Pitching a customer or partner

Musings of a Product Guy

You’ve gotten your big break. You’ve networked and hustled your way to a meeting with a potential customer or partner (let’s call them Company A below) that would be HUGE for your company. So what should you do?

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1. Know Company A’s products. Know them BETTER than the employee you’re meeting with does. If you’re a startup and you haven’t taken the time to get to know Company A’s products, they’re going to feel as though you’re wasting their time. As the startup, you’re the one who’s supposed to have the time to learn about Company A, not necessarily the other way around. And the better you know the company’s products, the more the employee you’re meeting with will trust the benefits you are presuming.
2. Know Company A’s metrics. Learn what’s important to Company A (a 10-K is a good start if that company is public). If you come into the meeting and don’t know Company A’s business, the employee is not going to trust that the benefits you are presuming will actually be important to them. On the other hand, knowing Company A’s drivers will actually make the partnership seem more enticing to them.
3. Know what’s in it for Company A. This is one that may sometimes be hard to comprehend, especially if you’re thinking about a partnership. As a product person, you tend to think about the end user — how can you benefit him or her? But this often causes you not to think about what is in it for the company you’re pitching. Of course Company A wants to help its end users. But it is also needs to benefit in some way from the partnership. So you as the startup are responsible for thinking about and selling what’s in it for Company A, not just the end user.

These are the three tactics that have been most important to me when pitching or getting pitched. Let me know others you have found useful!