Demo Data – Another Angle

 

I’ve blogged about the need for demo data to reflect real-life problems and situations, including the ability to find and surface problems, identify opportunities, and explore exceptions.  I can add one more to the list:  the ability to identify certain gaps – when things that should be happening aren’t happening…

A real-life example of this recently happened to me, when I discovered that certain emails were not being delivered to me…!  This was only recognized via a phone call (thanks Dave) – and these situations can be easily overlooked.  We are much more likely to notice the appearance of something new than the absence of something occasionally expected.

This use case can be very insightful:  detecting and providing alerts when things aren’t happening as a change from previous patterns.  Sounds like a great opportunity for some AI tools!

“Customer Fill-in” – A Terrific Demo Tip

 

I was watching a series of demos that highlighted vendors’ customer-facing intake forms and portals – and all of these demos exhibited the following SAD (Stunningly Awful Demo) artifacts:

• The vendors claimed that end-customers can complete the process “in 5 minutes or less…”, but… 
• They turned the 5-minute workflow into 15-30 minutes of click and talk, click and talk…!
• They all used obviously fake demo names and data
• They covered many or most of the possible pathways and options, sometime exhaustively
• It was also obvious that the demonstrators presented the same demo pathway dozens of times
• The prospect was largely or completely silent through the entire process
• And the vendors never asked the prospect to provide input any into the workflow…

Here’s a truly terrific tip:  Invite your prospect to be the end-customer and fill-in the form by proxy, through you.

Let’s say your software offers an intake portal for consumers who want a loan.  You say to your prospect, “OK, let’s have you play the part of your customer.  Let’s use fictitious names and info as appropriate, but otherwise you tell me what to enter on each screen…”

On each new screen you can prompt your prospect or provide guidance, if necessary – but let him or her go through the process from start to end. 

Advantages?

• You and your prospect actually complete the intake form in 5 minutes (proving your original claim)
• Your prospect gains a first-hand vision of how the process works
• Your prospect thinks about desired options – and asks these questions either during or immediately afterwards
• And is your prospect engaged during this?  Yes indeed!

This approach is called “Customer Fill-in”.  

Any time there is an option to choose from (and you don’t care about the choice), invite your prospect to make the choice.  They’ll be engaged and develop a growing amount of ownership of the process and the result.  Delightful!

What is the significance of 33334?

 

That’s how many copies of Great Demo! have been purchased (not including those that have been resold or passed around).  This means that at least 33,334 people have been exposed to the Great Demo! methodology – but how many folks have actually changed their habits as a result of reading a book?

People and companies make claims about numbers all the time – for example, I’ve heard vendors claim:

• “We have 2500 customers…”  (But how many of these are actually happy, referenceable customers?)
• “We’ve trained 100,000 people…”  (But how many of these are actually applying the training?)
• “Our customers report 50% more productivity and 25% less waste…” (But is this most or many customers – or just one?)

Accordingly, I am curious:

1. If you’ve read Great Demo!, what kinds of improvements have you seen with your demos?
2. What ideas from the book have had the most impact for you?
3. And finally, what parts of the book would you like to understand more clearly – e.g., specific ideas or implementation with your software and sales practices?

Demo Data: The Importance of Problems, Gaps, and Exceptions

I was working with a vendor on an example demo and we identified a dashboard to serve as an Illustration (a “Wow!” screen for that use case) – but while the dashboard had all the right data elements, the data itself was uncompelling.  There were no problems, gaps, or exceptions exhibited.  Everything looked “OK”. 

While this could be a good example of a desired future state, it is insufficient to build vision of how problems are surfaced and solved.  

 

When you are creating demo data, be sure to include at least three sets of scenarios:

1. “Before” scenarios, where important problems are clearly represented;
2. “During” scenarios, where these problems can be shown being addressed;
3. “After” scenarios, where the history of problem(s) identification and resolution can be presented.

Even better, in addition to problem-based use cases, also consider including outlier situations – e.g., intriguing gaps in time-series, exceptions to otherwise regular patterns, and opportunities to be exploited.  

 

Bring your demo data alive…!  For more ideas on improving your demo environment, see our article on the topic at https://greatdemo.com/a-perfect-demo-environment/.  Enjoy!

 

Additional Note:  Even if your demo environment lacks this data today, there may be an easy way to “doctor” the data using one of the emerging demo enablement/automation tools.  Stay tuned for more on these new tools as they appear…!

Great Demo! Public Workshops

We are working on scheduling a number of Great Demo! Public Workshops in the next several months – please let us know if you have interest:

• How many people would you plan to include?
• What is the general location of these participants (e.g., the Americas, EMEA, Asia Pacific)?
• Do you have specific good or bad timeframes?

Note that this is in addition to the Workshop already scheduled for EMEA folks (April 7-9, 2021) - Click here for more information about this Public Workshop.

We will likely schedule sessions to run over three consecutive days (e.g., Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday).

Contact us at Info@GreatDemo.com with your preferences or if you’d like more information.  Thanks!