Close Your Next Big Deal with the “Three-Market-Forces” Pattern

When it comes to closing a big deal or new client contract, one of the most important aspects of the sales pitch is being able to contextualize your company’s offering or business idea in terms of a market opportunity.  This is because one of the biggest questions that your prospects will have, even if they don’t state it out loud, is whether or not you will be able to succeed in delivering what you promise, and why you are pitching it to them at this point in time.  If the offer or idea you’re pitching has been around for an extended period already, it means there’s a significant chance another company has already begun putting your idea into action (if it’s a good one) and it’s difficult to become the number-one brand in your category if there are other companies that have a head start.

In his book Pitch Anything, Oren Klaff offers a solution for this problem that he calls the “Three-Market-Forces Pattern.”  It allows you to contextualize your pitch by showing a converging trend across three separate areas that all come together at this point in time.  It’s powerful because it gives your prospects a sense of urgency, since this is a brand new opportunity that has just opened up, and sooner rather than later one of their competitors is probably going to try something like this.  It also helps explain the “why now?” question, because it shows that before this moment the idea would not have been practical, but now that these three market forces have converged on each other the time is right to make a move.

So what are the three market forces?

Economic Forces:  These are the financial circumstances that have become optimal for what you’re pitching.  It includes events like large groups of consumers rapidly acquiring or losing wealth, or credit becoming more widely available.  Changes in inflation, interest rates, and other financial forces have a significant impact on business opportunities, so this an important scenario to cover.

Social Forces:  These are societal trends that indicate the public is ready for what you’re pitching.  Some of the more recent trends are environmentalism and sustainability, and the widespread adoption of smart phones.  As you would expect, showing that these trends will help people adopt an idea like the one you’re pitching is going to make a very compelling case for the prospect to get involved — especially when it’s merged with the other two market forces in this technique.

Technology Forces:  These are trends in the world of technology that will finally make it feasible for you to execute the idea you’re pitching.  Often this is where entire industries are remade, like assembly line factories led to the industrial era and the invention of the transistor is the source of the modern internet and computer age.  Because technology can be so integral to the execution of a new idea, showing that new technological advances have finally made it possible to realistically launch an idea like the one you’re pitching is reassuring to the prospect and eases their fears that execution will become an issue.

Here’s how one might be able to put the Three-Market-Forces Pattern together into a pitch:

“We’ve been working on this product for several years, but up until now it would not have been practical for us to launch.  However several key events have just occurred that will finally allow us to execute our plan — let me tell you what they are.  First, the cost for the key raw material required to make this item has fallen below $5 per unit for the first time [Financial].  This means we can sell it for $50 and have enough left over to cover the manufacturing costs and still turn a profit.  Second, the cultural view towards products like this has started to shift [Social].  As the “Quantified Self” movement continues to expand, it will become more socially desirable to own a product like this.  Third, there are finally enough locations where mobile data access has reached the necessary speeds for utilizing this product effectively [Technological].”

As you can see, this makes quite a compelling case for it being the right time to invest in this opportunity.  It clearly illustrates to your target that this is a brand-new idea that they need to jump on before a competitor also recognizes the same potential and gets a head start. This creates a sense of urgency that is great for you because it will help persuade your prospect to agree to your deal.

Now that you’ve learned the Three-Market-Forces Pattern, tell us how you could apply it to your next business pitch in the comments