The translation step between discovery and demo is where most technically strong people lose the room — by jumping straight to "here's how our product works" instead of first proving they understood the problem. The fix is a deliberate narrative structure, sometimes called a situation slide: before showing anything, state back the customer's own situation, pain, and desired outcome in their language, and get visible agreement ("yes, that's exactly it") before moving on. That single step does more for credibility than any amount of product depth.

A durable narrative shape

1. Their situation, stated in their words, from discovery — not yours
2. The specific pain and its quantified impact
3. What "good" looks like for them — the outcome, not the feature
4. The path there — your solution, shown solving exactly what was just described
5. Proof — a relevant reference, metric, or short live demonstration

Build this into a one‑page solution brief per opportunity — not a generic capability deck — so the champion has something accurate to forward internally when you're not in the room. It's often the single most‑reused artefact in the whole deal. Structure in Template 3. For the version of this discipline built specifically for a ten‑minute executive slot, see the sheet that follows this module.