Beware of Dog & Pony Show Pitches from Hell!

Team-Delivered Sales Pitches (TDSPs) are still common in the marketplace today – some are effective, efficient and engaging sales messages. But, unfortunately, too many become ‘Dog & Pony Show Pitches from Hell‘. What pushes them over the edge is poor planning and preparation, just as with other types of workplace presentations.

The results can be very painful for the prospects or customers listening to that pitch:

  • Often, a TDSP takes longer to deliver the same amount of sales information as a single-presenter pitch.
  • The poor planning results in too much unintentional repetition or overlap of information. Prospects hear ‘As Bill said … ‘ all too often.
  • Clumsy transitions between presenters create the impression – often quite accurate – that they never practiced together or coordinated what they were going to do.
  • The prospects may wonder why they’re being forced to endure several speakers of varying competency, when one speaker with the best skills would be better for their informational needs.
  • Why Deliver a TDSP at all?

There are good customer-centric reasons that well-intended teams often use to justify their TDSPs. Chief among them are the inability of any one speaker to handle all the technical information in the pitch and their motivation to showcase several sales team members as an indication of commitment to the prospect’s project. While these reasons make some sense, effective customer-centric pitches require thorough planning and preparation to avoid the pitfalls mentioned above.

To avoid such Dog & Pony Show Pitches from Hell, answer these important questions honestly and thoughtfully:

  • Why and how will having a TDSP add incremental value to accomplishing your sales goals and objectives?
  • What’s in it for the prospects, when the entire sales message could be delivered just as well by one speaker?
  • How will you decide on roles, responsibility and content sequence issues?
  • How much time will your team be able to practice the pitch?
  • If you’re happy with the answers to these questions, then proceed with your TDSP. If not – don’t.  Assuming you do decide to deliver one, be sure to check in next month, when we discuss Best Practices for avoiding Dog & Pony Show Pitches from Hell!

Happy Pitching!