What Stellar Showcasers Do: Twenty Tips From the Other Side of the Table

By Karen Deis and Cyndi Maxey, CSP

From trade shows to yard sales to speaker showcases, showcasing your wares in a limited amount of time in any scenario presents a challenge. You are thinking: What do I bring? What will grab the eye and the ear of the potential buyer? Can the buyer make the leap from this to what I have in entirety? It’s a tough format to plan for. Yet, showcases also present a great opportunity for valuable face-to-face time (not Internet, video, CD, DVD or email time) and interpersonal impressions. They provide an open entrance to you and your skills and talents.

Being in the buyer’s slot is a challenge too. We are thinking: Which service is best? Which will meet my needs most often? Who has the credibility, skill, and talent to look great in front of my customers? Here are some deceptively simple things to remember to make your next showcase impression a stellar one.

Build Rapport Immediately.

  • Use your contact person’s name immediately—as you introduce yourself. This shows you did your homework.
  • Immediately repeat the contact’s name after he or she introduces herself. This shows you are listening.
  • Look the contact in the eye and shake hands firmly. This communicates etiquette and confidence.
  • Thank the contact briefly for the opportunity to present. This shows you know your manners and are humble at that moment.
  • Dress the part; be clean, crisp, well put-together. This is a basic that people often forget when they’re in a hurry. Don’t forget. It is very, very important.

Know Your Opening Cold.

  • Speak confidently right away; the first few lines are very important. This shows you practiced.
  • Smile and look the audience in the eye. This shows you practiced.
  • Communicate through your words that you know exactly what your strengths are and why you’re there.

Be Unique.

  • Don’t try to borrow other people’s material, techniques, stories, or examples. Someone will have heard or seen them before.
  • Don’t feel or think you have to have PowerPoint slides. The best presenters barely use them—if at all.
  • Tell your stories. Others may have your facts or the market research. Nobody will have your stories.

Be Up to Date.

  • If you do use PowerPoint slides, keep them up to date. Hire your pre-teen to find the latest graphics—don’t do them yourself unless you are a graphics wiz.
  • Be leading edge. Your content dates you more easily than you would guess. Don’t use old theories without a very, very good reason. Chances are someone has heard them.
  • Watch how you refer to others or the audience. Your language dates you easily and belies your stance on equality of gender, ethnicity, and regional background.

Be specific.

  • Busy people today want specific solutions to problems. General theories and trends are quickly tossed into the barrel of non-use.
  • Involve the audience with simple questions. This gets you very specific very quickly and the audience loves it.
  • Getting specific shows how smart you are. Credibility comes with an on-the-spot ability to apply information to experience.

Don’t Apologize … for Anything!

  • Well, OK, if you’re really, really late, apology is OK. Keep it quick though and move on.
  • The audience of buyers knows it’s a showcase. You don’t need to tell them how much more you have at home or in your normal presentation or in your three-day workshop … unless they ask you.
  • Certainly don’t apologize for being too busy to prepare. This is a red flag. What would you do in front of a real client?

And that is what the buyer is thinking. How will this work for my customer? What will this person do in front of my client? How will this person handle problems and on the spot questions and comments? Do I want this person representing my organization and me?

Yes? No? The answer is up to you.