6 Powerful Sales Pitch Examples ft Startups (With Tips & Templates)

Connecting with prospective customers is harder than it used to be—so much so that sales reps are performing more research on every prospect before establishing rapport in the initial sales pitch.  

The numbers show it.

At the start of the pandemic, 34% of sales professionals used sales technology for prospect research and other activities every week. In just two years, it rose to 80%.

With personalization at scale in a world of automated outreaches, it raises the question: what are the sales pitches that work best these days?

That’s what we set out to answer today.

In this guide, you’ll learn the six sales pitch examples (used by actual startups!) to help you get better deals.

What is a Sales Pitch?

A sales pitch is a written or verbal attempt to convince customers to buy your product or service.

Unlike a product pitch that targets VC firms for investment and focuses on the product’s competitive advantage, a sales pitch targets clients for purchases and centers on the product’s benefits.

How Do You Write a Killer Sales Pitch?

Products without a unique selling proposition (USP) don’t fly off the shelves. Before scrolling further, ensure your product meets the target audience’s needs. Then try these tactics to improve your pitch.

Identify the trigger

Customers don’t buy when they’re in pain.

They buy because specific trigger events led them to do so.

This can look like a myriad of ways: 

• For a contact scoring platform, the trigger event is missing a $10M sales opportunity because an SDR reached out too late
• For an automated marketing reporting solution, it’s spending too much time on manual reporting and neglecting value-added activities
• For a digital asset management platform, it’s sending the wrong product spec sheet to a high-value buyer because of a file archival mistake  

Speak to your best customers today to identify these triggers. Questions like “What made you decide to book a demo?” uncover specific events you haven’t considered.

Emphasize your wins

75% of consumers search for reviews and testimonials before making a purchase. 

Feature your case studies in your sales sequence. Not only does social proof stack up your product against competitors, but it also supports its value with data no one can dispute.

Include common objections  

86% of Americans believe transparency from businesses is more important than ever. Out of this group, 59% say transparency is when businesses are open (59%), followed by clear (53%) and honest (49%).

Address your most common objections up front. Better if you anticipate an objection from a competing company and show prospects how they can respond and counter their argument. 

Buyers will appreciate your candor and see you as a trusted authority in your field.

Before vs After: What an Effective Sales Pitch Looks Like

Using the three tactics above, we might turn a generic sales pitch:

“Hi [Prospective client],

Our link-building agency helps you generate backlinks from 90+ DR sites. I wanted to offer you a free link-building audit to see where your site stands. Any interest?”

… to:

“Hi [Prospective client],

From my experience working with businesses in [industry], many are concerned their organic traffic declines and their posts get buried in search results from their link-building efforts [identify trigger]. 

This is where our agency comes in.

We help companies like [prospect’s company] build quality links so you can focus on what you love—creating content that clicks with your audience. 

Most of the customers we spoke to have been badly burned by PR release links [bring up common objection]. Here, we prioritize dofollow links on 90+ DR sites like HubSpot and New York Times.

Our client, [company name], has increased traffic by 145% and the number of demos booked from 11 to 34 last month [emphasize wins].

We’re currently offering a free link-building audit for the first 100 clients. Are you interested in signing up?”

There are more tactics at play here…did you spot them? 

Don’t worry if you don’t, because that’s what we’ll cover below.

What are Some Good Sales Pitch Examples Today? We Share Our 6 Favorites Here

Successful sales pitches grab attention, start conversations, and win profitable deals. These six sales pitch examples, complete with templates, show you how to get them right. Use them across your sales channels. 

1. Cold outreach

Personalized emails generate a 32.7% better response rate.

Tailoring an email isn’t just addressing the recipient’s first name. It’s showing prospective buyers you understand their unique struggles and desires.

And one way to do this is to agitate a prospect’s frustration.

Note how Jestor lists a common struggle (“manage everything by spreadsheet with a lot of information and people involved”) and agitates it (“delaying the sales cycle and distribution”) in its email sales pitch below.

Jestor’s cold email pitch struck a chord, prompting the prospective buyer to schedule a call.

To craft an outreach personalized to the recipient’s unique needs, zero in your ideal customer profile (ICP).

Consider using Breadcrumbs to discover who makes up your best customers. Automatically gather your existing marketing, sales, and product data into one place, and identify the attributes and actions that impact your company’s revenue today.

