need the experience and insight to give them better outcomes.

Sales is a lot like the practice of Tonglen in Buddhism. You take away your clients' suffering and provide them with something better.

You have to show them and not just tell them.

Anybody can tell a client what they need to do to produce better results, but the great sales professionals, the ones who are masters of the craft, show them how it's done.

They lead with conviction and proof.

Understand the four models of value.

Anthony Iannarino calls in Triangulation (not strangulation).

Triangulation is when you sit on top of the continuum of people who provide the lowest price and others who provide the greatest value. At the top, you offer the client a perspective and the range of choices available to them.

"By sitting at the top of the pyramid, you are the person best positioned to help your prospective client understand how to evaluate and make a decision for their company, one they need to improve their results."

Here are the four levels of value you must understand before you pitch any solution:

Level One: Commodities

A commodity is interchangeable with any similar product.

"When there are no negative consequences because of these concessions, there is no reason to make a greater investment."

Triangulating this model requires you to recognize they have the lowest price and show your prospect/customer how these low prices can benefit them when the purchase isn't vital, and explain the concessions the company makes to deliver the lowest price—less support, little communication, and no flexibility.

Level Two: Scalable Commodities

Still a commodity, but it provides a better experience.

Customer support, service, and deliverables will improve, and so will some of the common frustrations a customer incurs having to manage the relationship will improve.

Triangulating will require you to explain how this benefits a client if they see price as the primary method of decision, with some level of support but also exposing the concessions that most problems will go unsolved or be delayed due to insufficient resources (aka money).

Level Three: Solutions (Outcomes)

Solutions help solve a specific problem by providing tangible business results.

But, the problem is this delivery method has been commoditized.

"Solving the problem with a solution is often enough to win the client's business, but it does little to improve their broader problem-solving outcomes."

Level Four: Strategic Partners

Partners create strategic value beyond tangible business results.

These are "companies that compete by having the highest price but creating the most value for their clients, largely coming from their advice, their recommendations, and their commitment to their clients."

To triangulate, explain how the investment necessary to reach desired outcomes will come at a higher price point but with better total costs, high touch, high responsiveness, and high support.

The Powerful Architecture Of A Perfect Sales Pitch

You can smell the stench of an amateur salesperson from a mile away.

Usually, it's not entirely their fault. They've had the wrong mentor, or company, coaching them the wrong way or not coaching at all.

Sales, or "pitching," is about helping a prospect improve in some meaningful way. You must address their core challenges and how you can help them overcome them.

You rarely talk about yourself.

So, if you want to convert more high-value, repeat customers, update your pitch with these sections, and in this order:

Why change?

People want you to help them improve their results.

In this first section, you're addressing your contact's challenges and what causes them.

When you start addressing what's important to them, you establish trust and credibility because you're proving what's important to you.

What to change?

In section two, you're delivering massive value.

You'll explain what will change and how it will improve your prospect's results.

It's important to relate these changes to core challenges or problems so they see how one affects the other.

How much to invest?

Before sending a written proposal, you always need to discuss the investment it'll take to produce superior results.

You need to triangulate your competitors and explain "how your company makes different investments than companies with different models."

When you triangulate, you help your prospects understand the difference in approaches and how each will produce far different results—depending on the type of investments made.

Why us?

Instead of saying, "Our company is the best," or "Here are all our locations," you say, "Here are the people and resources we are going to provide to make certain you achieve the desired results."

When you refer to existing clients, you explain how they had similar challenges and what you did to help them overcome them.

If results need to be improved over time, you tell the client what the process will look like and how you and your team will support them until it becomes a reality.

This is how successful salespeople sell.

They pitch, then deliver results that matter to the client.