Years ago, I judged a pitch competition called The Dolphin Tank. I reviewed the business plans the night before, including one for a hook you put in your car to put your purse on.

I thought, “Really? You want funding to sell purse hooks?”

The next day, the founder, Cari Carter, carted a full-size car seat into the ballroom, set it on the floor, put her purse and phone on it, faced our group, wrapped her fingers around an imaginary steering wheel, and began “driving” while saying:

“Have you ever been driving along and you had to STOP all of a sudden?

Your purse and phone fall off the seat onto the floor, and you start scrabbling around trying to retrieve them with one hand while driving with the other hand?

Imagine never having to worry about that again. Imagine having a hook that you…”

Before she even stopped talking, a man in the crowd shouted out, “I’ll take two! One for my wife and one for my daughter.”

Wow! Cari turned a skeptical “Really?!” to an enthusiastic “I’ll take two” in thirty seconds.

And, she did it by SHOWING instead of TELLING which catalyzed curiosity.

Instead of “telling us what she was going to tell us,” (a prescription for being a bore, snore, or chore), Cari started with a “Have you ever…” question that instantly engaged everyone in the room.

Then she put us in the scene of a real-life situation and re-enacted something we’ve all experienced.

Cari’s pitch proved the power of showing, not telling—by re-creating a familiar problem, she turned doubt into instant demand.