A step-by-step guide to crafting a sales pitch that wins | April Dunford (author of Sales Pitch)

April Dunford is a speaker, mentor, podcaster, best-selling author, and beloved returning guest to the show. Last year, she joined me on the pod to discuss product positioning and differentiated value. Today, April offers invaluable insights from her latest book, Sales Pitch: How to Craft a Story to Stand Out and Win. We go deep on the art of effective pitching and selling, and April shares the specific framework she’s used to successfully pitch products at companies like Google, IBM, Postman, and Epic Games. Together we discuss:
• Tactical advice on pitch creation and testing
• Real-life examples of companies transforming their narratives into successful sales strategies
• How to combat customer inaction
• How to become your prospect’s guide in their buying journey
• The importance of differentiated value
• Marketing’s role in the process
• Why you should avoid FOMO as a sales strategy
• Tips for handling objections
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Find the transcript and references at: ⁠www.lennyspodcast.com/a-step-...
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Where to find April Dunford:
• Website: www.aprildunford.com/
• LinkedIn: / aprildunford
• Newsletter: aprildunford.substack.com/
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Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: www.lennysnewsletter.com
• X: / lennysan
• LinkedIn: / lennyrachitsky
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In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) April’s background
(03:46) Fixing poor positioning with storytelling at Help Scout
(12:22) Pitch components: setup and differentiated value
(14:13) Wrapping up the sales pitch
(15:56) Handling objections effectively
(19:13) Understanding buyer’s mindset and market perception
(25:46) Avoiding FOMO as a sales strategy
(29:28) Lenny’s stressful experience buying community forum software for Airbnb
(31:04) Empowering champions within client businesses
(34:36) Who this framework is useful for
(36:38) Advice on working cross-functionally
(38:59) Differentiated value defined with examples
(44:16) Selling with calm confidence
(46:19) Qualifying leads
(48:31) April’s thoughts on category creation
(53:05) Geoffrey Moore’s “bowling pin strategy”
(55:21) Conclusion of the setup phase: sharing the perfect world
(57:11) The follow-through: differentiated value with proof and objection refutation
(1:00:21) Why sales pitches fail
(1:01:30) Best practices for pitch testing
(1:05:32) General timeline for positioning and pitch creation
(1:06:50) Marketing’s role in the process
(1:08:38) The impact of developing a killer sales pitch
(1:10:39) Andy Raskin’s positioning framework
(1:15:50) Lightning round
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Production and marketing by penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email [e-mail].
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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

[@madalina4422]

Your podcast is so incredibly helpful, Lenny! I feel like I'll have to mention you in my thank you speech one day, given how many notes and learnings I gather from these episodes. :)

[@LennysPodcast]

🤣🧡

[@byteridge4265]

Loved the podcast Lenny. Lots of ideas and steps mirror our favourite sales book recommendation - The Challenger Sales : How To Take Control of the Customer Conversation. I can assure you that it works. :)

[@user-oe2vx8ow7o]

this is insanely helpful - great channel! - love her mindset and how you pique her to talk about super crucial points just subscribed!

[@awh4272]

8:54 - most SaaS sales pitches 12:34 - pitch structure 19:29 - become trusted

[@Vistobio]

How did you manage to read all those books and publish videos so frequently? I am trying to keep up with your pace watching Gina's video and reflecting on her points, and you have already launched a new one 😆

[@lanceg8871]

April is hands down one of the best B2B thinkers imho. Please Lenny, the next time you have April on, consider asking her what she thinks of sales approaches from celebrity sales guru like Grant Cardone & Dan Lok

[@Cenot4ph]

they're not guru's, they're unethical in how their approach their sales funnel (which is you by the way) and profit from them. It's a dispicable practice

[@luissotomayor132]

Too much to learn from this interview, thanks for share!

[@marvinbrando722]

What did you learn ?

[@luissotomayor132]

How to correctly structure the pitch. How to anticipate customer questions. When it's not worth continuing with a sale... and more!

[@ACCA2016]

Building a discover based sales pitch to guide best fit customers to revolve around differentiation values. What about product/solution storytelling based on differentiation when we need to share with the general audience? Any advise or framework how to do it?

[@AdamLundquist]

Are there any examples of decks that have used this? I would love to see it in practice

[@positioningshow]

Hi - the book has a set of case studies that cover a broad set of examples and if you go on my site and sign up for the newsletter you will get a set of templates. CEOs don't like me to share the actual sales pitch decks because they don't want their competitors to see how they are being positioned. That said, I'm going to build a fake one because I get asked about this a LOT.

[@AdamLundquist]

@@positioningshow Thanks! Your book is great :-)

[@nls-io]

Hey Lenny, would you mind putting Amazon (or other) affiliates links to the books? I wanted to get them but it would be great if you could earn something with it.

[@LennysPodcast]

you're so sweet! I imagine that revenue wouldn't be much in the end.

[@nls-io]

@@LennysPodcast I guess indeed. Not sure if it’s even worth it. I’ve never run any affiliates before :/

[@jesse2667]

@@LennysPodcastprobably not, but I do tend to use my audible credits to get books I hear about here 🙂

[@waltertshuma646]

Brother l agree with you, please bring gurus together and let them explain themselves. People rubbish each other's point of view as long as the other is not in the room.

[@LennysPodcast]

@@waltertshuma646 I know right?

[@rianvdam9901]

🐐

[@HonesteBroker]

I wish you asked April about her opinoins on B2C. Seems like the YT world is very biased towards B2B. A lot of these ideas are great, just wondering if they are all applicable to B2C as well?

[@LennysPodcast]

April only works on B2B :(

[@marvinbrando722]

From here, just 5% will implement it

[@wmshoe1]

Threat stuff.

[@glomesocial]

Can we glome you Lenny? We want to copy you as AI glome and let your fans chat with him ^^

[@irenasuccess]

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