The perfect sales pitch: Examples and best practices

Your sales pitch is no longer the starting point—it’s a response to what buyers already know. HubSpot’s 2024 State of Sales Report found 96% of prospects research companies and products before engaging with a sales rep.

That means it’s not enough to simply regurgitate key points from your company’s website or speak to widely available data. Rather, to ensure you provide a great sales pitch (read: deliver a sales presentation that knocks your prospects’ socks off and keeps them actively engaged in discussions), you must:

• Relay the unique value proposition of your products or services and brand at large
• Build a sales deck using existing enablement collateral you modify for each buyer
• Make the prospect excited about the prospect of working with you as a partner
• Share data-driven customer stories to show the ROI existing clients have realised
• Know which type of business pitch to use in conversations in different funnel stages

As a B2B sales rep, you need to position your offering in a way that truly resonates with the prospective customers’ pain points. To do that, you need to understand their business, their needs, your competition, and a myriad of other factors.

But it’s easier said than done. According to Salesforce’s State of the Connected Customer Report, 84% of business buyers expect sales reps to be trusted advisors—yet 59% feel most never bother to learn their distinct challenges and needs.

With so much of the B2B buying journey happening digitally, you are in a unique position to make your pitch as meaningful as possible. You must close the gap between what buyers expect and what they get—by making every pitch a trust-building conversation.

What is a sales pitch?

A sales pitch is a concise, persuasive message that communicates how your products or services solve a buyer’s specific pain points. It’s not just about maintaining a prospect’s attention but also inspiring action by connecting value to need.

Unlike traditional sales pitches, a modern sales pitch is personalised, insight-led, and tailored to the buying process stage. What separates a good sales pitch from a great sales pitch is its ability to create emotional and rational alignment.

Whether delivered in phone calls, networking events, or other mediums and channels, today’s sellers must be ready to make a sales pitch that resonates on demand.

For today’s sales reps, success comes from mastering the combination of storytelling, timing, and credibility—whether it’s an in-person conversation, scheduled phone call, digital sales presentation, or other interaction with a lead.

Main components of a successful sales pitch

What should you say in a sales pitch? What language and positioning can help you close more deals? The answer: It depends on the audience and your research.

Regardless of the exact words, every captivating sales pitch has six components:

1. Hook

Start strong by capturing attention. This could be a provocative question, an intriguing fact, a mention of a mutual interest or connection, or a straightforward assertion that respects their time. Try these samples on your next sales call:

• “Curious about boosting your revenue?”
• “Did you know that 60% of CEOs feel …?”
• “I noticed you’re also into [shared interest]—small world!”
• “Here’s the scoop—no time wasted.”
• “It was great seeing you at [event]!”

Your email pitches and messages on social media platforms like LinkedIn, in particular, must be snappy and succinct. Buyers are inundated with one business pitch after another from vendors looking to close more deals. Don’t waste their time.

2. Problem

Show that you understand the pain points your potential customer is up against. The key is to make it specific and relatable, and ask questions that make them reflect on their situation. A compelling sales pitch incorporates a prospect’s Job to Be Done: the specific challenge or need they need solved yesterday.

Instead of saying, “Many businesses struggle with efficiency,” a good sales pitch ties directly to their world. The goal isn’t to overwhelm them with everything that could go wrong. Instead, it’s to zero in on the problem that matters most to them and make it clear you understand the impact it has on their success.

3. Value proposition

Once you’ve highlighted the problem, explain why your solution is the best answer. Your value proposition should go beyond features. It should be about the outcome your product or service delivers and why it matters to the buyer.

When conducting a Zoom or phone sales pitch, tie your organisation’s offerings to a tangible result and business impact: “Our solution gets new employees onboarded in half the time, boosting your team’s productivity and cutting training costs.”

The most effective sales pitches weave in brand messaging to ensure sales reps always (and only) speak to their products or services in the ideal manner.

4. Solutions

Detail how your product solves the identified problems discovered on your initial cold call or follow-up discovery call, and save the technical details for when they ask. (Ideally, these can be shared in a sales deck to ensure a fairly short sales pitch.)

Using your pitch deck to help visualise the impact, share what you believe they can realise from investing in your solutions compared to others’: “If you can reduce onboarding time by 50%, that gives you an extra quarter of productivity from every new hire—something your competitors aren’t capturing.”

