Do the Last Thing First – Begin with the End: Why, What, When, and How?

 

Many folks now echo the guidance that the Great Demo! team has been teaching for years BUT: They don’t know the details!

 

They trumpet this approach, but they don’t understand what to present, how to present it, when to do it (strangely enough!), and even why this method is so effective.

 

Their results suffer and are far from what is possible or desired.

 

For the full story and to enjoy a much richer set of rewards, read Great Demo! or, even better, take a Great Demo! Workshop. Get your guidance from a master, not a novice!

Demo Don’t #6 Show the Same Demo, Regardless of Your Prospect’s Needs or Interest: “One for all…”

 

Ignore the fact that the VP in the room only wants a top-level summary of your offering and that the managers are only interested in their portion of the process. Instead, choose the lowest-level users’ scenario for your demo, such as an end user “day-in-the-life” saga.

 

This will ensure that the senior prospect players grow bored and leave the demo early. They’ll never see anything that compels their interest, requiring a second demo meeting, a loss to your competitor, or a No Decision outcome.

 

Similarly, the prospect managers won’t be thrilled with what they see, either! Your software will look too detailed and too complicated for them to use. In the end, you’ll have done a fair job training the target end users, but the training won’t be necessary since you won’t get the deal! A stunningly awful waste of time for everyone involved.

 

Solution? Organize your demo in “chunks” by job title. For example, address prospect executives first, then middle managers, then end users, and finally system admins.

 

This is #6 of The Stunningly Awful Demos Top Ten List – you can find all ten (plus a bonus) here!

https://greatdemo.com/stunningly-awful-demos-top-ten-list-of-demo-donts/ 

 

You can find the full set of DO’s and DON’Ts in Great Demo!: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C9SNKC2Y/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1688763837&sr=1-4 

Seven Levels of Stunningly Successful Discovery – Webinar Recording!

Discovery is the most important part of the presales process. Done effectively, discovery is the key to delivering compelling software demos and proposals that accelerate the sales process and reduce “no decision” outcomes. 

We hosted Peter Cohan, author of Doing Discovery and Great Demo!, for an insightful webinar where we explored the discovery methods high-performing software sales professionals rely on to achieve greater results.

Peter shared with us:

• The key differences between qualification and discovery.
• How to uncover and deepen pain, investigate impact, and surface business value.
• How to access your discovery skills and level up your approach.
• The different types of questions discovery experts use to connect software solutions to the prospect's specific challenges.

Watch the webinar to master the art of doing discovery!

https://go.cloudshare.com/webinar-registration-seven-levels-of-stunningly-successful-discovery

Demo Don’t #5 Pack as Many Features and Functions into Your Demo as Possible: “And another thing you can do is…”

 

Want to make your software appear as confusing and complicated as possible? Want more ways to bore and torture your audience? Want to help your prospect negotiate a price reduction for your software by “Buying It Back?”  

 

It’s easy! Show as many features as you possibly can.

 

A simple way to achieve these negative results is to present your demo as if you are doing product training: “Let me show you how to do this, and that, and this other thing…” To really inflict pain, make sure to show and explain all the menu options, tabs, navigation tools, and configuration and setup options.

 

Be sure to include all the “if”, “or” and “also” cases for each option. These simple steps will yield a Stunningly Awful Demo!

 

Use “loopbacks” to further confuse and complicate: “Remember when I started that order process earlier in the demo?” (The prospect thinks, “Um, not really…”) “Well,” says the vendor, “now I’ll return to that order and show you several workflows to process it…”

 

Use as many “hats” (personas) as you can: “Now I’m Mary Manager approving the order that was generated by Steven Staffer a moment ago, but I’ll also show you how Elizabeth Executive can have Corey Controller put a hold on payment through Amy Accounting, and if Isabel Inventory can’t find the item she can alert Prentiss Procurement to restock, while Rachel Receiving is queued to watch for delivery, etc.” Your demo will have more characters than a Jane Austen novel!

 

Solution? Focus on the Specific Capabilities and deliverables you identified in discovery and use the fewest number of steps to complete each workflow or segment. Stay in “You Mode” throughout.

 

 

This is #5 of The Stunningly Awful Demos Top Ten List – you can find all ten (plus a bonus) here!

https://greatdemo.com/stunningly-awful-demos-top-ten-list-of-demo-donts/ 

 

You can find the full set of DO’s and DON’Ts in Great Demo!: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C9SNKC2Y/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1688763837&sr=1-4 

Stunningly Awful vs Truly Terrific Competitive Differentiation – What, When, and How?

 

“Good, better, best. Never let it rest. 'Til your good is better and your better is best.”

 – St. Jerome

 

Competitive differentiation: Vendors want to differentiate, vendors try to differentiate, but most vendors fail to meaningfully and successfully differentiate in the opinion of their prospects. When done poorly, differentiation can be stunningly awful, when done well it can win a lifetime customer!

 

What’s in this article for you?

 

-       What Is Competitive Differentiation?  

-       When to Differentiate?

-       How to Differentiate?

-       Capabilities Beyond Your Software

-       Buyer and Champion Enablement

-       What About Price?

 

Let’s explore…!

