What's Your Story?

If your company provides solutions, particularly technology solutions, to the retail industry, selling is a mandatory activity and in many younger companies that duty often falls to the founder, CEO, or other key executive. The CART team has worked with hundreds of young tech companies and we’ve seen some things that work and we’ve seen many things that don’t work as well so thought we’d share some lessons with you. Many technology company people are incredibly smart when it comes to the tech, but unprepared when it comes to the selling of it.

First, sell your story, not the technology. It takes a lot to found a company or to join a young company at an early stage - it’s not an easy thing. So chances are you’re pretty passionate about what capability you’ve developed or what your company is doing. When you are talking with a prospective customer, let that passion come through. Prospects always hear about features and functions, why this widget is better than that widget. What they don’t always hear is why you are doing what you do. Tell a story that highlights the problem you’re trying to solve - one way to do that is to speak naturally, like you’re talking to a friend or acquaintance. Then tap that same passion when you talk with a prospective customer.

How do you do what you do? This still is not the time to talk about your specific product or solution. What you want to focus on next is how your solution works, how it does what it does. Are you using AI and machine learning to help solve a problem? Does AI and ML power enhanced machine vision enabling your capability to do something special? Focusing on the how is where you want to separate your capabilities from competitors. The how is where your magic happens.

Lastly, and finally, you can speak to the specific product or solution your company is selling. This is where you can talk about all the cool features and functions your capability provides. But here’s the thing: If you’ve done a great job with telling your story about why you’re doing what you do and you’ve done a good job talking about how your solution does what it does, you’ve probably got the sale pretty well made before you even get to the specific product. 

So now you’ve got your presentation flow down and its time to practice. For some people, actually writing out a script can help you be succinct in what you’re saying. For other people, creating a list of bullet points is enough to guide them through a presentation. Do whatever works for you but do think about what you’re going to say ahead of time and practice it.

Lastly, be engaging. Make eye contact. Don’t just read a sales presentation - engage and talk with the people you’re with. And absolutely, never ever, turn your back to the people you are talking to. It’s unprofessional to say the least. Seems like a no-brainer and yet we see people do this all the time. 

Creating and building a great technology is only half the battle. Selling and positioning your new capability is where the battle is won.