Toastmasters International has been offering public speaking training for more than 90 years. Here’s the advice they give for making sales pitches. Adapt these steps for one-on-one sales conversations in your dealership.

1. Use the inverted pyramid approach to organize your ideas.

This approach gives an audience the most important information in the first few sentences. Support claims with logic and evidence and end every sales pitch or proposal with a call to action.

If an audience agrees with the initial message or point, the supporting material that follows will reinforce that agreement. If an audience disagrees, logic and evidence may win them over.

2.  Use high-quality yet simple visual aids, such as charts or slides, to help clarify any sales pitch or proposal.

Make sure the visual aids can be seen by every person in the audience, and limit each chart or slide to a single main point.

A salesperson in a dealership has an advantage in that often their sales pitch is given around the equipment. Consider following the advice of limiting the points you make so you don’t overwhelm the customer.

3. Offer a question-and-answer period following a sales pitch or proposal, which can supply you with valuable feedback about the effectiveness of the pitch.

It also gives an audience the opportunity to further clarify specific points or data that was presented. Below are a few ways to effectively answer questions:

• Anticipate possible questions by rehearsing with colleagues or friends.
• Provide answers that support the sales pitch or proposal.
• Disarm loaded questions (those based on false premises or irrelevant assumptions) by being polite and asking the questioner to further explain his or her question.
• Divide complicated questions into several parts before answering them.