The 60-Second Sales Pitch

A close-up look at a script that promises to present a sales pitch in one minute, and why this approach is effective.

Tweet

Matt Hession realized that his target customers were much too busy to fit a standard sales call into their tightly packed schedules. so he chiseled out an irresistible solution

Got a minute? In Matt Hession's experience, just about everyone does. And besides, once people see Hession take off his watch, they can't wait to take in his act. "They think it's fascinating," admits the president of Key Medical Supply Inc. "They say to themselves, 'Hey, the entertainment just walked in."

Hession isn't visiting community drugstores merely to distract pharmacists from their dreary pill-stuffing chores. The 42-year-old Hession concluded that to interest them in a partnership aimed at selling or leasing such medical equipment as wheelchairs and oxygen concentrators, he'd need a flashy sales presentation that took up little of their time but still laid to rest their biggest fears.

"If you walk into a place looking like a salesman, you are going to get brushed off if you don't do something special," claims Hession, whose five-year-old company is based in Thibodaux, La. "My pitch gets to the crap faster than a clean shoe in a chicken coop." Not that he stepped into any of it accidentally. "It's as carefully engineered as a building," Hession says.

Just how did Hession come to build his dream structure? Out of desperation, mostly. In 1989 he paid about $20,000 for a marginally profitable medical-equipment business, which was tallying sales of $160,000 a year. He hoped the acquisition would enable him to diversify from his contract-nursing business. Key Nursing Corp., which he founded in 1982, had grown fast to post sales of $1.5 million a year, earning a spot on the Inc. 500 in 1987 and 1988. But growth had slowed, and, he confesses, "I'm a growth addict."

The early years of Key Medical left Hession's habit sorely underfed. Relying on referrals from hospital-discharge planners and home-health-care companies, "we were fixing to go out of business," recalls Hession, who says the company lost $40,000 in 1990. By the end of that year, Hession had changed most of the personnel, installed a computer system, and cleaned up purchasing. Still, "sales just weren't there. I couldn't get a picture of what would build them."

Then one fateful day Hession happened to be watching consumers stream into the community drugstore next door. "All of a sudden," he recalls, "it hit me that those customers could be my customers." Getting chummy with his neighbor -- and with some pharmaceutical sales reps -- Hession swallowed several truths about independent drugstores.

First, he learned that independents were under excruciating pressure from the large chains and were looking for any advantage they could tout. And, strapped for cash, they were in no position to purchase inventory. Finally, he could see that pharmacists were "busy, busy people" with doctors and patients always phoning, and customers perpetually lined up for prescriptions. They were unlikely to carry home-medical equipment if it meant spending time haggling over reimbursement with Medicaid, Medicare, or private insurers and troubleshooting customers' equipment glitches.

Given those parameters, Hession redesigned his company's strategy. Key Medical, he decided, would set up satellite warehouses and hire van-driving "delivery technicians." To earn commissions, the pharmacists had only to display signs and flyers, and dial an 800 number when customers expressed interest.

To absorb the added overhead costs, "I needed to be able to ride down the highway and make 15 or 20 cold calls a day," Hession says. "I had to be efficient. I couldn't have people say, 'Leave your card, and I'll call you back' or 'Come back later.' And to sit down and thoroughly explain it all takes too long for them."

By last year Hession had polished his one-minute script. And so far Key Medical has signed on 200 pharmacies blanketing Louisiana. Hession is targeting Texas next. He expects annual sales to hit a profitable $3 million this year. "I didn't do anything magical," he says. "The potential was there for fast growth, and I just found a way to tap it."

If you've got a minute -- "and who doesn't?" argues Hession -- this modern minuteman will share the secrets of his 60-second sales job.

The Script
(with stage directions)

My name is Matt Hession with Key Medical. I know the pharmacist is real busy. But when he has a moment, I have a one-minute presentation. (Start to take off watch.) And he can leave his wallet in his pocket.

(The clerk acknowledges and relays the request. But the pharmacist has overheard the conversation. "I'll be with you in a bit," he says. A couple of minutes later, he motions for me to step behind the counter. As we shake hands, I introduce myself again and hold up the watch.)

 1 | 2  NEXT 

Read more:

Sign-up for our Sales and Marketing Newsletter

Email Address: