Dear Vendors: It’s Not a Sales Pitch, It’s a Seminar. Please Act Like It.

Public Short Read

If I had a quid for every time I sat down at a conference seminar and realised, three minutes in, that I’d accidentally walked into a sales pitch well, I’d probably have enough to buy your platform. And then cancel the presentation.

Let’s be honest: most of us in L&D have been burned by this before. You spot an interesting title in the programme. Something promising insight. Maybe even a case study. You make your way over, notebook in hand, a bit of curiosity in your step, and within moments, you're neck-deep in a thinly veiled product demo, complete with forced testimonials and slides that still have the pricing tier table on them.

It’s not that I don’t understand why it happens. You’re at a conference. You’ve paid a lot of money to be there. You want people to know what your product does, how great it is, and why they should talk to you later. I get it. But here’s the thing:

A sales pitch disguised as a seminar isn’t clever. It’s manipulative.

And worse than that, it’s boring.

Your content is your calling card

The irony is, vendors who put on genuinely valuable sessions tend to attract more interest, not less. When someone walks out of your talk thinking, “That was actually useful,” they’re far more likely to stop by your stand or look you up later. Because you’ve already demonstrated value. You’ve shown you understand the challenges. You’ve positioned yourself as someone who knows the field, not just someone who sells into it.

On the other hand, if your entire seminar can be summarised as “Here’s one of our clients to tell you how brilliant we are,” you’ve not built credibility. You’ve borrowed it. And most of us can see straight through it.

There’s a time and place for product demos. There’s even a case for a bit of light promotion. But if your whole session is built around the words “What we do at [Company Name] is…” then it’s not a seminar. It’s an advert. And we didn’t ask for adverts.

Try this instead

Lead with insight. Give people something new to think about. A real problem. A tricky trend. A pattern you’ve seen again and again in your customer base that says something interesting about the state of L&D today.

And then, if it makes sense, show how your product or service helps with that. But only after you’ve delivered something useful in its own right.

Or don’t talk about your product at all. Be generous. Be helpful. Share what you’ve learned from sitting across from hundreds of L&D teams, seeing what works and what doesn’t. That’s not giving away the secret sauce. That’s proving you know how to cook.

It’s slower. Yes. But it works better in the long run. When you’re remembered as the person who said something meaningful, not the one who slid a pricing plan into their session halfway through, you’ve already done more for your brand than any standee or swag bag could manage.

The best vendors are already doing this

There are some brilliant examples out there. Sessions where the speaker clearly knows the industry, understands the learning challenges people are facing, and delivers a talk that stands on its own, whether or not you ever buy from them.

Those vendors are building relationships, not transactions. And it shows. People talk about them with respect. They get mentioned in Slack groups. Their sessions get recommended.

It’s not magic. It’s professionalism.

So if you’re a vendor speaking at a conference soon, ask yourself:

• Is this genuinely valuable to people who don’t (yet) use my product?

• Am I saying something new, or just repeating the brochure with nicer lighting?

• Would I attend this talk if it weren’t my own?

If the answer to that last one is “probably not,” then back to the drawing board. We’ll all be better off for it.

What do you think?

Have you seen a vendor session that blew you away, or one that made you vow never to visit the stand? Got examples of what good looks like? Or maybe you’re a vendor wrestling with how to strike the right balance. I’d love to hear your take.

Let’s fix this together. It’s your stage. Use it well.