3 rules for writing the perfect pitch

Working for yourself means knowing exactly what you have to offer people and telling them in a clear cut way that makes them want to say, “Yes!”

The best pitch sounds so true to you that it feels like a natural conversation — one where you care about the other person and they are interested in what you have to say. This is why people who are great at pitching seem to be a magnet for money. But this is also why anyone can be great at pitching because it’s really about knowing yourself and knowing what you have to offer.

Here are the three rules you need to know:

1. All good pitches have a hook that gets around a negative response.

If you’re a freelancer, specialize. You should learn to sell what’s special about you. Your pitch should rise above the noise of other freelancers by highlighting what is different about you. This makes you look like a rare find and hard to pass up.

If you are a big thinker, don’t sell your time, sell your ideas. Buying and selling ideas should be fun. Learn to package your ideas to sell like point-of-checkout items at the end of a scintillating phone call. Instead of playing it safe and easy, find the biggest idea you’ve got, and then pitch it to senior people at companies because it’s their job to think of big ideas so you are helping them. Bonus: senior executive are also the people who can quickly approve the expenditure, so you can close faster.

If you sell products, sell more than one. You can’t sell if you cringe each time you hear “No”. So instead, think of it an opportunity to add that person to your sales pipeline. Keep a list of people who told you “No,” and pitch them a new idea a few weeks later. You have tons of ideas that you could be selling, learn how to turn your ideas into products so you always have a second chance.

2. Pitch each person when they are most likely to listen.

Each person has a sweet spot during the day for receiving a sales pitch.

Pitch startup founders late at night. They always work insane hours and most executives are catching up on emails late at night. Also, it makes you look like a total hustler, which is like the biggest asset you can have when working with a startup.

Pitch agencies and big companies early in the morning. Big companies value people who are productive, efficient and work normal hours. So schedule all your pitches to go out at 8am, which makes you look like the type of person who wakes up early.

Pitch moms at 9pm. Wired magazine reports that women who can manage a big job and kids often take time off during the day and make it up after the kids are in bed. If you send an email in the daytime, you’ll be lost in a flurry of activity. If you send an email between 9 and 10pm you are in her sweet spot – she’s highly productive with few people besides you clamoring for attention.

3. Don’t pretend to be something you’re not

Most people who work for themselves think they need a fancy website and corporate email address to get started. Forget it.

Send your pitches from your personal Gmail address. Research shows that people respond faster to an email from an individual than a company. Why? Because we assume hiring a company is a big, involved, process. But also, we love to hire interesting people who are building a career on their own terms.

Its exciting (and cheaper!) than hiring a huge company to help grow a business.

So be yourself. Be on your own, and be proud to show what makes you different. That’s the fastest way to creating a revenue stream you can be proud of.

Published in collaboration with LinkedIn

Author: Penelope Trunk is Founder and CEO at Quistic

Image: A picture of a woman in an office using a computer mouse. REUTERS/Catherine Benson