Demo Don’t #4 Don’t Reconfirm the Time Constraints for Your Meeting: “Sorry, we’re out of time…”

You’d planned on two hours with your prospect when you set up the meeting a week ago. Is there any reason this might have changed?

 

Your prospect joins you at 10:00 AM and you dive into your agenda. Your team delivers a Corporate Overview presentation followed, after twenty minutes, by a long, linear demo.

 

Your key contact looks at their watch and says, “Um, can you please wrap things up in the next five minutes? We have an all-hands meeting scheduled at 11:00…” You end the demo without ever reaching your big “Wow!” screen and ask to schedule another demo!

 

Similarly, don’t reconfirm the list of participants or their objectives. It is such a delight to enter a room or join a virtual room of twenty people when you were expecting two and haven’t had a chance to do discovery with any of the new folks. (Returning us to Demo Don’t Number 1, again!)

 

Solution? Ask four questions at the very beginning of your demo meetings:

 

1.     What’s your name? (If you don’t already know.)

2.     What’s your job title? (Ditto.)

3.     What are your objectives for this meeting? (Or reconfirm.)

4.     What are your time constraints? (Reconfirm!)

 

This is #4 of The Stunningly Awful Demos Top Ten List – you can find all ten (plus a bonus) here!

https://greatdemo.com/stunningly-awful-demos-top-ten-list-of-demo-donts/ 

Dealing with "Just Show Me a Demo?" Seven (Gentle, But Firm) Methods to Move into Discovery

Far too often, prospects demand, “Just show me a demo…” when we know the correct approach is to invest, mutually, in a substantive discovery conversation. But how do we convince prospects to make this change? Here are seven ideas:

Prospect says, “Just show me a demo…”

 

1.     You respond, “Terrific! Let’s schedule eight hours for the demo, because it will take that long to go through our offering. Or we could invest thirty minutes to discuss your situation so that we can focus on what is most important for you and the resulting demo will likely last well under an hour.”

 

2.     You offer, “You are investing a great deal of time and energy in finding and implementing a new system. Let’s ensure that investment pays off for you by helping us understand your situation/goals/needs/etc. fully before we present a demo.”

 

3.     You say, “Oh! This is exactly like having a severe headache and going to the doctor and the doctor says, ‘You have a headache? Great! Go down to the pharmacy and try each of the 1000 drugs we offer and then let me know which one works best…!’ We can continue on that pathway or, if you allow me to be your ‘physician’, I can ask questions that enable an accurate diagnosis and a focused demo prescription.”

 

4.     You respond, “I’m presuming you don’t want to pay for capabilities that you don’t need so instead of guessing, and likely wasting your time and mine, let’s invest a few minutes to discuss your actual needs. The demo can then focus specifically on those capabilities.”

 

5.     You offer, “If I were a doctor, would you prefer that I grab a scalpel and open you up or would you prefer that I ask a few questions first?”

 

6.     You counter, “Imagine you just sat down for a meal in a nice restaurant and I’m your waiter. Should I simply guess what you might want to eat and start bringing out dishes or would you want me to offer you a menu?”

 

7.     (My favorite!) You say, “Fine…” and move (gently but firmly) into a Vision Generation Demo both satisfies your prospect’s desire to “see what’s possible” while moving delightfully into a discovery conversation. (See Chapter 11 in Great Demo!)

 

Any other ideas to suggest?

Thursday Webinar: Seven Levels of Stunningly Successful Discovery

  

“Everything else being equal, the vendor that does a better job in doing discovery will win the business…”

 – Head of Sales of an extraordinarily successful organization

 

Effective discovery that goes beyond traditional practices yields faster orders, fewer “No Decision” outcomes, crisper and more successful demos, and far fewer POCs. This webinar is designed to enable participants to achieve similar results.

 

The Seven Levels of Discovery Skills will guide our discussion:

 

-       Level 1:  Uncovers statements of pain.

-       Level 2:  Uncovers pain and explores more deeply.

-       Level 3:  Uncovers pain, explores deeply, broadens the pain and investigates the impact.

-       Level 4:  Uncovers pain, explores and broadens, investigates impact and quantifies.

-       Level 5:  Uncovers pain, explores and broadens, investigates impact, quantifies and reengineers vision.

-       Level 6:  Applies these skills to the broad range of prospects represented across the Technology Adoption Curve, “burn victims”, disruptive and new product categories, transactional sales cycles, and other scenarios.

-       Level 7:  Integrates and aligns the skills above into a cohesive discovery methodology.

 

Most folks operate at Levels 2 or 3 (when honestly assessed) – enjoy the rewards of more effective skills!

 

This Thursday at 8:00 AM Pacific Time - brought to you from the fine folks at Cloudshare. Register here! 

Demo Don’t #3 Start with a Corporate Overview: “Death by Corporate Overview…”

 

Make Number 2 (“Present a Long, Linear Demo That Saves the Best for Last” from last week) even worse by starting with twenty minutes of your corporate overview. Regale your audience with your mission statement (yawn), your company’s formation and history (yawn), your revenues-over-time, office locations, markets, products, and that smorgasbord of customer logos (yawn, yawn, yawwwwn, zzzzzz…).

