Drew Schildwächter ⋅ Wilmington, NC Salesforce ⋅ 8 years experience

Apologies if this stuff seems really obvious to you. To speak very generally, selling technology is selling benefits, not features. Software and technology sales presentations can be very boring as a customer is bombarded with the nuances of how something works, but not shown how those features can help them make more money or solve some problem.

In order to sell benefits you need to understand both the potential customer problems and how the products might address them (sales 101 type stuff). The trick here is to learn as much about the company's products for this presentation with the goal of not only making your presentation convincing, but also demonstrating your enthusiasm and potential ability.

I would be glad to talk with you about my experience with a similar job interview, and some more specific pointers on the presentation itself.

Joseph (Joe) Hunt ⋅ New York, NY Veterans Mental Health Coalition of NYC ⋅ 25 years experience

Hi, Kamran

In his book "Crossing the Chasm", author Geoffrey Moore outlines a useful formula for creating an effective pitch that I think your CEO will appreciate.

The majority of sales pitches start with "we" and then go on to describe the product or service. Instead, Moore recommends starting your pitch with the word "for" and proceeding to describe your prospect's interest. Once you identify the prospect you intend to pitch, you can describe what you do and how you do it without losing the listener.

FOCUSED FORMAT
Based on that premise, Moore suggests the following format as a model for creating effective elevator speeches:
• FOR: Identify your target customer. (Investors)
• WHO: (Investors who want what? Try to narrow it to their particular interest).
• THE: State your company's name (since you’re selling the company and later matching them to a product.)
• IS A.: State the type of firm
• THAT: Offer a statement of key the benefits of doing business with your company.
• UNLIKE: "Unlike other investment firms that _________. (State your firm’s name and Identify the it’s primary competitive advantage that you believe will resonate with your prospect.)
• OUR FIRM: Finish with a short statement of primary differentiation.

I hope you find this helpful. I use this formula regularly to target my message to the audience. Investors vary, and since you are making this pitch to your CEO tell him/her in your preparation you're targeting a particular type. Then, start your pitch.

Best of luck.
Joe

Keith Van Sickle ⋅ Menlo Park, CA Tensilica ⋅ 25 years experience

I was the CFO of a company with a very technical product and frequently spoke to investors, investment bankers, etc. I have also worked for a venture capital firm evaluating deals. So I've heard a lot of product descriptions from both sides of the table.

As other advisors have noted, you want to talk about the product's benefits, ability to create value for the customer, etc. The other thing you want to be careful of is being overly technical. In some sense, your job is to simplify things (you could say dumb things down but that sounds insulting). Startup CEOs with technical products often fall in love with the technology and want to blather on about it. That's not your role. Your role is to be a translator between your company's technical geniuses and the investor who thinks in dollars and cents.

Before you give your pitch to the CEO, I would explain that this is the approach you are taking, and therefore your product description will be different that others. You don't want him to think you don't understand the product just because you are not describing it in loving technical detail.

Seth Lynch ⋅ Plano, TX Hewlett Packard ⋅ 15 years experience

Kamran,

Drew did provide some good advice.

I would also mention that if this is an investor relations role and the focus is on investor communications, you focus the message around how the product benefits help the following
- increase top line revenue
- increase bottom line profit
- long-term customer retention or revenue backlog

If most of the products are a subscription type prodict, do some crash learning on Customer Success Management- a relatively new field around how to retain and grow subscription service revenue- online and see if that works into the messaging.

If most of the products are traditional point sales, show how they interact together to grow brand loyalty, compliment each other, etc.

Investors want to know more about how the products drive shareholder value than the specific benefits provided to an end user.

Mike Cottell ⋅ Glen Head, NY Michael T Cottell Consulting ⋅ 42 years experience

Hi Kamran, sounds like things are progressing nicely for you! Really terrific advice that you have received from Drew, so I will expand on his good guidance just slightly. The customer today is overwhelmed with choices, afraid of making a mistake and wanting to make sure that they get a good deal. This is true whether you are buying a T shirt, software, anything. Try to have this question baked into your presentation. " Why should the customer pick me?". Is there a benefit(s) to your product that the competition cannot offer? Maybe it's not about the product, but the extraordinary customer service support that they will get etc. To me, getting the answer to that question has helped me make purchases, both big and small , with peace of mind. Good Luck and keep us posted!
Best Regards, Mike