Manager “Chaperone” for Demo Prep Calls

Here’s a terrific implementation tactic, suggested by a Great Demo! Workshop manager: Join pre-demo discussions (via phone, for example) between sales people and their presales counterparts as a “chaperone”. The idea is to both facilitate the conversation between the sales and presales participants, and to guide the discussion as necessary or appropriate.

Additionally, this approach can help identify those sales people who need more “encouragement” to gather discovery and qualification information that might be needed before a delivering a demo. Similarly, this tactic helps to train presales people to ask the right questions to get the information they need to prepare credible demos. Terrific idea!

Additional thoughts or comments on this are welcomed…

Public Great Demo! Workshop – San Francisco Bay Area – November 19

[Warning: Shameless self-promotion alert!]

In conjunction with the 280 Group, we are offering an Open (public) 1-Day Great Demo! Workshop in San Jose, California on November 19th.

You can find more information including an overview, agenda, location and pricing at the 280 Group website. Registration for the event is available here.

This is a terrific opportunity for individuals or small groups.

[And this should be the last posting for this event on this blog...]

“Not Yet…”

Very often, presales managers are asked to qualify sales opportunities before assigning a presales resource for a demo. This often takes the form of reviewing the information entered into a CRM system by a sales person or submitted by that sales person on an internal form. There are typically only two answers:

“Yes” – you have provided enough information/the opportunity is sufficiently qualified (or senior management has decreed that it is…!) and yes, we’ll schedule a presales resource for your demo.

“No” – the opportunity is insufficiently documented; no demo resource for you. [“No soup for you…!” – my apologies for the Seinfield reference…]

“No” answers often cause trauma in the organization. Sales people may run to their managers to complain, etc.etc. Here’s a wonderful alternative to consider: “Not yet”.

“Not Yet” – you don’t have enough information yet; please go back and do a more complete effort of qualification/discovery. Here are a few questions we need answered – then we should be able to provide you with a demo resource…

A wonderfully gentle, but firm way of accomplishing the same objective!

Using the Bicycle Story to Get Customers to Talk

A recent Great Demo! Workshop participant noted that we can use the “bicycle story” (follows in a moment, be patient…) to encourage customers/prospects to talk about their needs and interests - rather than to show them a long stream of stuff they are not interested in. Here’s the story:


“You are riding a bicycle rather fast. You skid on some gravel and fall, scraping your legs and arms. You are bleeding moderately and you hurt, but your bike seems to be ok.

Someone sees you fall and comes to offer help. He offers you water – but you aren’t thirsty, you’re bleeding. He offers you a patch kit for your bike, but your tires are fine – and you are still bleeding. Now you are not only hurt, but also irritated! He offers food, music, asthma medicine, dancing girls, a new chain, a map, handlebars, bicycle bags, and a cell phone.

All are very nice offers, but clearly what you need is:
1) a few bandages and
2) a couple of aspirin”


The point behind the story, of course, is to present the Specific Capabilities the customer is interested in, rather than present a pile of features and functions that are of no interest for the customer at that time.

The Workshop participant commented that many customers will say, “Just show us what you have…” instead of allowing a discovery or qualification session to take place. He noted that sharing this story (via a PowerPoint slide) may help the customer realize that a conversation before doing a demo makes better sense!

It looks like Netbriefings has released a new or improved version of their web collaboration tool (http://www.netbriefings.com/solutions/econfpro.shtml). I haven’t yet seen it in action, but the collateral sounds good…!

Does anyone have experience using it for Remote Demos?


From their website:

Netbriefings Conference Pro Feature List
Flash-based Meeting Viewer - Participants only need a web browser and Flash to attend a meeting.
Cross-platform solution - Host or attend a meeting from a PC, Mac, or Linux computer.
Screen sharing - Show your entire desktop or a window on your desktop to all attendees. Annotate a shared display.
Zoom in on important areas.
Adjustable resolutions.
Full screen viewing for attendees.
Presentation sharing - Import a PowerPoint presentation and share it with meeting attendees. Display slide thumbnails and titles in a navigation window.
Annotate (and allow attendees to annotate) shared slides.
Support Flash slides including animations.
Full screen viewing for attendees. Whiteboard sharing - Share an interactive whiteboard and allow anyone to draw.
Support multiple whiteboards in a meeting.
Media streaming - Stream Flash videos or MP3 audios to all attendees and control their playback.
Allow everyone to annotate and draw on the shared video.
Picture sharing - Share a picture with all attendees and allow everyone to annotate and draw on the shared picture.
Control the zooming and panning of the picture.
Video/Voice over IP - Show up to 12 webcam windows with voice over IP.
File transfer - Transfer desktop files to meeting attendees.
Desktop snapshot - Take a desktop snapshot and send it to all attendees.
Pass presenter control - Promote an attendee to be a presenter during a meeting and allow the attendee to control a presentation or share his screen.
Remote control - Allows an attendee to control your desktop during a screen sharing session. Chat messaging - Send text messages or web page links to meeting attendees.
Open or restricted as configured by Moderator.
Attendee management - View a list of meeting attendees and their profiles.
Give attendees permission to draw on a whiteboard or a slide.
Remove unwanted attendees.
Lock the meeting.
Audio conference integration and controls - Control an audio conference from the attendee list, including mute, un-mute, hang-up a caller, or dial-out to a participant.
Full audio integration with toll-free audio service.
Meeting recording - Record audio and web conference as a synchronized
Flash-based recording on the server.
Viewers can play recording right in their browser without having to download any proprietary players.
Embeddable Content - Embed live meetings or archived on-demand recordings in any website. Polling/Quiz - Poll attendees with multiple-choice questions and monitor the responses in real-time.
Show polling results to attendees instantly.
Create impromptu or scheduled meetings - Instantly create and start impromptu meetings. Create a scheduled meeting and add it to your calendar.
Meeting invitations - Send meeting URL via email or IM, or simply ask a participant to join with a meeting ID.
Access control - Control meeting access with a password or to registered users only.
Publish meetings - Publish a meeting to the web site home page to allow anyone to join without an invitation.
Personal meeting room - Create a personal meeting room for all meetings.
Customize Meeting Viewer - Customize meeting viewer to display your own logo, banner, and background image.
Online content storage - Store presentation slides, video, and audio files in a personal content store online for accessing from any computer.
Activity reports - Activity reports log all meeting sessions, attendees, and time.
Export activity reports in XML or CSV formats.
User registration - Option to require user registration prior to attending a meeting.
Export registered user profiles for post-meeting follow-ups.
Feedback and comments - Allow participants to post comments and feedback to your meetings and publish them in the Homepage.

