Great Demo! or Doing Discovery – Which to Read First?

Many people have asked, “What’s the best way to consume these books? Which should be first?”

Here’s a recommended reading plan: A combo approach!

Start with Doing Discovery and read through the end of the Discovery Methodology chapter. This provides you with the foundational skills and knowledge for everything that follows in a sales typical process.

Next, open Great Demo! and read all of Part 1, Core Methodology. Completing this positions you to prepare and deliver surprisingly effective demos following the validated Great Demo! methodology.

At this point you’ll have consumed about one third of Doing Discovery and half of Great Demo! You can now cherry-pick chapters and topics from both books in accord with your interests and typical situations. A few suggestions:

• If you represent complex offerings, I’d suggest you continue with the “Elements of Discovery” chapter in Doing Discovery. Doing so enables you to outflank your competition who are likely operating at Level 1 or 2 of the seven discovery skills levels. “The vendor that is perceived as doing a superior job with discovery is in a competitively advantageous position.”

• If you frequently present multiple-solutions demos and/or have mixed audiences with several job titles, choose “Multi-Solution, Multi-Player Demos” in Great Demo!

• And if you are often asked to provide “overview” demos without having the chance to do any real discovery, definitely study the “Vision Generation Demos” chapter in Great Demo!

Finally, I strongly recommend that you actually do the exercises in both books. We learn best by doing: applying ideas in day-to-day practice. Additionally, Doing Discovery and Great Demo! Workshops offer you opportunities to refine these skills with guidance from knowledgeable facilitators.

You can find both books on Amazon, plus we provide discounts for volume purchases. The holidays are a great time to upskill yourself (and your team) for next year – enjoy!