 

This strategy will ensure that:

 

1.     The most important people leave before you can even start the demo.

2.     You’ll have to go really fast to show everything you want to show in the time remaining!

 

Doing this also sets you up nicely for SAD (Stunningly Awful Demos) item Number 4!

 

Solution? Start the meeting with a crisp summary of your prospect’s situation, using a Great Demo! Situation Slide. (See Chapter 6 in the Third Edition of Great Demo!) It’s all about your prospect!

 

 

This is #3 of The Stunningly Awful Demos Top Ten List – you can find all ten (plus a bonus) here!

https://greatdemo.com/stunningly-awful-demos-top-ten-list-of-demo-donts/ 

Easy Summer Reading! A Prospect’s Tale – An Instructive, Humorous Account of Woe and Triumph

Invest 30-45 minutes to enjoy this story of a buyer’s journey…!

 

Part 1: The Long Trip to Nowhere

 

-       A Lesson in Lead Churn

-       False Pretenses

-       A Harbor Tour Demo

-       A Pointless Proposal

-       A Murky Deep Dive

-       Another Pointless Proposal

-       A Painful POC

-       A Proposal of Pure Panic

-       Ghosting to No Decision

 

Part 2: Buying Beautifully

 

-       A Knowledgeable Initial Contact

-       Enablement Enlightenment

-       Once Burned…

-       Delightful Discovery

-       A Great Demo!

-       A Pleasant Purchase

-       An Intelligent Implementation

-       An Expansive Renewal

 

I was at a conference and ran into an old colleague who is now the CRO at a successful, mid-size B2B software company. After a brief dialog, he said, “I have a great story for you…!” We agreed to meet in the lobby bar of his hotel after the sessions closed for the day.

 

At the appointed time, I found him sitting at a small table in the lobby. He had a bemused expression on his face and motioned for me to sit down and join him. Waitstaff brought a small bowl of salted nuts and took our orders: He asked for a local IPA; I requested a precautionary gin-and-tonic to reduce the risk of scurvy and malaria.

 

The beverages arrived, we sampled and pronounced them satisfactory. He scanned the area, as if checking to make sure that that someone couldn’t overhear him, then turned back to me. He shook his head, as if recalling a painful experience, and began his tale…

 

https://greatdemo.com/a-prospects-tale-humorous-account-of-woe-and-triumph/ 

 

Demo Don’t #2 Present a Long, Linear Demo That Saves the Best for Last: “Where is this going…?”

  

Have you ever been watching someone else’s demo and after a few minutes you start wondering, “Where is this going…?”

  

You can ensure the same awful fate for your prospects by delivering long, linear demos that show how to set up the system, then comprehensively plod through a workflow, taking forty, fifty, or sixty minutes (or longer!) to finally reach the end with the big pay-off screen. This tactic ensures that:

• Your audience is half asleep by the time you reach the important take-away message and pay-off screen. In some cases, your audience may actually be asleep!
• The most important people in the audience leave the room while you are still introducing the module names and navigation features.
• The prospect is so mentally numb by the time that you do reach your big “Wow!” moment that they cannot remember it after the demo is over.

Could you make this worse? You bet!

• Invest liberally in showing Set Up Mode tasks that are only done once (and often by the vendor during implementation) to squander more time with unimportant items.
• Include all the latest features to consume remaining time.
• Every ten or fifteen minutes ask, “Any questions so far?” The “Nope, we’re good…” responses will encourage you to continue to drone onwards!

Solution? Do the Last Thing First! and apply the Inverted Pyramid approach to structure your demos. Both of these Great Demo! methods have been validated in studies of thousands millions of demos! 

 

 

This is #2 of The Stunningly Awful Demos Top Ten List – you can find all ten (plus a bonus) here!

https://greatdemo.com/stunningly-awful-demos-top-ten-list-of-demo-donts/ 

 

Demo Don’t #1 Be unclear about your Prospect’s Needs: “The Harbor Tour.”

 

Offer and deliver a demo hoping that your prospect will see something of interest, eventually. Also known as “Living in the Land of Hope,” prospects refer to these long, tortured demos as:

• Show-up and throw-up
• Spray and pray
• Tech splatter
• The IKEA demo (“How do I get out of here…?!”)
• Whisky-Tango-Foxtrot, and, of course,
• The Harbor Tour (“Oh God, it’s the Harbor Tour Demo…” The prospect boards the boat, is driven around the harbor for three hours while continually being asked, “Have you seen anything you like so far?” And they can’t get off the boat until the end of the ride!)

Inexperienced presales and salespeople often inflict these demos on their prospects as a replacement for doing discovery. Jaded presales folks often feel forced to resort to these demos when they receive little or no pre-demo information from their sales colleagues.

 

Solution? Do discovery, if your prospect is willing, or deliver a Vision Generation Demo and then move into discovery! (See Chapter 11 in the Third Edition of Great Demo!)

 

This is #1 of The Stunningly Awful Demos Top Ten List – you can find all ten (plus a bonus) here!

https://greatdemo.com/stunningly-awful-demos-top-ten-list-of-demo-donts/