Why Most Sales Pitches Fail Before They Even Begin
In the world of sales and marketing, there’s a growing obsession with how to reach prospects—should you use email? Cold calls? LinkedIn DMs? Video pitches? While channels and messaging matter, there’s a deeper issue that undermines even the slickest outreach: wrong targeting.
It doesn’t matter how clever, personalised, or persistent your pitch is—if you’re speaking to the wrong person, it’s already doomed to fail.
Why Targeting Trump’s Tactics
Sales isn’t just about persuasion—it’s about relevance. If your product or service doesn’t solve a real, urgent problem for the person you’re pitching, no amount of charm or follow-up cadence will save the deal.
Many sales pitches flop not because they’re poorly written or delivered, but because they’re delivered to someone who:
- Has no authority to make a decision
- Doesn’t experience the problem you solve
- isn’t in the right stage of the buying journey
- isn’t your ideal customer
The Cost of Poor Targeting
When you target the wrong audience:
- You burn time and budget on unqualified leads
- Your brand risks being seen as spammy or irrelevant
- Your sales team gets demoralised chasing dead ends
- Your data becomes polluted, leading to bad decisions
It’s like selling snow boots in the desert. You can have the best messaging in the world—it still won’t land.
Smart Targeting = Stronger Sales
Winning sales teams start by defining the who before the how. That means:
- Building detailed Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs)
- Using intent data to prioritise warm prospects
- Aligning sales and marketing on what “qualified” really means
- Constantly refining based on feedback and closed-won/closed-lost analysis
Final Thought
In sales, success doesn’t come from being louder or flashier—it comes from being more precise.
Go after the right people, and even a simple message can open doors. Go after the wrong ones, and even the best pitch will fall flat.