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Pavilion Product Pitch

Putting your best foot forward in the Pavilion:

During its operating hours, the Pavilion swarms with media, venture capitalists, business development and corporate IT professionals. Be prepared at a moment’s notice to pitch your company and product to whoever stops by your demonstrator station. Remember that your station should be managed not by salespeople, but by the executives or product developers who know the ins and outs of your product. They should be armed with three polished and practiced pitches that communicate the true nature and value of your product to our veteran attendees and press. There should always be at least one staff member at your station when the Pavilion is open.

Three pitches:

DEMO is ripe with opportunities to position your product to the people who are influencing the buying, investing and partnering decisions important to technology and technology companies. Though formal presentations represent a key aspect of the conference, the vast majority of product pitches are serendipitous (like the time a start-up CEO ran into a key investor in the men’s room). Every member of your team should have the company background and product story down cold, and be ready to deliver in three versions: the bait, the elevator pitch and the 6-minute demo in any situation at DEMO.

The bait

Plan a one or two sentence positioning statement to grab someone’s attention. This opening statement should answer the question: “What does (attendee reads company name from your conference badge) do?” Be brief, be intriguing, get them to ask for more.

The elevator pitch

It has almost become trite, but the elevator pitch is the fundamental positioning of your product and company. It should clearly state what the product is, what it does and who benefits from it. If attendees hear nothing more than your elevator pitch, they should understand your value proposition in the market.

The 6-minute demo

You’ve baited someone and reeled him in with your elevator pitch; now it’s time to show them the product at your demonstrator station. The 6-minute demo should reinforce the value proposition of the elevator pitch. Don’t try to click through every menu or annotate every icon, but highlight your product’s best features. Every member of your team needs to master the 6-minute demo.

Rehearse these three pitches as if you were rehearsing for a Broadway opening. You may only have one chance to capture someone’s attention, and you don’t want to miss that opportunity. And, one final word of advice: introduce yourself and at least read the attendee’s badge before jumping into your pitch. Your approach may well depend on whether you’re speaking to the media, a competitor, or a potential investor.