The good news about my job is that I often get to listen to vendors pitch their products and services. Personally, I enjoy meeting CEOs that are passionate about their business. In the HCM technology space, its guys like Derek Mercer at Vurv, Jason Goldberg @ Jobster, Paul Sparta @ Plateau and Lars Dalgaard @ SuccessFactors.
The bad news about the job, though, is that most vendors still do not understand how to "brief" an analyst (I am not calling anyone out specifically, simply making a general statement). In an effort to make vendor briefings more productive and useful for both parties, I would like to throw out a couple of recommendations...
1) When it comes to the presentation...less is more. When a vendor sees they have 30-45 minutes to educate an analyst about their product or service, most try to shove as much information at you as possible (both public and private companies included). This includes 40+ slides about the product features and functions down to practically the code level. I find it much more valuable for myself and hopefully the vendors to keep an interactive dialog. No more than 12-14 slides is ideal. I find that the less slideware a company has, the more they actually know about their business (Larry Ellison and Steve Jobs are probably the best about the "less is more" theme).
2) Know your audience. This is "Sales 101" right....I guess not. I can't tell you the number of times I have seen quotes from IDC or Gartner in a company's pitch to me. I know, and have, tremendous respect for my colleagues at those firms -- and wouldn't be here if those quotes didn't mean something -- but for god-sake...you wouldn't wear a Red Sox hat into the Yankee Tavern...would you?
3) KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid). Fancy buzz words make me chuckle. If I had a nickel for every "innovative, patent-pending, "the only", "next-generation technology solution" that "enables", "maximizes", and "leverages"...blah...blah....blah...". I am more than happy to be straight-forward with you...please give me the same courtesy.
4) Tell me why you are different. You'd be surprised how many people don't know how to articulate their differentiation. Differentiation can mean many things. Is it your business model, pricing strategy, technology foundation, product functionality, sales execution, market approach, or yes, even the "team"? If you are not different and are competing in a highly commoditized market, I still want to hear your opinion why you will win.
5) Talk about what makes your customers different. How are clients different from using your product or service? We all hear that technology is the "enabler". Well then..what is it "enabling"? Does it affect a group, department or is it organization-wide? Are you clients more profitable than their peers set because of you?
6) Tell me where you are going to be in 3 years. This is the typical interview questions that I used to hate. Nonetheless, it is important to understand the ambitions of the company. Based on my interaction with buyers, most still want to see a vision when they are considering a purchase and, more importantly, want to ensure you will still be around next year and the year after that.
7) Passion can not be faked. There is an intangible factor to a company that has passion. Passion can outsell a better product. Do you have passion for the product/service and is the entire company passionate about changing the market?
Last week, Taleo announced they are building a "performance management suite". After shopping for a performance acquisition over the past year (and coming close to at least one deal) they have finally made the decision to build. My initial thoughts is that Taleo may be arriving a little late to the party. I admire their diligence and think they have made the right decision, but based on their announcement of a first version release in Fall 2007, it will now be over 2 years from intent to market presence of performance management capabilities. Yes...the market is still in its infancy (I estimate it is only 20-25% penetrated), but some vendors are beginning to extent themselves in the market. Example...SuccessFactors currently has a client acquisition rate of 100 new clients quarter-over-quarter and should reach a total of 1,000 customers by the end of the year.
Ironically, in the same week, SuccessFactors has announced the availability of Recruiting Management. Although it is not what I would consider a full-scale ATS (which is not necessarily a bad thing), they have built some solid first version functionality in rather short order (about 6 months). As with compensation and succession planning, SuccessFactors has taken an incremental build approach, centered around performance management, and continue to deliver consistent and on-going functionality on a frequent basis. 
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