The “Rule of Three”

It is said that humans hear and retain information presented in groups of three very well. A Blog reader offered the following article that explores this further:

http://www.presentationmagazine.com/rule-of-three-836.htm (Thanks, Kevin!)

I certainly see the same effect and map accordingly in Great Demo! methodology. For example:

Questions:
- Great Questions (which we address right away)
- Good Questions (which we queue-up for later)
- Stupid Questions (which we also queue-up for later)

Bugs and Crashes:
- Cosmetic Bugs (which we ignore)
- Serious Bugs (we acknowledge, jump over and move on)
- Crashes (we acknowledge, direct attention away from the disaster, and move on)

General Great Demo! Method:
- Illustrate (show the Wow!, the main take-away, the end result)
- Do It (the fewest steps to get to that end result)
- Peel Back the Layers (in accord with audience depth and level of interest)

[And, of course, Learning:
- Adults learn by repetition (let me say that again…)
- Adults learn by repetition (one more time…)
- Adults learn… (yes, by repetition!)]

I’d be grateful for more insight into why the “Rule of Three” works so well – as well as other examples…

Great Examples of Using PowerPoint – Wonderful YouTube Videos

Very funny and excellent examples using PowerPoint (extra amusing for those who were/are chemists and related…)!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXFi7AdhhGk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRzCG3_LceI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-JhqMVHT8c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IydcSuhWoW0

Which Would You Prefer?

I often hear that companies “Eat their own dog-food…” to communicate the idea that they use their own products for their internal processes. Nice thought, but potentially rather unappetizing – and arguably an unsavory description of one’s own offerings.

I heard a wonderful alternative yesterday to communicate the same idea, “We drink our own champagne…”

Stunningly Awful PowerPoint Examples – Wonderful YouTube Video

For some, this may be a repeat posting, but well worth 4 minutes to review. Very funny and illustrative!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp8dugDbf4w

The Effectiveness of Odd Numbers of Bullet Items

A colleague commented that people appear to better absorb and remember lists when they are in groups of odd numbers (as opposed to even numbers). This includes bulleted PowerPoint slides, verbalized lists, and lists developed on whiteboards and other media.

I’ve noted, personally, that there appears to be a “power of three” effect – that people remember lists of three items very well. Conversely, we certainly know that a list of 10 words is very tough to remember…!

As a self-test, it would be interesting to read and compare/contrast your own marketing literature’s bulleted lists of features/benefits with that of your competition or related third parties…

Does anyone have feedback, comments or data regarding the effectiveness of remembering odd-numbered lists vs. even?

Public Great Demo! Workshop – San Francisco Bay Area

[Warning: Shameless self-promotion alert!]

In conjunction with the 280 Group, we are offering an Open (public) 1-Day Great Demo! Workshop in San Jose, California on November 19th.

You can find more information including an overview, agenda, location and pricing at the 280 Group website.

This is a terrific opportunity for individuals or small groups.

How About a “Do It” in Zero Mouse Clicks?

A recent Great Demo! Workshop participant semi-seriously suggested implementing a Forecast/Pipeline-screen-saver for VP’s of sales. This would be a terrific example of a “Do It” in zero clicks…! (And how many heads of sales wouldn’t like this idea?)

The Menu Approach Using a Spreadsheet

A recent Great Demo! Workshop participant cleverly noted that using a spreadsheet (e.g., Excel) for the dynamic process of a group voting on individual menu items of interest enables rapid sorting of the results. This yields a ranked, prioritized list of topics in accord with group’s overall interests.

