Recently, I was invited to sit in on an in-person presentation given by one of our food ingredient clients to one of their customers. By witnessing our client’s sales team “in action,” I knew I’d better understand all that went into these presentations and ideas for personalization.
Here’s the thing: I thought I would see something like a company introduction presented to this customer. But that was only a small portion of it.
This was more like an “ideation explosion.”
Overall, the majority of the time was devoted to introducing application ideas incorporating the client’s ingredient solutions with the customer’s products. Several new application ideas that took advantage of today’s consumer trends were also presented. The food developers and scientists in that room were engaged and asked questions. Their minds were turning.
The client comes first
And I understood that the lion’s share of the work of this presentation was all the thought and research that went into the part ABOUT THE CUSTOMER.
One of the most important marketing lessons to remember when presenting to anyone is MAKE IT ABOUT THEM. It’s easy (and lazy) to fall into the trap of talking about yourself to an audience who wants you to get to the point and tell them why they should care. For food ingredient companies, this means bringing ideas – lots of them, and good ones – to any customer meetings.
Show them application ideas that get them excited to do business with you, demonstrating your thinking about personalization. Show them you’re on the pulse of today’s consumer trends and understand how to turn that knowledge into smart decisions.
By helping customers envision successful applications that depend upon your ingredient solutions, you’re connecting the dots and that much closer to getting a customer’s business.
If you’re interested in partnering with a team that specializes in strategies for B2B customer engagement, contact us.