What’s your walk-up song?
The Major League Baseball playoffs are underway, and the world series will begin this week. It is a time when even those who are not fans will tune into a game, as long as it doesn’t interfere with your Golden Bachelor watch party.
I’m not sure when this became a thing, but to keep fans from nodding off, baseball adopted walk-up songs. What’s that you say? It is a song that is played as a batter approaches the plate and when a new pitcher enters the game. Each song is intended to reflect, I suppose, the player’s personality or perhaps it’s their favorite tune. For example, former MLB player Carlos “Go-Go” Gomez’s walk-up song was the theme from Sponge Bob Square Pants. That’s a head scratcher!
OK, I hear you, move onto B2B marketing and sales please. I think players select walk-up songs as a way to build their brand by creating memorable earworms that will stick with fans long after the game.
I’ve never been a fan of the term pitch when used with selling: sales pitch, elevator pitch, pitch deck etc.
So, I propose we call them walk-up songs!
Think about them this way. As a B2B solution provider, you have a finite amount of time to communicate something to a prospect that they will perceive as valuable and that will stick with them.
When triggered to pitch, our backs straighten a bit, and we project a string of canned phrases all about us as though we’ve been practicing in front of a mirror. And it doesn’t work.
Instead, your walk-up song should be all about your prospects, the issues they face, and how their problems can be solved by working with you.
Create a lasting earworm by making it about your buyer.
And if you feel like playing your favorite Led Zeppelin tune as background music, go for it, but make your words about your buyer.
I hope you have a great week!
-Perry
Perry Rearick
Chief Editor, Follow Your Buyer
prearick@followyourbuyer.com
