Planning an SKO But Can’t Afford $1000s for a Speaker?

 

Here’s a surprisingly effective alternative for $20-$60 per participant: Provide your team with copies of Great Demo!, Doing Discovery, and/or Suspending Disbelief!

 

Sowing these seeds now and harvesting the results at your SKO offers substantial advantages:

 

-  Productive change begins well before your SKO!

-  Participants learn the methods and lessons at their own pace!

-  Use the time at your SKO to identify best practices!

 

The books are all available on Amazon – and you can secure deeper volume discounts from me.

 

BONUS: Place your order with me a month or more ahead of your SKO and I can sign your copies.

 

BETTER BONUS: I’d be happy to join a session to answer questions and provide examples!

 

BEST BONUS: If you do have $1000s for a speaker, I know some terrific folks who will help you transform your team!

 

For volume discounts, contact me at PCohan@GreatDemo.com

 

Or go directly to Amazon:

 

Suspending Disbelief:

https://tinyurl.com/yc7rsrmy 

 

Doing Discovery

https://www.amazon.com/Doing-Discovery-Important-Enablement-Processes/dp/B0B8RJK4C2/

 

Great Demo! Third Edition:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C9SNKC2Y/

Aligning Your Communication of Value

“And if you use our tool,” said the salesperson, “you’ll save millions every year!”

 

The response from the prospect team was indifferent, even quietly hostile. Why?

 

The group were all individual contributors, and in response to the salesperson’s claim they were thinking, “Sure, and we’ll never see any of that money…!”

 

There are three interchangeable expressions of value: time, people and money. These are simply three ways of expressing the consumption, redeployment or liberation of resources associated with solving a problem. Generally speaking, people at different levels of an organization perceive value through different filters, aligned with these three parameters:

 

ü  High Level (e.g., C-Suite, SVP, VP): These people are typically most interested in gaining or saving money. Senior management needs to see an ROI analysis before they will agree to move forward with a major software purchase; intangibles are rarely applicable.

 

ü  Middle Level (Sr. Directors, Directors and other middle managers): While arguable, these folks are generally concerned with people resources. For example, at budget time most middle managers will say, “I need more staff members to meet my objectives…!”

 

ü  Low Level (e.g., staff and individual contributors): “I just want to end my day on time…!” Individual contributors’ main concern is time. Time saved so that they can focus on other, more productive tasks or projects, for example.

 

So, when discussing value, we need to articulate it in alignment with the people we are speaking with.  

 

PS: It is even worse when the salesperson says to lower-level folks, “And if you use our AI tool, you’ll save millions every year!”

 

Now, not only is the group thinking, “We’ll never see any of that money…!” but they are also worrying, “And that AI may be taking our jobs!”

I Have to Point This Out…!

 

Be aware of how you point in your face-to-face demos – you may not realize what you are communicating!

 

On a Mediterranean island, I was watching a tour group listening to their guide pointing to a map of an ancient megalithic complex, when I noticed the group laughing and smirking as their guide identified features on the map.

 

What was going on?

 

I realized the guide was pointing using their middle finger, and the tour group was from North America. From the group’s perspective, their guide was “flipping them off!”

 

In many cultures, the logical finger for pointing is the middle finger, since it is the longest.

 

In other cultures, the index finger (aka forefinger) is preferred.

 

And in other cultures, pointing directly at someone with a finger is rude!

 

Solution? 

 

Use the Two-Finger approach: This is the clearest method of pointing with the least risk of offending people!

 

Note that many airline flight attendants use the Two-Finger method during their safety briefings for the same reasons.

 

Get the point?

SKOs, Volume Discounts, Book Club Support?

 

Signed copies for your SKO? Yes!

Volume discounts? Yes!

Book club support? Yes!

 

Signed copies of Great Demo!, Doing Discovery, or Suspending Disbelief books are a great way to kick of your year! (A thousand copies might take some time, however!)

 

Are volume discounts available (beyond what Amazon offers)? Yes, indeed!

 

Would the author be willing to join a book club session or two to answer questions and provide examples? I’d be delighted!

 

All part of my desire to improve the world one discovery conversation and one demo at a time!

Are You Telling Stories or Just Reciting Facts? Part 2: What’s a Good Story?

What’s a Good Story?

 

“You need a search capability, we provide that capability with a range of filters, enabling you to find the information you need.” Boring, insufficient, and this “pain, features, value” structure is definitely not a story that will be remembered.

 

There needs to be more to make it a compelling, resonating story that gets remembered and retold.

 

Chip and Dan Heath in their seminal work on storytelling, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, identified five key attributes to make a story successfully sticky:

 

Simple Message:         The concept or message needs to be clear and easy to understand

Real Experience:         It must be believable and perceived as being true 

Element of Surprise:   An unexpected twist, event or outcome generates interest and tension

Evokes Emotion:          The best stories are those that generate an emotional response 

Relevant:                     Good stories relate directly to the subject or key point

 

The “pain, features, value” structure may satisfy three of these five, but ignores two. 

 

Is there an element of surprise? Nope. Does that structure evoke an emotional response? Hardly. And these two missing elements provide much of the drive that makes a story memorable.