The best solution makes the buyer think, “That’s exactly what I need.” Focus on ease, efficiency, and the positive business transformation you’re offering. Share a few examples that illustrate the ease with which your products can be used.

5. Social proof

Back up your claims with evidence. David Hoffeld, in The Science of Selling: Proven Strategies to Make Your Pitch, Influence Decisions, and Close the Deal, explains that using social proof assures prospects that buying your product is safe.

Sticking with the new-employee onboarding software example, consider mentioning something like, “I have another client in your space that has revolutionised its employee onboarding processes. How about I send you their case study?”

Taking part in AI-powered sales training—something offered by sales enablement platforms like Highspot, which also dynamically recommends collateral to share with leads and provides just-in-time guidance—helps sales reps like you know which assets, like customer testimonials, to share with active opportunities.

6. Clear call-to-action

The most impactful calls to action are short, memorable ones. Whether it’s a phone pitch, social sales pitch, or email pitch, close with a clear next step, such as suggesting a meeting time or asking for a response, to maintain momentum:

• “Would you be interested in exploring ways to boost your revenue together?”
• “How about a quick chat to dive deeper into this?”
• “I’d love to discuss this further. What does your schedule look like next week?”
• “Got a minute to explore some exciting opportunities?”
• “Could we grab a quick call next Tuesday to talk about this?”

Successful sales engagement isn’t just building bespoke pitch decks and blasting them to buyers via email or digital sales rooms. It’s also about differentiation. Your end-of-sales-pitch CTA is how you can distinguish your brand from others in your industry and reinforce your value proposition (without being pushy).

How to craft the best sales pitch

Create a great sales pitch with solid research, focusing on the customer, weave in storytelling, and add value. This will make all the difference in your sales process. With proper preparation, your sales pitch will hit the mark and truly resonate.

Here’s how you can build a compelling pitch that speaks to your prospects:

1. Do your homework about target accounts

Take the time to research your potential buyer’s company, and check LinkedIn or other social media platforms for common interests and current challenges to understand them on a personal level. You must find the problems and then solve them.

Dig into how they historically make purchase decisions, who is involved in buying decision-making, the obstacles they face, and your role in the entire process.

2. Frame pitches around the prospects’ needs

Every seller knows they should “make it about the customer”, but the best reps go deeper than that. Instead of repeating surface-level pain points, uncover the underlying business drivers. What’s really at stake if the problem isn’t solved—lost revenue, wasted time, slowed growth?

Use stats, industry benchmarks, and customer success data to validate their pain points. This not only reinforces their urgency to act but also positions your company as the expert they can trust to deliver value.

It’s also important to anticipate hidden needs. The problems they mention may only be surface-level symptoms. Show that you can address the root cause.

Consider using a solution selling or consultative selling approach. Both methods focus on building customer relationships and providing value, which helps you position yourself as a partner invested in the buyer’s success.

3. Tell a story leads will actually want to hear

“Stories are remembered up to 22 times more than facts alone,” behavioural scientist and Stanford University professor Dr. Jennifer Aaker once said. But not all stories are equally effective in a pitch. The best ones are succinct and buyer-focused.

Here’s how to sharpen your storytelling:

• Anchor the story to your customer’s reality. Share a narrative from their industry or a company facing a similar challenge.
• Highlight the tension. A good sales story has stakes—the cost of doing nothing, the struggle with old processes, or the competitive risk of falling behind.
• Show the transformation. Paint a before-and-after picture that makes the value of your solution tangible.
• Use visual aids and analogies. A chart, a simple metaphor, or even a short anecdote can make complex points stick.

If the buyer can retell it later to their team in one or two sentences, you’ve nailed it.

Also, know your prospects’ motivations and concerns. Craft your pitch to resonate with what you find by using buyer psychology and appeal to buyer personas using psychological triggers like social proof, authority, scarcity, and reciprocity.

4. Add personalised touches to your sales pitch

Buyers expect companies to deliver personalised interactions, and most of them get frustrated when this doesn’t happen. That said, you must show you understand their priorities better than anyone else. They expect that level of effort, and they notice when it’s missing.

