What Not To Say When Pitching A New Client

Perhaps the most engaged we ever get is when pitching (marketing) our own business. Face to face conversation with someone you are meeting for the first time is a very compelling opportunity to explain how good your promotional skills and industry knowledge is. 

For many years I was in a position that involved what can be called “mutual interviews” with distributors and sales professionals that wanted to become associated with the company I worked for. My first question was “What is important that a new prospect knows about you and your business”. A partial list of responses include: I get things done on time; some of the largest companies like Smith Development do lots of business with me; Give me your business and I guarantee you will be happy; we beat online prices all the time; Promotions we do for our customers always build sales; I can always find you great stuff on sale. 

Obviously I could go on with many other examples of response, maybe even some you have used! Aside from problems inherent in the statements themselves, consider that your prospect will hear the same things from your competitors. What a competitor can’t discuss with a prospect is you! Many of the comments I received, as shown above, are product focused. Unless you are a supplier selling directly to end buyers, any product discussion this early in an initial meeting will not usually establish a relationship building environment. New clients are looking for trust, honesty and courtesy along with a great consumer experience.

Know your business well and present that information. If a good amount, state what percent of your business is from repeat clients, what is from referrals. Give your on time delivery score.  Show strong interest in the client and ask questions that give the prospect an opportunity to talk about their business. Don’t discuss other clients unless you have specific permission from your established client to use their name. 

So what not to say when pitching a new client? If you keep in mind that any business you end up securing from the client creates a contract, that an actual written document with the title “contract” or a work order or anything other than a verbal agreement is necessary, you can generally guide yourself away from saying the wrong thing. 

Avoid anything that creates an obligation on your business. Words like guarantee and ongoing promises like “always having better prices” can have unintended consequences. Thinking that this will never be a problem for you will only last until it is!

The best way to keep things working well is to promote yourself to potential clients, outlining your skills and knowledge, mentioning recognition you received and anything else that makes you stand out. Even if you do all that, I still recommend that you use a work order or acknowledgement that specifies what you are going to do for the client, the costs, proposed delivery schedule and charges and basically all the information that will end up on the invoice you give your client.

Along with the work order a detailed agreement should be on the  reverse of that document. There are hundreds of examples online (search: disclaimers for printers). The agreement can also serve as a receipt should the project involve a deposit or payment. Review the sample documents and edit as appropriate for your business. Consider using the title “Terms of Sale” which is a positive expression rather than the negative “Disclaimer” (my university semantics professor deserves credit here!)

Potentially the most trouble you can get in if you are not using a disclaimer is in the area of  Incidental, Consequential or Special, Damages. Basically you could be responsible for things you had no control over. Joe Candidate didn’t get his campaign items on time and blames you for losing the election. Mary’s wedding was ruined because her guest’s gifts were delivered to the wrong address!  Without a disclaimer (an agreement between you and your client) your liability might be whatever the “injured” client says it is! I always stated that damages resulting from any source (missed delivery deadline, wrong imprint color, misspelling, poor quality imprint, etc.) was limited to the return of any payment and cancellation of the order.

Protect your business and filter out potential problems (prospect that won’t accept your terms)