What should a sales pitch script include?
Five lines, in this order: the reason you're talking to this buyer now, the problem it points to, how they handle it today, the one thing that changes with your product, and a question. Proof is optional and short. Your company's history comes last, if at all.
Three pieces of research shape that order:
- Keep company talk under two minutes. In a Gong Labs analysis published in December 2016, win rates and call effectiveness dropped sharply when reps talked about their own company for more than 2 minutes in a call. Gong's article doesn't give the number of calls it analysed, and it is a vendor study, so weigh it with that in mind.
- Stop at three claims. The researchers Suzanne Shu and Kurt Carlson ran four experiments for a Journal of Marketing paper (volume 78, issue 1; OpenAlex dates it 2013). When people knew the source was trying to persuade them, impressions improved up to the third positive claim; at the fourth, scepticism made people view all the claims less favourably. The abstract doesn't give sample sizes.
- Don't monologue. In Gong's 2025 update of 326,000 sales calls of at least 10 minutes, lost deals often featured long seller monologues. Gong's help centre recommends speaking for no more than 2.30 minutes at a time.
| Line | Job | Rule of thumb |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Reason for now | Shows you picked them for a reason | A dated, checkable event |
| 2. Problem | Names the cost they already feel | Their words, not your category name |
| 3. Today's workaround | Names what you're replacing | Often a spreadsheet, a person or nothing |
| 4. What changes | One capability, tied to line 2 | Up to three claims in total |
| 5. Question | Hands the conversation back | Asks about interest or priority |
Sample sales pitch script: the 30-second version
Use this when someone asks what you do, at an event, at the start of a call or in a voice note. Everything below is an invented example: Northwind Ltd sells a tool that chases overdue invoices for agencies, and Priya is the finance lead at Acme, a 40-person agency.
There is no company history, no feature list and no statistic. Read it aloud with a stopwatch; if it runs past 30 seconds, cut words from line 2 first, because the question at the end is the part that starts the conversation. For a phone call, put a permission opener in front of it; our post on the permission-based cold call opener and Gong's call data covers that part.
What does a 2-minute sales pitch sound like?
Use the longer version when a buyer has agreed to listen: the first minutes of a booked call, or a reply that says "tell me more". It adds the cost of the problem in the buyer's own numbers, up to three claims and one line about you, with two pauses built in.
The arithmetic, with invented numbers. In the example, Acme sends 120 invoices a month and 25% go late: 120 × 0.25 = 30 late invoices. At 15 minutes each, 30 × 15 = 450 minutes, or 7.5 hours a month. At an example cost of $50 an hour, that's $375 a month, or $4,500 a year. Use the buyer's real figures, which you get by asking at the first pause, never your own guesses presented as theirs.
The company-talk budget. Gong's 2016 example put it this way: a rep who spends 10% of every call on general company talk is predicted to win at a quarter of a top rep's rate, 6% against 24%. On a 30-minute first meeting, 10% is 3 minutes, already past Gong's 2-minute line. The script above spends one sentence on the company. If a cautious buyer asks whether you'll be around in three years, answer that question then.
How do you turn the pitch into an email?
Email loses the pauses, so the question has to do more of the work. Two findings from Gong's January 2022 email analysis (vendor data, with "success" defined by Gong as a deal moving forward, such as a booked meeting) shape the email version:
- In over 132,000 emails, using ROI language in cold emails, meaning "ROI" itself or multipliers and percentages tied to it, cut success rates by 15%.
- Across 300,000+ emails, asking for interest made a booked meeting within 10 days more than twice as likely as asking for a specific or open-ended time.
Notice what's missing: "cut late payments by 40%", the meeting request and the company paragraph. Length is a separate question with conflicting data; our post on how long a cold email should be goes through Lavender's figures and what each one is based on.
Fill-in sales pitch script template
Copy this, fill the brackets for one buyer, then cut every line that would also be true for their competitor down the road.
Two checks before you use it. First, line 1 must be true and specific; if you can't find a reason for now, the buyer probably isn't in the market yet. Second, count your claims. If there are four, delete the weakest one.
How do you adapt a sales pitch for each buyer?
