Better Sales Pitch or Better Way In?
Why your sales might feel harder than they should (even when people are interested)
I had a conversation this week with a founder building a foodtech product that has purpose at the core of its mission.
He’s early, but not that early. There’s a team, there’s traction, people are using it. He’s got partnerships starting to happen, conversations with gyms, nutritionists, different routes to market opening up.
And yet…
He said something that I hear all the time:
“It just feels like sales takes longer than it should.”
Slower. Messier. More back-and-forth than he expected.
He was talking about outreach to gym partners in particular. Multiple calls, chasing, nudging, lots of talk of interest, but still trying to get things over the line.
And then he said:
“I think maybe it’s the messaging. We’re still figuring out which angle to lead with.”
Also very familiar.
Because when things don’t move cleanly, most founders go straight there:
Maybe we’re not explaining it well enough
Maybe we’re leading with the wrong thing
Maybe we just need to refine the pitch
And to be fair - sometimes that is the work.
But not always.
What was actually going on
As we unpacked it, something else became clearer.
This wasn’t a bad offer. There was clear value, and people got that.
In fact, people were interested.
They were saying things like:
“This is really interesting”
“We’d love to explore this”
“Let’s set up another call”
But it still wasn’t moving to a close.
And that’s the bit that matters.
Because when you’re getting polite interest but not clean movement, it’s very tempting to assume:
“I need to get better at selling this thing.”
But here’s what I said to him, and it’s the bit I’d pay attention to if this feels familiar:
Sometimes the issue isn’t the pitch. It’s that the person you’re speaking to hasn’t experienced enough value yet to make a decision.
The moment things shifted
We stopped talking about messaging for a minute.
And instead, I asked something slightly different:
“What could you offer them that would actually be useful - even if they never bought anything?”
Not a pitch.
Not a discount.
Not another “let me explain it differently” call.
Something useful.
That’s when his thinking changed.
He started talking about sending a nutritionist into the gym to run a session for their member. Not to sell anything. Just to give their members something genuinely valuable.
And you could feel the shift immediately.
Because suddenly we weren’t trying to move someone through a sales process.
We were giving them a reason to care.
The bit founders don’t always see
A lot of founders treat sales like a persuasion problem.
As in:
How do I say this better?
How do I make them understand faster?
How do I get them over the line quicker?
But in reality, especially at this stage, it’s rarely just that.
It’s more often this:
You’re asking someone to believe in something they haven’t properly felt yet.
And that’s a much bigger ask.
Particularly when:
your product does a few different things (in his case - health, sustainability, personalisation)
the outcome isn’t instant or obvious
and the proof is still building
So the conversation ends up doing all the heavy lifting.
And that’s where it starts to feel hard.
A more grounded way to look at it
Instead of asking:
“How do I explain this better?”
It’s often more useful to ask:
“What would make the value obvious to them - without me having to explain it?”
That’s a very different question.
And the answers are usually simpler than you think.
It might be:
a short working session
an invite to a private event
feedback on their strategy doc.
an invite to talk on your podcast
Not something that will cost you loads.
Not giving everything away.
Just enough for them to experience the shift you’re talking about, and more valuable - position yourself as the go-to when it comes to solving challenges in this space.
Where I learned this (the hard way)
I learned this when running my first business.
I used to think that if I just explained things clearly enough in a conversation - if I got the pitch right - people would see the value and take action.
So I’d get on calls, walk them through everything, answer all their questions, follow up… and still feel like I was dragging things over the line.
It was exhausting.
And it wasn’t until someone challenged me on it that things shifted.
“What if the discovery call isn’t the place to do all the convincing?
“What if you just gave them something genuinely useful instead?”
At the time, it felt counterintuitive.
But we tried it.
Instead of pushing for the sale, I started inviting people to events we were already running - where they could experience the work, not just hear about it.
And honestly, everything changed.
Not because I got better at closing, but because the process gave them a felt experience that no conversation could.
Because here’s the truth
When someone has felt the value, even in a small way:
you don’t need to convince them as much
you don’t need to keep re-explaining
you don’t need to rely so heavily on “perfect messaging”
The conversation changes.
It becomes less about selling…
And more about deciding what to do next.
One thing to take away
If your sales feel slower or heavier than they should right now - even though people are interested - I wouldn’t jump straight to rewriting your pitch.
I’d look at this first:
What’s the next step you’re offering… and is it actually helpful?
Not impressive.
Not clever.
Helpful.
Because very often, that’s the gap.