Previously, I’ve used Word or PowerPoint for the same process, but have to drag-and-drop items to rearrange the order as a result of the vote. With a spreadsheet, multiple steps can be reduced to a couple of clicks!

Corporate Overview Presentation – The Good News and the Bad News…

A recent Great Demo! Workshop participant described a wonderful tactic he uses to introduce the fact that he will not be starting with a painful and boring corporate overview presentation:

He says, “Regarding our corporate overview presentation, I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that I have a 90 slide PowerPoint deck that takes 40 minutes to go through; the good news is that I’m not going to inflict it on you!”

(Sighs of relief and occasional applause from the audience…)

Scroll-Zoom in Internet Explorer

Microsoft Internet Explorer provides the ability to zoom the view (enlarge or shrink) using Control-Scrolling-Wheel. This is a great way to help customers focus on the specific items you want them to see on the screen. Give it a try!

Another Webinar Listing Service – www.webinar-directory.com

We’ve come across a another website that provides the ability to post and search for upcoming webinars and past webinars: www.webinar-directory.com.

You do have to register to use the service… This could be a good service to use both as a marketing vehicle and to aid in personal or team-member growth. Check it out…

Webinar Listing Service – WebinarHero.com

We’ve come across a new website that provides the ability to post and search for upcoming webinars – it’s essentially a webinar clearinghouse: www.WebinarHero.com.

This could be a good service to use both as a marketing vehicle and to aid in personal or team-member growth. Check it out…

Assessing and Using Risk Factors For Assigning Presales Resources

Consider including or calculating a relative Risk Factor on Request for Demo (resource) forms. This could be based on the amount and quality of information received and captured on a Request for Demo Form prior to a demo and could be used to determine whether to commit a presales resource to that demo.

For example, we can assign a point for each useful piece of information on a Situation Slide, per key person in a demo (Job Title, CBI, Reason(s), Specific Capabilities, Delta, Critical Date…). The more points, the better prepared and hence the better (lower) the risk.

[One could also call this a Probability of Success Factor, rather than Risk Factor, since the number actually is the inverse risk. Those who love math and formulae might also contemplate multiplying this Inverse Risk Factor (or a conversion thereof) against the forecasted amount of the opportunity to give a Risk-Reward Factor. Go nuts…!]

In cases where there are resource constraints or competition for internal presales resources, a Request for Demo form with a higher score beats out another Request for Demo with a low score…

However applied, this idea of scoring demo risk may be a good tool to help increase the amount and quality of information provided by sales to presales people prior to demos.

Excellent 5 Minute “Demo” Example

Here’s a terrific example of showing the “what” and holding back on the details of “how”… Wonderful!

http://www.ted.com/talks/josh_silver_demos_adjustable_liquid_filled_eyeglasses.html

Retro Encabulator – Stunningly Funny Demo Example

This is so amusing – and such a good example of showing the “how” and largely ignoring the “what”…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXJKdh1KZ0w

Note that if you search on YouTube, you will find other versions of the video. It is interesting to the genesis and how much effort has gone into this spoof!

Four Stages of Learning and Implementation

The following is a wonderfully crisp capture of four stages of learning and implementation:

1. Unconsciously Incompetent
2. Consciously Incompetent
3. Consciously Competent
4. Unconsciously Competent

The first stage is typical for people who have not had skills or knowledge training, and who are often unaware of their weaknesses and situation.

The second stage takes place after a skills development or training session, with the participants recognizing that they have new skills and information to put into practice. They are now aware of their short-comings.

As participants consciously put their new learnings into practice, they move to the third stage – they are working hard to apply what they have learned.

Stage four is where participants are now practicing the new methods and concepts as part of their day-to-day operations, without having to devote additional thought to their application – the ideas are now imbedded and applied unconsciously.

I’d suggest that there is (at least) one additional stage to consider – any suggestions as to what it might be?

Live Meeting Full-screen Mode

F5 pushes Microsoft Live Meeting into full-screen mode (as a toggle) – this is in addition to the icon that accomplishes the same task, located in the bottom-right of the screen. F5 is easier to ask audience members to do…

It is important to make sure your audience sees everything you believe they are seeing – using full-screen mode helps make sure.

Public Great Demo! Workshops – San Francisco Bay Area

[Warning: Shameless self-promotion alert!]

In conjunction with the 280 Group, we are offering two 1-Day Great Demo! Open (public) Workshops this fall in the San Francisco Bay Area. The first is scheduled on October 1st; the second on November 19th.

You can find more information including an overview, agenda, location and pricing at the 280 Group website.

This is a terrific opportunity to send individuals or small groups.

Stunningly Awful Demo Example (But Very Funny)

A Great Demo! Workshop participant shared this Saturday Night Live recording that includes a terrifically poor “demo”. The segment is from Fall 2008 in the midst of the U.S. presidential elections – the “demo” is about 90 seconds into the recording…

Here’s the link: http://www.hulu.com/watch/40678/saturday-night-live-update-freds-mapfix-it#s-p1-st-i4. Enjoy!

99-to-1 Is a Tie

In the world of committee-based decisions, it was pointed out that a score of 99-to-1 may well be a tie score!