Change two lines, keep the rest. The reason for now and the problem line carry the personalisation; the product line stays almost the same for everyone. The table shows which line to rewrite for common B2B buyers (our suggestions, using the Northwind example).
| Buyer | What they care about | Line to rewrite | Example swap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Founder or CEO of a small firm | Cash and their own time | Problem | "late invoices are sitting in your cash flow" |
| Finance lead | A process that doesn't depend on people remembering | Today's workaround | "a spreadsheet someone updates on Fridays" |
| Account manager (the user) | Not damaging the client relationship | What changes | "reminders stop the moment the client replies" |
| Someone comparing tools | Why switch, and the risk of switching | Today's workaround | Name the tool they're using, then the one difference |
| A cautious buyer making a big purchase | Whether you'll still be around | Add one company line | Gong's 2016 article names this as the case where company talk helps |
Why the reason for now matters so much: in a Marketing Week column of 2 September 2021, Peter Weinberg and Jon Lombardo, then heads of research and development at LinkedIn's B2B Institute, cite their research with Professor John Dawes of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute: only 5% of B2B buyers are in the market to buy right now. Their own conclusion is about brand advertising: marketers should focus on the 95% who aren't buying yet. For a one-to-one pitch, a real trigger is your best clue that this buyer is in the 5%. Our list of 15 free buying signals a small team can act on gives you triggers to put in line 1.
If the problem line keeps falling flat, the issue is usually positioning: you're comparing yourself with the wrong alternative. Our post on April Dunford's positioning, rewritten as a cold email walks through finding the right one.
How do you test a pitch script this week?
Run this in one week, with no new tools:
Monday: write all three versions
Pick one real buyer type. Fill the template, then cut it to 30 seconds, stretch it to 2 minutes and rewrite it as an email. Read each aloud with a stopwatch.
Tuesday to Thursday: use it ten times
Use the 30-second version in every intro, call opening and voice note. After each one, write down whether the buyer answered the closing question or asked one back, and the exact words they used for the problem.
Friday: rewrite line 2 in their words
Replace your problem line with the phrase buyers used most. Ten uses is too few to compare versions, so don't call a winner; keep the new line and keep counting.
Once the pitch earns a yes, the next conversation is discovery. Our guide to discovery call questions for founders picks up where the pitch's closing question stops.
Frequently asked questions
How do you make the best sales pitch?
Start with why you're contacting this buyer now, name their problem in their words, say how they handle it today, and give one thing that changes. Stop at three claims and end with a question about interest or priority. Then listen, and rewrite the problem line using the words buyers actually use back to you.
What is a B2B sales pitch example?
A short example: a supplier of invoice-chasing software tells an agency's finance lead it noticed a credit controller job advert, says that hire often means invoices are running late, notes that most teams chase by spreadsheet, explains the tool sends reminders from the agency's own inbox, and asks whether fixing it is a priority this quarter.
What are the 7 steps of a sales call?
Lists differ from trainer to trainer. A common shape for a first call is: prepare, open, agree an agenda, ask discovery questions, pitch what fits, handle concerns, and agree a dated next step. The pitch is one step in the middle, which is why it should be short.
How long should a sales pitch be?
Have three lengths ready: about 30 seconds for introductions and call openings, about 2 minutes when a buyer has agreed to listen, and a short email of a few sentences. In longer meetings, keep general talk about your company to under 2 minutes, the point where a 2016 Gong Labs analysis saw win rates drop sharply.
What are examples of a pitch?
The common forms are the elevator pitch for introductions, the opening pitch on a cold or booked call, the email pitch, the demo pitch that shows the product working on the buyer's problem, and the investor pitch. They share one structure: a problem the listener recognises, a change you offer, and a question or ask.
Sources
- Gong Labs: How long sales reps should spend discussing their company (published 1 Dec 2016) (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Gong help centre: Analyze team performance (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Gong Labs: The science behind talk ratios and winning sales conversations (updated 20 Mar 2025) (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Gong: There's a science to writing sales emails (published 11 Jan 2022) (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Shu and Carlson, When Three Charms but Four Alarms, Journal of Marketing 78(1), OpenAlex record with abstract (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Marketing Week: The 95:5 rule is the new 60:40 rule (Peter Weinberg and Jon Lombardo, 2 Sep 2021) (checked 5 Nov 2026)