How to Present Without Sounding Like a Vendor

People don’t like vendors. They know the vendor is trying to sell them something. People don’t like being sold to; they want to be educated. People like buying from people who are likeable subject matter experts. They don’t like buying from companies who are out to make the sale.

Companies are notorious for presenting about their products at conferences. You don’t need to step into the vendor area, to hear the benefits of purchasing a companies product. Even with the companies silver bullet solutions, potential users don’t want to be sold to. People have a visceral reaction to vendors.

When I presented on patching third-party libraries at Baythreat my presentation explained what my company did. But, I only mentioned only mentioned my company solved the problem once. I talked about the problem I solved rather than my solution. I wasn’t selected to speak about our companies product. I was asked to talk about a problem which the company solves.

There are three ways to present without sounding like you are pitching your product.

1. Talk About The Problem - Educate your potential users to the problem your solution solves. You’re an expert on the problem and very few people, if any, know more about the problem than you do. Even if people are aware of the problem, assume the audience doesn’t. Educate them to the problem set.

2. Demonstrate The Value of Solving the Problem - Your solution either solves a problem or fulfills a need. Talk about it. Don’t talk about the solution you’ve created to solve it. What benefit do people get from solving the problem you’ve just described?

3. Walk Through Potential Solutions - You’ve already built a solution, but there are other ways to solve the problem. Rather than saying, “Buy my service,” give your audience solutions to solving the problem. Don’t talk about the competition. Talk about ways they could solve the problem in-house. What would they need to do to build your solution?

With my presentation, I decided to speak about the problem. I spoke about why companies should track third-party libraries. I explained how tracking and updating third-party libraries is a really hard problem and introduced the audience to the problem I was solving.

However you choose to present, remember, you are not selling your product. Don’t concern yourself with the closing the audience. Your job is to convince them it’s a problem worth solving. If you convince them, you’ve succeeded.

It’s okay if they choose to solve the problem by building their own solution. You have clearly demonstrated it’s a problem worth solving. By being passionate about a problem you should be passionate about solutions. Even if the solution isn’t yours.