“Overview” and “Intro” Demos – Is There an Effective, Less Time-consuming Alternative?

Why, yes there is!  Call it “Interactive Demo Automation…”

Far too many demos are delivered as a standard or semi-standard “overview” or “introduction” – often presented by skilled, experienced and comparatively expensive presales staff.  Unfortunately, these demos could be (sometimes are?) delivered half-asleep, as many are presented the same way, over and over. 

Overview and intro demos often consume 20-50% of the overall demo “load” for presales teams.  Would you like some of that time back for more valuable work?  (Just say, “Yes!”)

What if there was a terrific tool that could deliver these overview/intro demos in an automated, consistent fashion – yet still adapt and map to specific customer interests?  Well, there is.

The fine folks at Consensus (www.goconsensus.com) offer exactly that – an automated, customized demo.  Is that possible?  (Just say, “Yes!” again)

When a customer starts the “demo”, he or she is presented with a choice of job titles and asked to choose the best fit.  For example:

• Sales
• Marketing
• Presales
• Channel
• Enablement

Right away, the software is enabling the customer to self-qualify, while the back-end tracks the choices… 

Next, based on job title choice, the customer is presented with a list of 5-7 topics and asked to categorize each as

• Important
• Somewhat Important
• Not Important

The tool then assembles a semi-custom demo based on the selections.  For items identified as “Important”, the customer is shown a 2-minute segment on that topic.  For items marked “Somewhat Important”, the customer sees a 30-second portion.  And for those items classified as “Not Important” the tool presents …wait for it… nothing!  What a delight!

So, the customer specifies his or her job title as well as the particular areas and level of interest for each.  The resulting demo maps directly to these choices, giving the customer a semi-tailored overview/intro to the offering.  Frankly, this may be better than a live presales person delivering the same “standard overview demo” over and over. 

But wait, there’s more…! 

The tool tracks all of the choices, along with what is actually watched by the customer, providing the you with insight into the customer’s interests.  Fabulous!

In Great Demo! Workshops, we teach how to use the Menu Approach and Vision Generation demos as self-rescue methods in live demo situations where the customer has asked for an “overview”; the Consensus tool can replace the need to do many of these sessions.

Why am I such a fan of the Consensus tool?  Because it is the first (and only?) recorded demo offering that applies Great Demo! methodology – and the Menu Approach, in particular – and does it well.

So, if you find that significant portion of your time is consumed with intro and overview demos, you should seriously consider the Consensus tool – and use that time for other, more valuable tasks.

Check it out…!

PS – I am such a fan of Consensus that I’ve scheduled a Great Demo! Public Workshop to take place in conjunction with the Consensus folks on June 13-14 in the Salt Lake City area (think “Silicon Slopes”).  You can find pricing, registration and additional information for this Workshop here.