How-To Guide: Crafting the perfect pitch

Whether you’re reaching out to a local business for the first time or meeting a prospective advertiser, your sales pitch should clearly communicate why your campus audience is valuable to them and how partnering with your publication is mutually beneficial.

Why your sales pitch is important

Your sales pitch is often a prospective client’s first impression of your student media publication. A strong pitch can demonstrate value and create an opportunity to learn more about their business. 

The goal of delivering your pitch isn’t to tell a prospect everything they need to know about your publication. A successful pitch connects the client’s needs with your advertising opportunities and products; it gives them a reason to continue the conversation and invest in your organization. 

Steps to strengthening your pitch

Before your next outreach, use these simple practices to help make your sales pitches more relevant and effective. 

1. Research your prospect

Take the time to learn about the person you are reaching out to and their business before you meet with them. Browse their website, social media, or other available information they might have to better understand what they offer and who they want to reach. 

Search for opportunities that could help you structure your pitch around their objectives. This will help the prospect feel heard and supported rather than feeling like they are hearing a pitch you would give to every business. 

The business might be:

• Hiring
• Opening a new location
• Promoting an event
• Introducing a student discount or memberships
• Trying to gain more foot traffic

2. Lead with value

Give the prospect an understanding of why they should work with your organization before you discuss specific advertising products.

Think beyond the products your student media organization sells. Your advertising products like print, email newsletters, or social media are all strategic avenues you can present to the prospective client to reach your audience. 

Demonstrate valuable information about readership, distribution, reach, or audience demographics to remind them that your products reach their target audience in unique ways. Focus on the information that may matter most to that client. An employer may want to reach students looking for summer jobs, or a restaurant may want to reach students on the weekends. 

3. Connect your products with your goals

Once you understand what the prospect may want to accomplish, now is the time to connect your advertising channels with their goals. Recommend products based on accomplishing those objectives rather than presenting every option in your media kit to try and get a big sale. 

Some common advertisers’ goals are: 

• Increasing brand awareness
• Attracting more customers into their business
• Hiring student employees
• Promoting an upcoming event

4. Give them the next steps

End your initial meeting with the prospect with a clear next step. Whether that is scheduling a meeting, sending over your media kit, creating a media proposal, or following up. This makes it easier to continue the conversation and move toward a potential partnership. 

Practice makes perfect

Your sales pitch should sound strong and natural rather than rehearsed and general for every client. Practice explaining your publication’s value to different types of prospective advertisers. Read flytedesk’s article on creating and using value propositions.

Role-playing sales conversations with your team can help you become more comfortable explaining your value, answering questions, and tailoring your pitch based on the prospect’s goals. 

As you deliver more pitches and have more sales conversations, pay attention to what worked and what got their attention and share it with the rest of your team for better success. 

What’s next?

Before reaching out to your next prospective advertiser, take time to follow these simple steps to prepare your pitch. 

Your pitch doesn’t need to sell everything your student media organization offers. It needs to show the prospect why reaching your audience through your advertising channels can help their business. 

Reach out to your flytedesk account manager for more support on strengthening your sales pitch.