Tuesday, July 29, 2014

When the Best Solution Is NOT Your Offering

Have you ever found, when doing Discovery with a prospect, that the problem they face may not be best addressed by your offering – that another organization’s product would be better choice for them?  Do you go ahead and propose your offering anyway or do you suggest a solution from another company?  (Note – I’m not talking about direct competitors’ products, but other non-direct competitor alternatives…)

A few thoughts:

First, the quest for rapid revenue may not be the right choice, particularly if the main problem faced by the customer requires capabilities that you don’t offer.  An example?  A customer called me asking for demo skills training for his team.  In our Discovery conversation, I realized that his team had a bigger need for behavioral presentation skills training than for demo skills.  I could have gone ahead with delivering demo skills training, but felt he’d be better served by training his team to get more comfortable in front of audiences (body position, word pace, tone, etc.)  I suggested he talk with the folks at Mandel Communications (who do a delightful job teaching people how to present).  He did and put his team through their training.  Some months later, he called me again and said his team was ready for demo skills training (and they were) and we did a series of very successful Great Demo! Workshops. 

Interestingly, making a recommendation that is NOT your offering can pay delightful dividends, in terms of dramatically increased earned credibility and trust.  Your prospect will likely come back to you, the next time they are looking for solution to a problem, rather than your competition.  This is exactly what happened in this case – my customer told me, after our first Workshop, that he preferentially chose Great Demo! because of my initial recommendation for behavioral presentation skills training.


You’ve become a trusted advisor – as opposed to simply pushing a product.

Friday, July 18, 2014

(Warning – Shameless Self Promotion Alert!) Great Demo! Intro Video

It’s my pleasure to offer this brief video intro to the Great Demo! methodology:  http://goo.gl/dL72VJ

It provides a sample of the key ideas – an appetizer, not the full meal…!   Please contact me if you are interested in exploring further.


I want to thank Demos on Demand for this video.  They provide an advanced B2B video platform that’s specifically designed for technology markets—and they do a wonderful job recording demos and whiteboards—really great stuff!

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Remote Demos: Check for Screen Resolution Readability

During a Remote Demo today, where I was the customer on the receiving end of the demo, I asked the vendor to change his screen resolution because the text and images he was sharing were too small for me to see clearly.  He suddenly realized that this problem had been going on for quite a while – and that most of his customers have also been unable to see sufficient detail in his demos…! 

I noted that most customers won’t say anything – they either assume that there is nothing that can be changed – that “it is what it is…”  They just live with it and make no comment, squinting at their screen, suffering quietly through the demo and unable to consume the content.

This suggests a tip when you start a Remote Demo (as the vendor):  Ask, “Can you read this text comfortably?”  If yes, then proceed.  If no, then adjust your screen resolution down (to a lower resolution) and check again.