Presenting Your Credentials

A credentials presentation is an overview of your company, what it does, and how it adds value to its customers

Despite your best intentions to focus on the customer’s needs, you will often find that you are asked to give a quick explanation of who you are and what you have to offer -- a credentials presentation -- before the customer will give you any information about themselves.

A credentials presentation is an overview of your company, what it does, and how it adds value to its customers. You need to be prepared to give a brief presentation, but if you can avoid having to do so at this early stage of your relationship with a customer, you should: as soon as you start talking about how to help them before identifying and confirming their needs, it becomes more about you than about them. If your customer says to you: “Tell me about your company,” it can sometimes work to respond with: “I’ll be delighted to explain who we are and how we may be of assistance, but I can do that much more effectively if I learn a bit about your first.” If the customer agrees, you can start the needs-determination process; if not, you will have to make a credentials presentation.

ACTION POINT: Always focus more on the customer instead of yourself