The essential elements of successful sales campaigns and demonstration best practices should not be discounted for the mere sake of speed.
“The client has
requested a demonstration and we will lose the chance if we don’t act quickly.” “And it’s a huuuuuge opportunity…!” Sound familiar? It happens to all of us…the
last minute request from our sales counterparts. The demo, at the urgent request of the
salesperson, that must be done right away!
With
the emergence of new technology, including collaboration and communication
platforms, it is now easier to connect and communicate with clients to provide
a demonstration than ever before. New
companies seemingly appear weekly with solutions and recommendations on how to communicate
with clients in an engaging way. As examples,
companies like Vidyard
allow personalized video selling that dramatically increase marketing response
rates. Companies like Consensus
provide intriguing, interactive recorded demo automation that allows marketing
and business development teams to send self-qualifying, self-customizing demonstrations
to prospects. The technology is astonishing
and these solutions not only help differentiate companies and solutions, they
provide new ways to articulate value to clients in meaningful and compelling
ways. Even better, these platforms
provide rich insights into how customers and prospects interact and respond to
messages, marketing and solutions so that sales and demonstration teams can acquire
intelligence crucial to improving the effectiveness of their company’s
messaging.
While these technologies offer many advantages, for them to
be useful in your sales campaigns they must be utilized in alignment with effective
and proven sales and demonstration best practices. Many of the practices have not changed, yet
are easy to overlook when rushed to provide a demonstration in as little as 24
hours. Below are a few principles and
best practices to consider. These time-tested
principles have not only been taught for years, but have been validated in
recent studies.
As I often share with students, our job is to illustrate
value to clients and prospects – and enable their buying processes. We should communicate value and benefits, in
our endeavor to highlight specific capabilities known as features and
functions. Regardless of the vehicle and
timeframe for delivering demos, we must do the following in order to have
highly personalized and effective demonstrations that win!
1.
Discovery: Sales are often won or lost in the Discovery
phase. The vendor that is perceived as
doing a better job in Discovery is typically in a competitively advantageous
position.
Regardless of the platform or methodology, demos must be personalized in concurrence
with each client’s situation(s), company uniqueness, buying processes and other
parameters. Without proper and
sufficient Discovery, one cannot truly understand the business and personal
implications of the client’s situation.
And without a full understanding of the Critical Business Issue(s), one
cannot customize a resonating message that helps solve each challenge
specifically.
Takeaway: If you are providing the same demonstration
time and time again and do not fully understand the personal and business drivers
related to your clients’ challenges you are not likely conducting effective Discovery
sessions. Hold the demo if you can and
invest in further discovery.
2.
Preparation
and Prioritization: While providing
a demonstration quickly allows one to increase the number of demonstrations
provided, it will not increase the quality and effectiveness of the
demonstration nor (most importantly) increase your demonstration win rate. Demonstrations must be tailored to the
Specific Capabilities required by the client. Take time to review the needs of
your client, prioritize and personalize the flow of your demonstrations by
showing the most important features at the beginning of your demonstration. Prioritization should be part of your
Discovery.
Takeaway: Take time to meet with
your sales team – and your champion – to ensure you understand the priorities
of the capabilities the client has requested.
3.
Delivering
Value: As technologies evolve, use
them to your advantage. Whether you
provide demo snippets that are constructed and recorded with demo automation
tools or deliver your demonstrations live, take time to articulate the unique
value to your clients.
When describing value, remember to
communicate three ideas: What, How and
How Much. What – what the customer is
seeing in the demo, as a deliverable.
How – how it can be used to address their problem, uncover an insight,
or surface an opportunity. How Much –
the tangible value or benefit associated with using the capability and making
the change from status quo – typically
in terms of Time, People or Money. When
you can do this at a personal level with your audience you increase the
probability the client remembers and prefers your solution.
Takeaway: Sell value, benefits
and solutions, not features and functions.
At Great Demo! we recommend you use technology as an
enabler. Differentiate your message and
deliver it in compelling ways. Speed for
the sake of speed without taking time to invest in Discovery will only allow
you to fail quicker and more often. By applying
the concepts above you will be ready to operate with not only speed, but
precision. Invest in Discovery,
prioritize your solution delivery and support it with personalized value. When you have the knowledge to craft a
winning demo, technology can be applied to help deliver the message and analyze
the results.
Happy Selling!
Paul H. Pearce
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