Surprisingly Distracting Webcam Backgrounds

I was watching a webinar and noticed something surprisingly distracting…  Here’s a screenshot:  what happens when your eyes scan the video panes?

Did you find yourself (almost immediately!) reading the “360” or “dare to lead” in the lower pane and then scanning more of the book titles?  And did you also find yourself trying to read the text on the poster behind the presenter in the upper-left pane?

During the webinar, I realized I was unconsciously trying to read the book titles in the lower pane and the poster behind the person in the upper-left pane.  And, while scanning these, I noted that I wasn’t listening to the presenter – the poster and the books consumed my attention!  

The upper-right background, on the other hand, is very clean and simple, with only the one book title in view – easy to consume rapidly and then turn attention back to the presenter.  

Take a look at your real or virtual background – will your audience be paying attention to you or focusing on your background?

New Great Demo! Certified Coaching Program

We are delighted to announce that Kerry Sokalsky of Presales Mastery is now a Great Demo! Certified Coach – and has launched an innovative program for Great Demo! Workshop graduates.  This is a terrific opportunity to achieve superior execution of the Great Demo! methodology in a 1-on-1 setting:

“Retention of even the best sales training can wane over time if not regularly practiced and reinforced.  Presales Mastery’s Great Demo! coaching program reiterates and builds on the concepts learned in Great Demo! Workshops by evaluating and coaching participants on their use and execution of Great Demo! practices in demos to actual prospects.  In doing so, clients both protect and augment their training investments.

Participants are coached on multiple demos over a 3-month period using an online coaching platform (to share and retain feedback) and live coaching calls.  The coaching spans three primary areas:

• Detailed Demo Feedback: 15-30 points of feedback that specifically target the greatest opportunities for improvement
• The Great Demo! Performance Scorecard: Over 75 metrics track participant’s adherence and execution against the methodology taught in Great Demo! Workshops
• The Presales Mastery Demo Performance Scorecard: 95 demo best practices metrics across 13 categories objectively measure each individual’s detailed performance and coaching progress, and allow for performance comparisons across the team

Participants of the Great Demo! coaching program see enhanced retention and superior execution of the Great Demo! methodology over time as core concepts are reinforced and coached in the context of real-world demos delivered to prospects.  Clients’ improved demo performance typically results in win and deal progression rate improvements of 10%-20%.

At the conclusion of the coaching program, detailed analyses of scorecard data are provided for each individual participant and the entire team, providing clients with blueprints for future enablement, and objective data for use in performance reviews and evaluations.”

Contact Kerry for more details!

Some Observations – Exploring the Data in Consensus’ 2021 Sales Engineering and Workload Report

 

Consensus graciously provided me with access to the data in their “2021 Sales Engineering and Workload Report" – here are some interesting observations.  (You can find the full report here:  https://demo.goconsensus.com/2021-sales-engineer-salary-compensation-workload-report-registration )

 

Do larger average deals yield higher compensation?  

Yes for Practitioners; No for Leaders.

 

Deals < $1M 

Practitioners Base:      $112K

Leaders Base:              $154K

 

Deals >= $1M

Practitioners Base:      $132K

Leaders Base:              $142K

 

Deals < $1M 

Practitioners OTE (On Target Earnings):       $152K

Leaders OTE:               $213K

 

Deals >= $1M

Practitioners OTE:       $185K

Leaders OTE:               $207K

Moral?  It is a sellers’ market for experienced presales practitioners! 

Do larger deals require more demos?  

Yes, but not conclusively…!

 

Deals < $1M 

3 demos per deal median

Deals >= $1M

4 demos per deal median

Moral?  Not sure – perhaps vendors in doing more Discovery and preparation for the larger opportunities (resulting in fewer demos per dollar).

Do larger deals require longer demos?  

Yes, indeed…!

 

Deals < $1M 

2.5 hours per demo (prep, delivery, follow-up) per deal median

Deals >= $1M

5 hours per demo (prep, delivery, follow-up) per deal median

 

Moral?  Again, not sure, but I hope vendors are doing more pre-demo prep, in particular, as opposed to simply delivering longer demos…!

Fewer demos per week for larger deals?  

Yes…!

 

Deals < $1M 

4.4 demos per week average

Deals >= $1M

2.3 demos per week average

 

Moral?  Not surprising…!

Interestingly, the total time doing demos is about the same – about 25% of workload

 

Deals <$ 1M 

11 hours per week average

Deals >= $1M

11.5 hours per week average

 

How about unqualified demos?  

Nope – no apparent difference.

 

Deals < $1M 

30% average

Deals >= $1M

28% average

Moral?  Many SDRs, BDRs, and salespeople still suffer from “happy ears…”!  (The use of Great Demo! Discovery methods and Situation Slides could dramatically improve these numbers.)

It was really interesting to see that Discovery (far and away) is the area people want to invest more time doing for all deal sizes, but it was especially high for large opportunities.  

Deals < $1M 

432 vs. 361 (the next activity item on the list)

Deals >= $1M

33 vs. 21 (the next activity item on the list)

Moral?  Vendor teams know that doing Discovery is important, but likely (1) struggle to understand what information needs to be collected and (2) how to go about collecting it.  (Great Demo! Discovery methodology training could be a high-value cure for this…)

 

Questions I’d Love to Ask:

 

What percent of (presales) time is customer-facing?

What percent of time is consumed by Discovery?

What percent of time is consumed by demos?

What percent of customer-facing time is Discovery?

What percent of customer-facing time are demos?

What investments are being made to support these?

And overall, how are all of the metrics changing year-over-year?