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Your customers will often go several levels deep. The sales channels (whether they be direct or indirect) are your customers. Additionally, within the purchasing company, the evaluator of your product is your customer, the person who approves the PO for your product is your customer, and the end user is your customer (sometimes three different people, sometimes all the same person).

Product presentations are an important part of selling your product to prospective customers. In many cases, this will be the customer's first introduction to your company and potentially your product. First impressions are critical. There are also times when it is important to sell your product to the people inside your company as well as investors. Proper preparation is vital to presenting your product in the best light possible.

I have spent a lot of time in Chapter 2 of my book discussing ways to get closer to the customer. But just talking to customers is not enough. You must think like your customers. Figure out your target market -- the actual individual that will buy your product. Write down their title, their biggest frustrations, their goals, and put them on your wall. If you don't know these things, then you haven't talked to enough people in your target market (both current customers and prospects).

Objective/call to action - At the end of your product presentation you want something to happen, either you want a customer to move forward to evaluate your product, your management to buy into what you are doing with the product, your sales people eager to sell your product, or an investor or your management to provide additional funding of your product.

Number 1 - Start thinking like a CEO now. What is that supposed to mean? As a product manager you already "think about the big picture". You are always thinking about how your product impacts the company's bottom line, so what is the difference? The difference is thinking beyond the product. As product managers, we tend to get very product-centric - if we just had these features, we could go after this market. But a company is so much more than product, it is service, it is positioning, it is people. As a product manager, you are a lightening rod for all lots of ideas within the company.

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