Here’s how it works:

1. Connect all your data sources with Breadcrumbs
2. Choose the customer segment that defines success(e.g., all customers on Pro plan)
3. Reveal your results

You’ll end up with a report similar to the one below. Here, you can identify the industries, countries, and job titles of your most profitable customers today. 

Update your ICP accordingly.

Now that you’ve narrowed down the attributes to focus on, reach out to customers who meet these criteria for an interview.  

Distill their responses into a buyer persona, focusing on their demographics, psychographics, buying profile, job profile, and pain points and challenges. 

Distribute your buyer persona to all customer-facing departments, including the sales team. With the audience data in your ICP and buyer persona, sales reps can now tailor their outreach and identify the most effective messages for every prospective buyer.

Here’s how it might look:

1. Connect your CRM with Breadcrumbs
2. Determine who makes a sales-qualified lead in the Fit category (e.g., CMO in a $50ARR FinTech company)
3. Determine what makes a sales-qualified lead in the Activity category (e.g., visits pricing page 3 times within a week)
4. Set the scoring model live

Breadcrumbs will send all scoring information back to your CRM. Whenever a lead hits or crosses the sales-qualified lead threshold, Breadcrumbs will notify you of the sales opportunity.

Alternatively, use Breadcrumbs Copilot to build a scoring model automatically. 

It will suggest the Fit and Activity categories based on your data. From here, you can adjust and fine-tune the categories accordingly.

Breadcrumbs also works for cross- and upselling customers and at-risk users. Identify your most promising leads and close more deals today.

Sales Pitch Example #1: Cold Outreach Template

Hi [Prospect],

[1-3 lines to establish rapport e.g., “I noticed you posting about XXX on LinkedIn]

We help companies in [prospect’s industry] to create/achieve/accomplish [prospect’s desired outcome].

From our experience working with these companies, we discovered many struggles with [common pain point]. This often ends up wasting/hurting/causing [agitated pain point].

Is this something you need help with? If so, I’d love to chat and explore how we can help.

[call to action]

Key takeaway for this sales pitch examples #1: Start with the prospect’s pain and agitate it. It’ll drive home the message before you position your product or service as an irreplaceable solution.

2. Free trial pitch

Your unique value proposition seals the deal. 

It can be a valuable feature users only find in your product, world-class customer support in 30 seconds, or a free trial with hardware included.

Force by Mojio is a GPS fleet tracking solution. Unlike competitors that require prospective customers to jump through multiple hoops to get a quote, this startup offers a 14-day trial with free tracking devices—no further questions asked.

Force by Mojio emphasizes its free trial in its sales pitch.

A rep speaks to us:

“Since we don’t trap customers into a contract or hidden payment, they’re more convinced to try our product. The first-hand experience leads to further business.

It builds brand trust. 

We position ourselves as trustworthy and customer-focused. We also tell potential customers reputable businesses have used our product to boost credibility.”

Sales Pitch Example #2: Free Trial Pitch Template

Unlike [competing product(s)], [product] [state USP]

[call to action]

 Key takeaway for this sales pitch examples #2: Lead with your USP to set your product apart from the competition.

3. Objections pitch

What happens when a sales rep brings up a customer’s objection unprompted? 

According to reddit user, These-Season-2611, who works for a recruitment company, raising a common objection right at the start increased the number of bookings.

Here’s the sales pitch in its glory:

"We often speak to HR leaders of companies who might not be actively hiring right now, but when they do, they’re frustrated by [pain points]. However, I guess you might not recognize any of those issues or you might tell me you don't use agencies."

The last sentence is key, because it prompts the buyer to agree or disagree with the statement and keeps the conversation going. Don’t worry about challenging the buyer at this stage, because 89% of buyers are more likely to consider your product if you change their way of thinking.

Even if potential buyers end up declining—say they have a strict company-wide policy to never hire recruiters—you can disqualify them immediately and move on to the next prospects.

Raising objections up front instills trust. 

It tells the buyer you’re confident in the product you’re selling. Or as another reddit user puts it, you’re defusing an issue before it becomes an issue. 

Sales Pitch Example #3: Objection Pitch Template

Hi [Prospect],

From our conversations with [ICP], we learned they’re often frustrated by [pain points]. 

However, I guess you might experience none of these issues or you might tell me you don’t [insert objection]. 

Did I get this right?

Key takeaway for this sales pitch examples #3: Turn objections into opportunities. Wrap them into a question in your sales pitch to keep the conversation going.

4. Closing sales pitch

After creating a sense of urgency, an entrepreneur raised his conversation rate from 2.5% to 10.8%.