Top sellers use personalisation in three ways:

• By role. A CMO cares about brand reach, while a VP of Sales focuses on pipeline health. Adjust your proof points accordingly.
• By industry. Anchor your pitch in their market context. A SaaS buyer and a healthcare provider may have similar challenges, but their compliance and growth pressures look different.
• By timing. Tie your pitch to what’s happening now—whether it’s a product launch, expansion into new markets, or even a shift in regulations.

Tools like Highspot’s AutoDocs allow your sales team to generate tailored content directly from CRM data without leaving their workflow. This unified enablement platform also shows what content resonates, how buyers are interacting with it, and where to follow up—giving you the insight to effectively personalise your pitch.

5. Test the formatting and structure of pitches

Even the strongest pitch can lose impact if it’s delivered the same way every time. Try varying your openings and style:

• Start with a question: “How much time does your team spend searching for the right content before every client call?”
• Lead with a statistic: “Companies that streamline onboarding see productivity gains of up to 25% in the first quarter.”
• Use a one-word hook: “Efficiency.”
• Tell a story: “Last month, a client in your industry cut their reporting time in half—here’s how we helped them do it.”
• Paint a scenario: “Imagine your team closing deals faster because every rep has exactly the content they need at the right time.”

Keeping your approach dynamic helps maintain the prospect’s interest and allows you to adapt to different personalities and situations. You might find one style that works best after testing them out.

6. Keep pitch length in mind

Adapt the length of your pitch to fit the communication method, whether it’s a quick email, a cold call, or a more extended sales presentation.

Sales email pitches should be concise, typically under 200 words, while calls should only be a few minutes of engaging dialogue—as short as an elevator ride—to maintain attention without overwhelming prospective clients.

A 2024 study by Constant Contact found that emails with around 20 lines of text and three or fewer images achieve the highest click-through rates. Similarly, TED Talks limit presentations to 18 minutes to keep audiences engaged.

You can convey your message without compromising time and interest by tailoring your pitch length to the channel and audience.

7. Practice your delivery

Regular practice is key to a smooth, confident delivery. Incorporate pitch practice into onboarding and ongoing training to help sales teams refine their approach and stay sharp.

It’s important to organise regular pitch practice sessions where reps can present to their peers or supervisors acting as prospective customers.

Try using different scenarios and customer personas to make the experience more realistic. Record these sessions for later analysis and provide structured feedback on language use, persuasion techniques, and handling objections.

AI sales role play streamlines this process by letting your reps rehearse real-world scenarios with instant feedback on tone and delivery, sharpening key skills. It also tracks progress over time, helping you spot gaps and coach more effectively.

“You don’t need a full rollout to see value from AI role play.” per Highspot’s 5 Ways to Help Sellers Win with AI Role Play guide. “Instead, start small. Pick one real sales moment your team struggles with. Build a rehearsal scenario. Invite a few reps to try it before a live call. Then, ask what helped and what didn’t.”

8. Anticipate questions and objections

Be ready to handle need, urgency, trust, and money objections. In complex sales, this requires building a case to overcome the objections rather than quickly plowing through them without listening and understanding.

When it comes to competitive questions or objections, have battle cards or SWOT analyses available as quick reference points. Be empathic, provide evidence or examples, and tie your response back to the value your solution delivers.

9. Follow-up

Keep the momentum going after your pitch. Contact your prospect to address any questions, provide additional information based on new learnings, and reinforce value. Timing is key. Don’t rush it, and don’t wait too long, either.

Digital sales rooms can play a key role in your follow-up strategy. These refer to highly personalised virtual spaces tailored to each prospect. It packages all relevant content—from your sales deck and product pitch to case studies and whitepapers.

Prospects can explore the provided content at their own pace, revisit important information, and even share it with other decision-makers within their organisation. This makes the sales process more efficient, leading to quicker decision-making.

Sales pitch examples that capture customer attention

What does blending all these components into one sales pitch look like? Sales pitches come in various flavours, such as phone calls, emails, follow-up outreach, or full-blown presentations.

Regardless of the format, the goal remains: grab your prospect’s attention and guide them through the sales funnel. Here are some sales pitch templates you can use:

Phone sales pitch

A phone pitch is a quick and direct approach to engage prospects via phone. The goal is to capture interest with a hook, focus on the prospect’s needs, and schedule a follow-up meeting or call.