 

Triggering our emotions is what makes a story great and unforgettable. For example:

 

-       Empathy: “I’ve also been in this position!”

-       Shock: “OMG – that’s terrible!”

-       Surprise: “Oh no! What happened next?”

-       Humorous: “Well, that’s sad, but also very funny!”

-       Cleverness: “Oh wow, that’s a really elegant solution!”

 

Evaluate the stories you currently use: How many of these five attributes do they trigger?

 

Intrigued? See the full article on our website here! 

https://greatdemo.com/effective-storytelling-in-discovery-demos-and-more-a-never-stop-learning-article/ 

 

You’ll find 35 delightful examples to draw from in “Suspending Disbelief”:

https://tinyurl.com/yc7rsrmy 

 

And see “Storytelling” in “Great Demo!” for more on this important practice here:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C9SNKC2Y/

When I Hear People Talking about Their Gold Demo, I Cringe!

 

When I hear people talking about their gold demo, or bronze demo, or any other form of single “standard” demo, I cringe!

 

Why?

 

Because it generally means that their team has been trained to memorize it as part of their onboarding. This also means that they are programmed to show that same demo when presenting to prospects and customers. Over and over.

 

And why is this bad?

 

Because it lacks any personalization.

 

That’s why prospects’ names for the “gold” demo include:

 

The Harbor Tour

Show Up and Throw Up

Spray and Pray

Tech Splatter

The IKEA demo

Living in the Land of Hope

And 

Whisky-Tango-Foxtrot

 

What’s worse?

 

Focusing on learning a “gold” demo encourages customer-facing teams to treat all prospects and customers alike. Why bother with doing discovery if we’re going to show the same demo to everyone?

 

What’s a solution?

 

At minimum your “metallic” demos should be plural – one “gold” demo for each key sales scenario that you encounter.

 

For example, a CRM offering might serve ten (or more) distinctly different job titles:

 

1.     CRO or Head of Sales

2.     Sales Manager

3.     Salesperson

4.     Presales Manager

5.     Presales IC

6.     Head of Marketing

7.     Marketing IC

8.     Customer Success Leadership

9.     Customer Success IC

10.   Enablement and/or Field Operations

 

Would a single “gold” demo satisfy these disparate interests? Unlikely!

 

And vendors’ desire to do so has resulted in the generation of both live and automated stunningly awful Harbor Tour demos that seek to embrace all users’ needs and interests, yielding long, linear, painful demos that ultimately satisfy no one! 

 

It’s like turning gold into lead.

 

If you’ve got ten distinct demo scenarios, you need ten distinct demos!

 

 

Here’s your foundry for effective, personalized demos:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C9SNKC2Y/

“The Culture Map” – A Brain-Expanding Book!

 

I’m pretty well traveled and have been in customer-facing roles across the U.S., the UK, Continental Europe, Russia, parts of Asia and Latin America, but this book transformed my understanding of how different cultures interact.

 

If you have ever wondered why your approach worked in one region but stalled or failed altogether in another, you should read this book.

 

If you have ever experienced a confusing faux pas when interacting with people from another country, you need to read this book.

 

And you are selling or servicing prospects and customers outside of where you live, you absolutely must read this book!

 

Here’s an intriguing excerpt:

 

“In order for you to feel a meeting was a great success, which of the following should happen?

 

A. In a good meeting, a decision is made.

B. In a good meeting, various viewpoints are discussed and debated.

C. In a good meeting, a formal stamp is put on a decision that has been made before the meeting.

 

The large majority of Americans responding to this question chose option A. 

The French, however, largely chose option B. 

And most Chinese and Japanese selected option C.”

 

Many thanks to Natasja Bax and Marco Boon for recommending it – now I have to put the ideas into practice…!

 

You can find “The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business” here:

 

https://www.amazon.com/Culture-Map-Breaking-Invisible-Boundaries-ebook/dp/B00IHGVQ9I/ref=sxts_b2b_sx_reorder_acb_customer?content-id=amzn1.sym.93dc5330-3850-4554-84ea-5a8297a3e1d7%3Aamzn1.sym.93dc5330-3850-4554-84ea-5a8297a3e1d7&crid=1JUAE75L73BY4&cv_ct_cx=the+culture+map&keywords=the+culture+map&pd_rd_i=B00IHGVQ9I&pd_rd_r=259b66fe-2487-4765-b5b8-97eaafe00752&pd_rd_w=3nIKB&pd_rd_wg=oBEz8&pf_rd_p=93dc5330-3850-4554-84ea-5a8297a3e1d7&pf_rd_r=1MYKWTBGQX5D099M3DEQ&qid=1759440519&sbo=QS21L9be7oZFAGyl4IXR%2Bw%3D%3D&sprefix=the+culture%2Caps%2C267&sr=1-1-76dd0896-e18a-4d36-b921-52fc00e57159 

 

 

PS – please read it right after you finish reading my three books!

 

Suspending Disbelief:

https://tinyurl.com/yc7rsrmy 

 

Doing Discovery

https://www.amazon.com/Doing-Discovery-Important-Enablement-Processes/dp/B0B8RJK4C2/

 

Great Demo! Third Edition:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C9SNKC2Y/