Joshua Feinberg uses a similar strategy in his warm sales pitch:

“This [date], we're finalizing our [monthly training, workshop, or consulting] onboarding schedule. Let me know before the weekend if you want to be on it.”

Notice how this pitch creates FOMO? It pushes right-fit clients over the finish line without discounting. 

It’s important to note the CEO of Data Center Sales and Marketing (formerly SP Home Run Inc.) uses the pitch only for engaged prospects lower in the funnel.

“The sales rep has uncovered a strong need in the exploratory process and recommended a certain course of action. However, for a multitude of reasons, the momentum of the deal becoming closed-won stalls there—until this follow-up email.”

Joshua Feinberg, CEO of SP Home Run Inc. on when he uses the sales pitch 

Nail your value proposition, trust, and clarity and relevance of the offer before sending this pitch. Without these elements, urgency won’t work.

Sales Pitch Example #4: Closing Sales Pitch Template

Hi [Prospect],

Your [offer/incentive] is ending on [date]. 

Is it still of interest?

[call to action]

Key takeaway for this sales pitch examples #4: Urgency pushes prospects to act. Leverage FOMO in your sales pitches to get them to respond stat.

5. Value-first follow-up sales pitch

Experts say you should send four to nine cold email follow-ups. 

However, with the average full-time worker receiving 120 messages every day, you can’t always be sure your follow-up pitch stands out in an overcrowded inbox—especially when the prospective buyer has already ignored you once.

HelpCrunch breaks through the noise with a value-first follow-up pitch.

Notice how the SDR leads with an insight (“revenue growth correlates with how fast you connect your leads with your sales reps”) and strategically segues to the impressive results (“doubled the number of demos from 32 to 69 per rep within three months”).

It creates a curiosity gap in the prospective buyer, teasing them to read the rest of the email.

HelpCrunch then introduces itself and its track record (“already helped 800+ small businesses like XXX”) before making the prospect feel valued. 

The sentence “…we really need your expertise to review the new version of the product” speaks of the startup’s co-creation process and recognizes the prospect’s expertise. 

Both highlight the startup’s collaborative environment and efforts towards strengthening its relationship with customers.  

Sales Pitch Example #5: Value-first Follow-up Sales Pitch Template

Hi [Prospect],

Do you spend your nights thinking about [common pain point]? In our experience, we discovered [unique insight].

Here’s what we mean. We improved/doubled/reduced [objective + proof].

Here at [your company], we help [ICP] [what your product solves].

Are you interested to know more about how [product] helps you achieve [desired outcome]?

[call to action]

Key takeaway for this sales pitch examples #5: Lead with an insight and back it up with results. More importantly, make your prospects feel valued. For HelpCrunch, it invites customers to co-create its new product.

6. Case study follow-up sales pitch

39% of SaaS companies found case studies to be the most effective at driving sales—proving once again that buyers want to know how companies like them achieve extraordinary results and (hopefully) replicate them down the road.

HelpCrunch features its best-performing success story in its follow-up email. 

Note how it opens with an impressive outcome (“Check out how SE Ranking improved their customer success results by 40%) before supporting it with the client’s headshot and testimonial. It adds a human touch and an extra oomph to the product’s value.

Pro tip: if your customer wants to remain anonymous, use descriptors. Replace their company name with the industry they’re in (e.g., a manufacturing company, an early-stage FemTech startup) and revenue numbers with percentage.

Finally, the SDR invites the recipient to see how the platform works on the hero customer’s website—which is a fantastic way to help prospective customers visualize what it’s like to use your product.

Sales Pitch Example #6: Case Study Follow-up Sales Pitch Template

Hi [Prospect],

Here’s something that might be of interest.

[company] recently improved their [objective] by X% after using [product]. +Link to case study/social proof

[headshot and testimonial of hero customer] 

Our team can help you set up within [timeline].

Interested?

[call to action]

Key takeaway for this sales pitch examples #6: Let your customer stories do the talking. 

After sending your perfect sales pitch, it’s time for a fun read: 5 Moods After a Sales Pitch.

Try These Sales Pitch Examples Today

Personalization remains at the core of all successful sales pitches, whether it’s a LinkedIn message or an email-only sales sequence.

Consider using Breadcrumbs to tailor your outreach and spot the most effective messages for every prospective buyer.

Breadcrumbs is a co-dynamic revenue acceleration platform. Identify your most profitable customers and gather your product analytics and email and website activity in one place. 

Start your free plan to close better deals today.