Our next
Great Demo! Public Workshop is scheduled for October 9-10 in San Jose,
California – Registration information can be found here (http://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2012/10/23/great-demo-workshop-on-oct-9-10-2013/).
This is a
1.5-Day Workshop, with the first day focusing largely on core Great Demo! concepts
and the morning of the second day addressing more advanced topics and
techniques. This is an excellent opportunity for individuals, small groups or
for teams that have new hires.
Register
using the link above or contact me for more information (PCohan@SecondDerivative.com).
A number of sales methodologies have done a good job at helping sales
and presales people move from talking about features to discussing the
advantages that specific capabilities offer the customer. The phrase, “So
What?” represents one tactic that helps push vendor representatives to talk
about advantages as opposed to features. This is a good start, but we can
do better…
During demos, there is inherent risk anytime you introduce
capabilities that the customer has not yet requested – and, in particular, the
level of risk depends greatly on how the
capabilities are introduced. The “So What” tactic presumes that the customer will want or need the capability being
introduced – and that’s a dangerous assumption!
Here’s an example of why:
Feature Statement: “We provide support for the software in 22
languages…”
So What Statement: “We provide support for the software in 22
languages, so that your team can access the software anywhere in the world
using their native languages…”
The Risk: The customer says, “Everyone in our company speaks
English and we want to make sure that all information is captured consistently
in the system, so that everyone can access all information equally – without
having to learn 21 other languages…”
In this example, the “So What” fails, because the vendor presumed the
21 additional languages would be desired by the customer. (Note that a good job doing Discovery would
have clarified this – and avoided the faux pas…). But wait, there’s more…
The customer then adds, “…and we don’t want to pay for the additional
21 languages, since we won’t be using them – so either take out the support for
those languages for our implementation or reduce your price accordingly…”
“So What” has backfired – and the vendor is now at risk of “buying it
back”.
Another Example:
Feature Statement: “Alerts can be automatically generated and
sent to you via email…”
So What Statement: “Alerts can be automatically generated and
sent to you via email, so that can be notified of any problems right away…”
The Risk: The customer says, “I hate email. I get way too
much already and I’m always spending too much time deleting messages – I’d be
concerned that I’d delete the alerts, thinking they might be spam. I’d
rather simply login to your system periodically…”
The Additional Risk: The customer adds, “…and I don’t want to
pay for the email alert functionality, since I won’t be using it – so either
take it out or give me a discount…”
Same Example, Even Worse:
Feature Statement and Demo: “Alerts can be automatically
generated and sent to you via email – here, let me show you how this can be
done in the software…”
So What Statement and Demo: “Alerts can be automatically
generated and sent to you via email, so that you can be notified of any
problems right away – here, let me show you how this can be set up and done
with the software…”
The Risk: The customer says, “I hate email. I get way too
much already and I’m always spending too much time deleting messages – I’d be
concerned that I’d delete the alerts, thinking they might be spam. I’d
rather simply login to your system periodically…”
The Additional Risk: The customer adds, “In addition, that looks
really complicated and confusing – too many features and functions to
remember. I think we’ll go with your competition, whose software was much
more aligned with exactly what we need…!”
Solutions
The best solution? Introduce your capabilities via questions in Discovery, well before a demo.
Once you’ve either uncovered a need (and the customer has confirmed their
desire to have the capability), then presenting that specific capability in
your demo can be done as a benefit
statement.
Michael Bosworth, in his sales methodologies Solution Selling and CustomerCentric
Selling, outlined the idea of Feature, Advantage, and Benefit statements –
simplified here:
Features: are the description of what the feature does
Advantages: are why it might
be good for the customer
Benefits: are why it will be
good for the customer, based on the customer’s previous statements (e.g., from
Discovery sessions) or (best of all) when the customer verbalizes the benefit statement!
This difference between an Advantage (presumed benefit) and a real Benefit (confirmed benefit) can be huge!
Revisiting
Example 1, we might have a different conversation and
result:
Feature Statement: “We provide support for the software in 22
languages…”
Advantage (So What) Statement: “We provide support for the
software in 22 languages, so that your team can access the software anywhere in
the world using their native languages…”
Benefit Statement: “You had mentioned that you need support for
5 languages so that your team can access the software anywhere in the world
using their local native languages – we do support all five of those languages
as part of our standard offering.”
The win: The customer says, “That’s terrific – that’s exactly
what we need. Interestingly, one of your competitors said they support a
pile of languages, but we didn’t want to pay for all of those extra
capabilities since we’ll never use them…”
An
alternative approach, based on what were benefits for other similar customers, is called a Biased
Question – see my posts in this blog or as articles on my website: “Stunningly Awful vs. Truly Terrific Competitive Differentiation”
or “Competitive Demo Situations –
Biasing Towards Your Strengths” (at www.secondderivative.com/Articles.html)
for further information on these ideas (or send me an email at PCohan@SecondDerivative.com
and I’d be happy to send you the articles).
