DON'T BE AFRAID TO SHOW OFF YOUR SKILLS!

Let's face it, you have a problem; you made something brilliant but you hate showing off about it.

If you are launching a scientific, technical, engineering, or medical product and you want it to have an impact (sell lots of) you need to show people your excitement about it.

I was told something last week that proved quite insightful. It happened whilst speaking to a high tech product manufacturing director; they said "sometimes engineers or academics are so focussed on their work they don't realise how amazing what they are doing is to everyone else ".

Perhaps it is partly due to the focussed nature of the work. Maybe the fact that engineers and scientists are subject to rigorous peer review makes them hesitate when it comes to sharing their work - no matter how ground breaking it is.

Whatever the reason, showing off about your product or service is an important part of a successful launch. I'm not talking about showing off in a bragging, look at me, shallow kind of way. If you have made something brilliant then you need to let others know and showing off is how they find out. So what is holding you back?

• Are you worried about being thought of as big headed?
• Are you concerned about peer perception?
• Is it a fear of making mistakes that prevents you?
• Does focussing too much on your world view prevent you from seeing anyone else's?
• This is your baby, are you worried how the world will treat it?

If the answer is yes to any of these then you need to start tackling those issues. People will be interested - and you should get excited about showing off your product or service. That is, if you want the best possible product launch.

If you really can't stomach it then you should hire someone to be that excited person for you. Or you could create materials that show off for you.

A Quick Story to End On...

We found that along with the usual marketing materials, video animations were really effective at conferences and shows we exhibited at.

An example of the potency of video for us was during our early days - when we didn't really know what we were doing or selling. We exhibited at a reasonably large regional conference. We had a few good animations and some completely disconnected but nice looking trade show materials.

Even though we didn't have a clue who we were targeting, what we were selling or really why we were even there. We had many more people visit us than the more focussed businesses around us. They had sweets, pens and other little freebies - all the things you would usually expect. But people spoke to us first.

What made us stand out was the fact we had a flat-screen TV with an interesting and colourful video playing. People stopped to look at it and ask questions, other people saw them looking and came over themselves to ask questions or have a nose. Once people started talking to us they could see how passionate about our work we were.

We could have made many more sales if we had researched who would be attending and what their interests may have been. Lesson learnt!

We did find new customers, we built more relationships and we got work from it however. By simply doing something different than our co-exhibitors we triggered conversations with people who would never have approached us otherwise.

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