The true objections of a prospect usually lay dormant in a sales conversation until money is in question.

For the most part, people don’t want to come off as rude so will intently listen to your pitch, knowing full well that they don’t want to buy.

For this reason, the aim of your sales presentation should be to illicit the prospect’s buying objections as soon as possible so you don’t waste time on uninterested leads.

In this article we’ll cover the process of how to pitch digital marketing services from the point of view of a discovery sales call.

Preparation is King

You’ll find plenty of sales reps gloating a their ability to improvise sales calls.

Though some people may be more naturally inclined to improvise, this isn’t the optimal approach.

There is virtually no scenario where preparation of any kind won’t help improve sales conversions.

Think of it, the point of a sales conversation is to gather information and pitch qualified prospects. Why would you not want to gather as much information as possible before the call so you can make appropriate judgments of client qualifications?

Do research before the call to better understand the background of the company you’re selling to, the person you’ll be talking with, and the structure of your pitch.

Preparation is perhaps the most important aspect to selling digital marketing services.

Clear Offer

When confused, most people resort to their default behavior, in action.

For this reason, you want to be extremely clear with what it is you’re offering the potential client.

Know every detail of your offer and be able to convey this to customers in a concise and clear manor. The more clear you are the more likely the customer will purchase.

Sales Script

As mentioned earlier, sales reps seem to pride themselves on their ability to improvise.

However, even the best sales trainers will agree, a script is not only necessary to enhance performance but also to systemize, hire, and scale your sales operation.

There’s no way to scale a process that is improvised so push hard against any of your reps that refuse to follow the standardized process.

We’ve created an article covering an example script but you’ll ultimately want to customize your own depending on your ideal clients.

Beyond a script, you’ll also want to keep a list of pre-templated digital marketing questions you commonly ask prospects on calls. Both of these materials will keep your conversations focused and effective.

Another document you’ll want before going into a discovery sales call are your on-boarding docs, proposal, and pre-filled invoice.

The reason you want all of these ready is so you can reduce the time between when the prospect is ready to take action and when they are signed on to your services.

The longer you wait between an, “okay let’s do it” and the actually payment of an invoice the more chance the prospect will change their mind and flake on you.

Assume the close before ever jumping on call by ensuring you have all documents filled and ready to go.

Pitching Digital Marketing Over the Phone

There’s an art to selling any service over the phone. We wrote a separate article on the specific sales process for digital marketing services as well as a summary of the famous digital sales expert, Kotton Grammer, so we’d highly recommend checking these out for a deeper look into the digital marketing sales process.

For this article, we’ll cover the basic structure of a phone call simply as a model for what to aim for.

Lastly, this section is titled ‘Pitching Digital Marketing Over the Phone’ but ideally, you should try and move prospects to a conference software instead and do FaceTime calls so that you can screen share and even use a pitch deck in your presentation.

The Hook

The hook of your conversation is the point at which you and the prospect are in rapport. Rapport is something that can be built in less than 30 seconds but needs to be maintained throughout a conversation in order to make the sale.

You can build rapport with a potential client by conveying the following 3 things in your words and tonality…

1) You’re am sharp as a tack

2) You’re an expert in digital marketing

3) You’re just like them; you care.

Qualify the Prospect

Once in rapport you want to move the conversation to a point where you are perceived as the buyer. This can be done through questions.

Begin digging into your prospects business to get a sense of where they are at and their needs.

This phase should give you the needed information to either sell them or let them go.

It’s also suggested that you go into each call with a digital marketing client questionnaire so that you know exactly what to ask to determine a solid prospect.

The Pitch

Your pitch is the stage of the conversation when you talk about your own company and services.

Start your pitch with a little background of you and your company. Then, logically detail your services to the lead. Show the business owner how your services will help them to achieve their goals by using the knowledge gained in the qualification portion.

After presenting the details of your service, go for an early close.

Handling Objections

In most cases, you’re going to get at least one objection to the sale. There are a slew of objections you’ll commonly hear so the good news is you’ll eventually never get caught off guard. Make sure to write down all objections thrown at you and practice responses to each.

Closing the Deal

The last step is perhaps the easiest part to fumble on. We’ve all had experiences where we pushed through 30+ minutes of objections only to get nowhere in the conversation and leave empty handed. Most people get shy during the close and end up backing off way to early.

Push through your resistance and go further than you would expect to go. Of course, it is a fine line between persistence and burning a sale. Ultimately, you’ll want to judge this balance for yourself and avoid pushing too hard for the sale since you can always follow up later.

How to Pitch Digital Marketing Services: Perfecting the Sales Presentation