Sales Presentation Tips from the Apple Aisle.

Next time you have to deliver a new-business pitch, go to the produce department at Kroger. What you learn in the apple aisle could help you win the job.

Apple varieties are constantly engaging in their own form of competitive pitches. As you walk through the produce aisle, the Granny Smith, Fuji, Red Delicious and other apples are all vying for your business.  And the long-standing winner is the Red Delicious despite the fact that Fujis, Granny Smiths and many others all taste better by most accounts.

The Red Delicious’s reign as the most popular apple in America is no mystery. It’s a sexy apple! It’s shapelier. It’s redder.  It’s shinier.

But I see the apple competition differently. To my mind, Red Delicious wins because the consumer must decide based on limited information.  Decision-makers listening to new business presentations make decisions the same way. And therein lies a lesson in how to deliver pitches that win business.

Comparing Apples to Apples Is Hard

Standing in the apple aisle, you can’t know which apple will taste best.  Since you can’t taste before you buy, most people choose based on the limited data available - appearance.  So Red Delicious wins.

Competitive new business presentations are similar.   Say that you’re interviewing architects, law firms, contractors, software firms or any other type of vendor.

As a decision-maker you’re like the apple consumer.  Determining which firm is best is hard, maybe impossible.  Each one that you’re interviewing most likely has a sterling reputation and many happy clients.   Yet, most sellers waste time in their pitches overemphasizing qualifications, utterly failing to distinguish themselves from their competition.

As a decision-maker you want to know which firm will get the best result. But just as a consumer can’t taste an apple before buying, you can’t get the architect to design your building before you hire them. Nor can you get the lawyers to try your case before hiring them.  Nor can you have the contractor build the building before you hire them.

So You Pick Based on the Available Criteria

So if buyers of business services and products can’t distinguish reputations and can’t judge conclusively which firm will deliver the best result, what do they do?    Like the apple consumers, they decide based on things that they can judge.

The first thing that buyers can judge with certainty is where they have the best relationships.  If you’re losing lots of new business presentations, it may be because you don’t have strong enough relationships going into the pitch.  Networking counts.

Decision-makers can also judge whether the firm presents a strategy or an idea. Most new business pitches focus on qualifications.  Sellers can distinguish themselves by saying, “Here is how we plan to solve the challenges that you face with this project.”  The best pitches propose solutions.

Doing Business With People We Like

Next, corporate buyers can easily decide who they like personally.   An old saying in sales goes, “All things being equal, people do business with people they like. All things not being equal, people still do business with people they like.”  They don’t call competitive pitches “beauty contests” for nothing.  Delivering your pitch in a positive, friendly style is important. Huge decisions often come down to who has a nicer smile.

Next, buyers can easily judge who answered questions best.  The best sellers prepare exhaustively for questions from prospective clients.

Finally, buyers can easily judge who rehearsed.  Decision-makers constantly tell me that it’s obvious which firm prepared and which firm decided to “wing it.” Rehearse as if your cash flow depended on it.

To win a new business pitch, provide the decision-maker with information that allows her to make a distinction.  Do that well, and you’ll be the Red Delicious apple in the produce aisle of your industry’s marketplace.

Joey Asher is President of Speechworks. He is the author of  “Even A Geek Can Speak” and “Selling and Communication Skills for Lawyers.”  He can be reached at 404-266-0888 or by .