Stop Opening with “About Us”
What I’m about to say might rub some people the wrong way, and that’s fine. I never promised to tell you what’s popular, only what’s effective. If your first slide says “About Our Company,” you’ve already lost the room. Buyers don’t care how long you’ve been around. They care how fast you can make their world better.
I’ve sat through hundreds of sales pitches from the other side of the table. I can tell you exactly what happens when a rep leads with company history, executive bios, office counts, and awards: eyes glaze, phones appear, attention drifts. The meeting is already slipping away.
The Comfort Blanket of Credibility
Salespeople defend the “About Us” slide as credibility building. It isn’t. It’s comfort building for them. It’s a safe, low-risk warm-up before the hard part begins: talking about the customer. Facts about your own company can’t be wrong, and they fill time. But they also announce that this presentation will be generic, seller-centric, and forgettable.
Buyers know it, and they tune out.
The Illusion of Credibility
Nowhere is this more obvious than in adtech, but the pattern exists everywhere. Award programs, analyst grids, and vendor rankings have become pay-for-play. I’ve seen lists that somehow exclude the real market leaders while highlighting companies that quietly paid the entry fee. Anyone close to the industry reads them and scratches their head. Building credibility and authority matters a great deal. But too many companies are doing it in all the wrong ways.
When every deck starts with logos, “best-of” trophies, and questionable third-party badges, the signal you send isn’t strength — it’s insecurity.
The Buyer’s Point of View
As an executive buyer, I’m not impressed by your title or your awards.
I want you to:
• Prove you understand my business.
• Show me a relevant example of someone like me using you.
• Respect my time.
That’s it.
I don’t need your founding story. I need to know why talking to you right now helps me hit my goals this quarter. The fastest way to establish trust isn’t bragging rights — it’s relevance.
What to Lead With Instead
Openings that actually work sound like this:
• Relevance: “Here’s what we’ve learned about companies like yours.”
• Impact: “Here’s one specific outcome we helped a peer achieve.”
• Proof: “Here’s a live example of a customer you’d recognize using us right now.”
Each of these respects the buyer’s time, gives context, and sets a clear reason to listen.Real credibility doesn’t come from claiming authority. It comes from demonstrating value early and concretely.
A Better Formula
𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 = 𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 + 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐟 + 𝐄𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐲
• Relevance shows you understand their world.
• Proof shows you’ve done it before.
• Empathy shows you respect their time.
That mix builds more trust than any paid ranking or press release ever could. Next time you build a deck, delete slide one. Start with the customer, not the company. Replace the résumé with relevance.
In a world drowning in awards, analyst badges, and “Top Vendor” lists, the most radical move you can make is to show up prepared and make it about them.
Real authority isn’t purchased. It’s earned, one relevant conversation at a time.