For example, “Hi [Prospect’s Name], this is [Your Name] from [Your Company]. I noticed that [Prospect’s Company] is focusing on [specific area], and we’ve helped companies like yours achieve [specific benefit]. Can we schedule a call next week to discuss how we can help you achieve similar results?”

Email sales pitch

RAIN Group’s Top Performance in Sales Prospecting found that 80% of buyers prefer email communications. Use that to your advantage by crafting a great email sales pitch. Focus on developing a catchy subject, personalising the opening line, highlighting differentiators, and finishing with a CTA.

Elevator pitch

An elevator pitch is a concise summary of your business or product, typically delivered in 30-60 seconds, like an elevator ride. During the pitch, you want to quickly convey the value of your offering to spark interest and create a strong first impression.

For example, you might say, “Did you know 75% of businesses struggle with unorganised workflow, wasting a lot of time and resources? Our product eliminates this chaos. It simplifies workflow management, enhances productivity, and reduces overhead costs. Unlike other solutions, ours boosts efficiency by 40%, proven by our customer success stories.”

Sales presentation pitch

A sales presentation pitch, which also includes your sales deck, shows the value you bring to the customer. It should answer “why buy,” “why buy from us,” and “why buy now.” Tailor your pitch deck to meet your audience’s needs and avoid sharing unnecessary details to fill time.

• Introduction (1-2 minutes): Greet the buyer, introduce yourself and your company to them, and share a compelling fact or statistic about your business.
• Problem statement (2-3 minutes): Using a mix of both data and anecdotes, define the main challenges your prospect faces, from your perspective.
• Solution overview (3-4 minutes): Present your products and services as the ideal solution for potential customers, highlighting unique selling points.
• Unique selling proposition (3-4 minutes): Detail key features and benefits, and explain what differentiates your company’s offerings from competitors.
• Case studies and social proof (2-3 minutes): Share success stories from similar clients.
• Demonstration (optional) (3-4 minutes): Provide a brief product demo, if applicable.
• Q&A session (2-3 minutes): Address questions, comments, concerns, and objections.
• Call to action (1-2 minutes): State the next steps clearly and provide contact information.
• Conclusion (1 minute): Recap key points from the call, and thank the lead for their time.

Website sales pitch

This type of sales pitch involves content on your website designed to attract and convert visitors using a form to request a demo, call, or purchase the product.

Use unique and valuable sales collateral and calls to action. Include a variety of content that aligns with all sales funnel stages, including white papers, customer testimonials and case studies, and product documentation

Follow-up pitch

Use a follow-up pitch after your initial interaction to maintain interest and move the prospect closer to a decision. You will remind the prospect of your offer and encourage them to engage further. Reference an anecdote from the previous interaction to show continuity and personal attention.

For example, “Hi [Prospect’s Name], I hope you’re having a great week. I ran across this case study from [Client], who achieved [result] using our solution. Do you have time this week to discuss the next steps? Best, [Your Name]”

Make every sales pitch count

Sales pitches don’t need to feel uncomfortable. Armed with these creative sales pitch ideas and techniques, you can design a pitch that resonates perfectly with your target audience. This ensures your approach is flawless, captivating your buyers and consistently moving them to the next stage of the sales process.

Answering FAQs on sales pitches

You know that evolving from a good sales pitch to a great one takes time and practice. But we also know you, like many other sellers out there, have more nuanced questions about how to best connect with and convert customers.

With that in mind, here are answers to some FAQs on sales pitches.

What’s the difference between a sales pitch and a product pitch?

A product pitch highlights features and benefits of a product. A sales pitch goes further, focusing on the buyer’s specific challenges and showing how your solution delivers value and outcomes that matter to them.

What common mistakes should I avoid in a sales pitch?

Avoid focusing solely on your product, overloading the pitch with jargon, or using a one-size-fits-all message. Also, don’t speak too fast, neglect personalisation, or fail to anticipate objections—these can undermine credibility and engagement.

How do I know if my sales pitch is effective?

An effective pitch gets the buyer engaged, asks questions, and shows interest in next steps. Track outcomes like follow-up meetings, positive feedback, or conversions, and refine your approach based on what consistently resonates.

How do I handle an uninterested prospect?

Acknowledge their reaction and pivot by asking questions to uncover their priorities or challenges. Adjust your approach to focus on what matters to them, keeping the conversation relevant and demonstrating that you understand their perspective.