Delivering the perfect sales pitch is one of the most challenging sales skills to master—both for inside and field sellers. A sales pitch must be confident, impactful, and quick. It should grab a buyer’s attention, capture trust, and leave a curiosity gap. A great pitch doesn’t happen by accident—it takes practice, preparation, and feedback. Yet, sales managers and enablement teams aren’t always able to provide the thoughtful and attentive evaluations and feedback reps need to develop their pitch.
So why is sales coaching and training difficult to get right? And how can companies set their sellers, sales managers, and enablement professionals up for success?
Sellers lack confidence and the right feedback to improve
Effective practice and training make the difference between a successful sales pitch and a missed opportunity. Practice and preparation help sellers build the confidence and authority to deliver a powerful pitch credibly.
However, many sellers are not properly equipped to grow their sales pitch skills. Only 38% of sellers say their managers enable them to develop the skills they need for their role today, and only 34% are set up to develop the skills they need for the future (Gartner).
Sellers need continuous feedback to deliver an effective sales pitch properly. Sales managers and enablement professionals must provide sellers with this actionable feedback to grow and develop their pitch skills. And sellers see and feel the difference proper coaching delivers: 62% of sellers agree that “the feedback and coaching I receive helps improve my performance” (Forrester).
62% of sellers agree that feedback and coaching helps them improve their performance.
Source: Forrester
Busy and overloaded enablement and sales managers
Today’s macro-economic climate forces enablement teams to do more with less and prioritize efforts to optimize sales effectiveness. It also challenges sales and enablement teams to make tough decisions on where to invest time and resources, often leaving less room for hands-on, personal sales training and coaching.
Sales managers struggle to provide adequate and personalized guidance to every seller. After spending time in meetings, managing emails and messages, and helping to close deals, sales managers have little time to dedicate to coaching. More than that, many sales managers don’t feel fully equipped to coach their sellers. 42% of managers report that they lack the confidence to help sellers develop the right skills for today (Gartner).
Sales managers and enablement professionals need a more scalable and sustainable way to coach and train reps at an individual level.
Technology is not leveraged to its full potential
New technology promised to alleviate the burden of admin duties on sales managers, ease the challenges of reviews and feedback, and provide greater insights. However, much of this technology has simply moved the pains online instead of supporting or solving them.
Only 39% of sales reps report their managers effectively use technology to coach (Gartner), which indicates that organizations have yet to capitalize on potential benefits.
In fact, 38% of companies who coach reps on call performance do so “at random” (revenue.io). Data is not used to drive more than 60% of coaching feedback and training. Plus, the volume of data modern sales teams produce is too overwhelming to draw insights or even review.
38% of companies who coach reps on call performance do so “at random.”
Source: revenue.io
While a hands-on approach to sales coaching offers the potential for personalized attention, it is difficult to scale or maintain. Organizations need technology that efficiently supports seller effectiveness.
Introducing Showpad PitchAI
Showpad’s latest sales coaching software, PitchAI, leverages new AI technology to evaluate sales pitch submissions. Reps use the tool to easily record and practice pitches, receiving instant and actionable feedback to improve pitch quality. PitchAI lets sellers build confidence through practice and learning to win more deals.
Showpad’s PitchAI makes sales coaching effective, intuitive, useful, and scalable.
How to optimize seller effectiveness with PitchAI
During sales pitches, buyers evaluate a seller’s credibility, sincerity, and knowledge through non-verbal communication. PitchAI instantly analyzes a seller’s pitch delivery across key parameters and provides direct feedback and guidance on what to improve to win the deal. The seller’s pitch is benchmarked against other top sellers in the same industry to provide context to PitchAI’s rating and performance scores. Pitch scores are directly tied to four pitch characteristics:
- Speed: How fast or slow the pitch delivery is and whether it’s understandable.
- Body language: How trustworthy, friendly, and approachable the seller appears.
- Silences: How and when to add or remove pauses.
- Happiness: How enthusiastic the pitch comes across overall.
PitchAI empowers sales and enablement managers and sellers to improve pitch quality, scale coaching, and drive more deals in four key ways:
- Immediately improves sales skills with tangible suggestions sellers can act on right away.
- Avoids exclusive reliance on managers to get feedback.
- Allows sellers to improve independently and in their own time, reducing ramp time during onboarding.
- Enhances performance with automatic benchmarks that add context and data-driven insights.
Support and coach sellers to develop higher-quality pitches faster. All done with less strain on team resources.
Book a demo page to see PitchAI in action and learn more about how Showpad gives enablement and sales teams a significant and sustainable boost.