21 Sep 038: Think you know how to pitch your business? Go from Invisible to Irresistible, with John Livesay
Today’s buyers are crazy-busy and ultra-savvy, which means yesterday’s sales strategies fall flat and leave your salespeople easily forgettable.
How can you stand out with new competitors and new technologies disrupting the marketplace every day?
In this episode I chat with John Livesay – an international sales and marketing speaker known as the ‘Pitch Whisperer’
Find out from John why the sales people who Get To YES are those who become master storytellers with magnetic pitches.
Discover why telling the best story gets the sale, and find out how John crafts irresistible stories for his clients.
1:46 – Background on John, known as the Pitch Whisperer, and what he does.
3:56 – How John started learning about effective communication with different brands.
5:06 – Breaking from the traditional methods of approaching advertising companies by starting with stories rather than numbers.
6:50 – Analyzing approaches that do and don’t work; storytelling addressing each aspect of neurolinguistic programming.
8:46 – A story of John working with Gensler to become storytellers in their pitches.
10:10 – Comparing traditional sales training to the methods that John espouses.
13:08 – Overcoming resistance to this idea of storytelling in selling; focusing on genuine stories rather than strictly “selling.”
16:09 – People’s willingness to listen to stories as opposed to being resistant to being sold to and how much more memorable stories are than strict pitches.
19:16 – Showing humanity through your pitch and focusing on how you can bring value to the prospect.
21:55 – Finding interesting stories in anyone’s experience and fighting impostor syndrome.
24:21 – Dangers of feeling like you know everything, as it relates to startups pitching VCs.
27:05 – Things to never say or do in a pitch as well as some things to say.
30:16 – John’s experience working with startups looking to get funded and how he helps; training people to communicate, generally, rather than just pitching.
32:26 – How John’s skills translate to existing and larger companies, not just startups.
35:02 – Who John typically works with within companies and the return on investment companies have seen from hiring him.
36:57 – These teachings coming from John’s first hand experiences.
38:25 – Benefits of being able to connect different departments within companies and another story from his work with Gensler.
41:33 – How John encourages potential clients to look ahead at what it might look and feel like if he comes in and has a great impact.
44:17 – John’s thoughts on scaling his business.
46:50 – The questionnaire.
49:26 – Contacting John.
Resources and Links Mentioned:
John’s podcast, The Successful Pitch