I am selling ________,
to ________,
which helps them to ________.
Write that down before anything else. It’s the structure of a clear sales pitch.
What comes to mind when you hear the word sales?
For most people: pushy, greed, pressure. That reaction has a name: Fear, and it’s what this guide is built to fix.
Without sales, what you’ve actually got is an expensive hobby. Sales is the one thing that turns an idea into a business.
You already sell every day, whether it’s talking a friend into the restaurant you want to try or convincing someone your plan is the better one. You just don’t call it selling.
The weirdness you feel isn’t caused by selling. It’s caused by staying quiet about something you believe in. So stop being selfish. If what you’ve built genuinely helps people, staying quiet about it doesn’t protect anyone. It just means the people who need it never hear about it.
Real sales is solving problems. Sales is helping people buy, not making people buy. Making a sale, or trying to and not quite getting there, simply tells you the next step. A no moves you forward exactly as much as a yes does, because you’ve learned something you didn’t know five minutes earlier.
Why do people buy at all?
Because they want stuff. People buy things that solve a problem or make life better. Nothing more mysterious than that. Which means your job isn’t to manufacture desire out of nothing. It’s to have a real conversation instead of delivering a pitch.
What to actually say: The QCA method
Selling is not telling. Selling is asking. Start with people who already know, like, and trust you: friends, family, people you already know.
You’re not convincing them of anything; you’re just letting them know what you’re doing.
The structure itself is three stages: Question, Content, Ask (QCA):
- Question: Ask something that makes sense and opens a real conversation.
- Content: Keep it short and sweet. Lead with what matters, and don’t be boring.
- Ask: Actually ask. This is the stage most people skip, and it’s the one that makes the sale happen.
Sitting inside that structure is a one-line pitch formula: I sell X, to Y, that helps them Z.
“I’m doing bookkeeping to help self-employed people with their tax returns.”
“I’m booking PT sessions to help dads get fit.”
Simple, memorable, sayable in one breath. Write your own version before you try to sell anything.
The most practical tool here is the “Hey Jeff message”:
A script for reaching out to someone you already know to practise your pitch.
It goes a little bit like this…
You: Hey Jeff, how are you? I’m having a go at a business idea, and I really need to practise my pitch before I go talk to strangers. Have you got 5 minutes? When’s good for you?
You: Thanks so much for helping me. [Your intro question]
Them: (they reply, you listen)
You: I’m selling X to Y that helps them Z. Is that something that would help you, or you would be interested in?
Them: (they reply again, you listen again)
You (if yes/maybe): Great! The price is normally X, but I have a special price of [£] right now. Would you like to go ahead?
You (if no): No problem, I’m so grateful you helped. Can you think of anyone else who might be interested? And if I post on Facebook, it’d be great if you could share it. Could you do that?
It works because it’s low-pressure, and it gives the other person an easy way to say no without either of you feeling bad about it.
Handling the price question
Most new businesses undercharge for too long, or don’t charge at all for far too long. That’s a confidence problem more than a maths problem. Ten pricing tips worth keeping close:
1. Know your costs.
What did it actually cost you to make the item or carry out the service?
2. Know the market.
Different markets are willing to pay wildly different amounts for the same thing.
3. Know your Goldilocks price.
Not the cheapest, not the most expensive, the one that’s right for your confidence and your market.
4. You can’t make sales in your head.
Say the number out loud to a real person and see how it actually feels.
5. Have a price range.
Most customers gravitate to the middle option, and roughly 20% will happily choose the most expensive one.
6. Say it out loud.
Practise the number until it doesn’t catch in your throat.
7. Pricing is psychological.
How you say the price changes how it lands.
8. Intro prices.
Have a deal or introductory offer ready to soften a first-time yes.
9. Price is a test, not a tattoo.
You’re allowed to get it wrong and change it.
10. Time vs. value.
Price against what it’s worth to the customer, not just what it cost you in hours.
Our top tip: say a price like £25 two different ways.
Once with your voice lifting at the end, like a question, and once with it dropping, like a statement of fact. The falling tone reads as certain and non-negotiable; the rising one invites a negotiation you didn’t mean to start.
Once, a senior contact at Microsoft asked Rebel co-founder Alan what he charged for a day of presentation training. Stomach-flipping, he said a number double his normal day rate… £950(?)
Then said nothing else.
He waited.
It felt like an eternity.
The answer came back: “I’ll give you £1,050.”
He later learned that Microsoft was paying much more for a day of training and actually saw £950 as too low!
The lesson isn’t the number. It’s knowing your audience and standing by your price, rather than rushing to fill the silence with a discount.
When someone asks how much, tell them the price, plainly, without over-explaining or apologising. If they say it’s expensive, agree and explain why (experience, quality, outcome), while also offering to help them find something cheaper if it’s genuinely not the right fit.
If they say yes, take the sale. If they say no, thank them, ask if they know anyone else who might be interested, and ask for a share on social media.
Start Before You’re Ready. Stop Thinking. Start Doing.
Your Sales Action
- Talk to five people about your business
- Make a sale, or enrol a helper
No business idea yet? That doesn’t change the mission.
Talk to people anyway; see how it feels. Because business should be fun, be an experimenter.
