Upcoming North America Great Demo! Public Workshop

North America June 7-9, 2022

Our next North America Great Demo! Virtual Public Workshop is now scheduled for June 7-9.  You can find registration and additional information here – and you can also contact Julie Hansen for additional details.

This Virtual Workshop will take place over three days with 2 x 90-120-minute sessions each day, giving you time in between sessions to “get other work done” and to try the new ideas out yourself! Great Demo! Public Workshops are perfect for small teams, individuals, and new hires.

Making Numbers Count: The Art and Science of Communicating Numbers – A Book Report

 

This is a terrific book and well worth reading for presales, sales, marketing, and customer success folks. Why? Because uncovering and communicating value requires (gasp) the use of numbers (and sometimes – double gasp – math)!  

Making Numbers Count introduces simple and effective ways to make numbers understandable and compelling. For example, it is much easier to remember redeploying ~10 FTE versus 9.725 FTE. While the second number is more accurate, very few people will remember it or be able to conceptualize 0.725 of a human…

Similarly, while most of us can easily picture a group of 4 people and many can visualize a classroom with 25 folks, it is very difficult to imagine what a group of 1000 people looks like or a concert venue that holds 20,000, such as a basketball stadium like Chase Center in San Francisco (do you see what I did there?).  

Making Numbers Count offers tools and methods to make sense of numbers – a set of skills that customer-facing teams should embrace!

Check it out:

https://www.amazon.com/Making-Numbers-Count-Science-Communicating-ebook/dp/B08VJKX427/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1648164042&sr=1-4-795edd5f-cc24-47c7-9173-701523fd4bcf 

No Decision Outcomes Make Up ~45% of All Forecasted Opportunities in Software Sales. Why Should You Care?

No Decision outcomes make up ~45% of all forecasted opportunities in software sales.  Why should you care?

• Imagine if nearly half of the stores and restaurants you drive to every day turn out to be closed when you arrive (even though they were listed as being open).  How would that make you feel?

• What if half of the food you purchase at grocery markets is just empty containers?

• How would you feel if half of the gas you buy for your car turns out to be air.

• Imagine purchasing a 4-bedroom, 2-bath, 2000 sq ft home (186 sq m), only to find that it only has 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, and is only 1000 sq ft (93 sq m) – what would you think about your investment?

• What if everywhere you go, you have to travel nearly twice the distance actually needed…?

Now consider all the energy, time, and emotion you invest in each sales opportunity – and that nearly half of that investment is thrown away and wasted.  How does that feel?

So how can you reduce the appalling waste of No Decision outcomes?  Consider recovering your valuable time by learning how to use Great Demo! Situation Slides to rapidly assess:  is this a good opportunity worth pursuing or a candidate for a sad No Decision result.  

After all, “time is the one resource we cannot get more of…”

DEMOFEST 2022

This year’s DEMOFEST lineup looks terrific – here is how to register.  Looking forward to seeing you there!

“Bits About Books” Great Demo! Interview

Great Demo!’s Peter Cohan joined Subhanjan Sarker of Business Podcast Network and Pitchlink for this discussion about life, liberty and the pursuit of Great Demos. This 50-minute interview explores the Great Demo! founding story and origins of the book, plus descriptions and explanations of many Great Demo! concepts. 

This interview can serve as an introduction for those who are new to Great Demo! and an opportunity for existing practitioners to refresh and expand their understanding of the methodology. For example, we explored key elements of doing discovery, executing Vision Generation and Technical Proof Demos, and driving interactivity in virtual demos that goes far beyond what is covered in the book.

I think you’ll find this interview very informative – you can find the podcast here. Enjoy!

Real Fake Names Tool for Demos and POCs – A Perfect Demo Environment

 

In my article on A Perfect Demo Environment I note that one of our objectives in a demo is to “Suspend Disbelief” and the use of obviously fake names and data hurts our cause.  Well, here’s a tool that generates realistic name, address, and related information for use in demos, POCs, and other processes:  www.fakenamegenerator.com

Matt Lambson of cm.com provided this information (thanks, Matt!).  Please see the FAQ comments about giving attribution and licensing:  https://www.fakenamegenerator.com/faq.php 

This may be a terrific tool to support building your Perfect Demo Environment – check them out!

Webinar Recording – “How PreSales Can Run More Effective Evaluations”

“From growing revenue and headcount to capturing insights and collaborating across multiple functional areas, running a PreSales team is no easy feat. So, how do you effectively scale PreSales success to meet high growth targets across the globe? The answer is in the data.

Whether you call it a Proof of Concept (POC), a Trial, Pilot, or a Proof of Value (POV), hands-on product evaluations are often table stakes for getting important B2B deals done.  In this critical stage PreSales teams are expected to deliver customer value and support the sales team in closing bigger, faster deals.”

Great Demo!'s Peter Cohan joined Brett Crane, VP of PreSales at Vivun, for a conversation on “how to execute evaluations with better outcomes while protecting your time and resources”.

You can find the recording here.  Enjoy!