Discovery Tip and Story: Tour the Facilities!

An intriguing discovery dimension is learning about your prospects’ physical environment, and it can be differentiating.

 

 

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”

– Marcel Proust

 

 

Years ago, I sold software for a company that supported pharmaceutical pre-clinical research, and many of our users were chemists. While our software never saw a test-tube, it was extremely helpful for me to see the chemists’ laboratories.

 

I would schedule a face-to-face visit that spanned a few hours with the bulk of the time spent in a conference room discussing the chemists’ situations and needs, followed by demonstrations of our software.

 

Towards the close of these meetings I would say, “Hey, can you show me around your labs?”

 

The chemists were delighted that I was interested, and they would typically go into animated detail about their equipment and their lab facilities (“Here’s our new NMR – ain’t it a beauty?”).

 

In return, I gained wonderful insights into their processes and environment: the breadth and relative age of their instrumentation, how their labs were laid out, how modern (or not) they were, whether their offices were immediately adjacent to the labs or far away, and a range of other factors.

 

Additionally, I often had good views of their offices, desks and office walls (many of which were glass, with diagrams of the chemical structures and reactions being researched), the journals they read, output examples on their desktops, and more.

 

This all contributed to a much richer understanding of why they needed our software, what kinds of problems they were seeking to solve, and how they were going about their current workflows and processes.

 

Furthermore, the chemists felt I gained a deeper understanding of their situation, certainly much more than I could have gleaned from the inside of a conference room or Zoom session. In fact, after one such visit, the prospect told me that he preferred to purchase software from me, rather than my competitor (whose software was, frankly, a bit slicker), specifically because I had asked to see the labs…!

 

 

Moral: Discovery has many dimensions, both seen and unseen!

 

You’ll find more on discovery of your prospects’ physical environment starting on page 71 in Doing Discovery: https://www.amazon.com/Doing-Discovery-Important-Enablement-Processes/dp/B0B8RJK4C2/

 

 

 

If you missed some of these posts, you’ll find another dozen waiting for you at https://greatdemo.com/blog/

 

And NONE of these posts are in “Suspending Disbelief: A Collection of Sales, Presales, and Marketing Stories (and Lessons Learned).” These public posts are teasers! You can find this gem here: https://tinyurl.com/yc7rsrmy 

“I Want This to Be Interactive…!”

 

“Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can't, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it.”

– Robert Frost

 

How many online and virtual demos start like this?

Have you ever been in a situation where you or a colleague said, “I’d like this to be interactive, so please stop me if you have any questions along the way…” but what you or your colleague were really thinking was, “Please don’t stop me with questions because, if you do, I won’t have time to show everything I want to show…!”?

 

 

Moral: Apply Inverted Pyramid to truly encourage and drive interactivity.

 

 

The incredibly useful Inverted Pyramid concept is introduced on page 15 in Great Demo!: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C9SNKC2Y/

 

 

If you missed some of these posts, you’ll find another dozen waiting for you at https://greatdemo.com/blog/

 

And NONE of these posts are in “Suspending Disbelief: A Collection of Sales, Presales, and Marketing Stories (and Lessons Learned)” These public posts are teasers! You can find this gem here: https://tinyurl.com/yc7rsrmy 

The System Is a Bit Slow Right Now…

 

Dealing with software disasters can cause frustration, fear, and panic, and sometimes surprising elegance.

 

 

“Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.”

– Rick Cook

 

 

A vendor team was presenting a face-to-face demo at a prospect’s site and the meeting was nearly complete. The vendor team included the salesperson, a senior technical person, and a presales practitioner.

 

The presales player completed the demo, leaving the most exciting screen on the display.

 

The senior technical person began a Q & A session and was handling answers verbally. A question was raised, which normally could be answered beautifully with a visual example using the software.

 

The senior technical person turned to the presales person and asked them to show that capability.

 

The presales player responded, “The system is slow right now… Why don’t we wait until afterwards?”

 

The senior technical person persisted, saying, “Oh come on, let’s go ahead and show that capability.”

 

The presales person said, with some strong emphasis, “The system is really slow right now…”

 

The senior technical person suddenly understood: The laptop had crashed at the final screen!  The presales player was cool, calm, and confident, and had simply moved smoothly into the summary.

 

The audience had no clue that there had been a crash or any problem!

 

 

Moral: Now that’s a Great Demo!

 

 

If you are enjoying this series of posts, grab a copy of “Suspending Disbelief” – it delivers 35 more bitesize, fun, engaging stories: https://tinyurl.com/yc7rsrmy 

 

For more practices on dealing bugs, crashes, and other demo disasters see page 390 in Great Demo!: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C9SNKC2Y/

Too Easy?

When you find you repeat the same, exact process over and over and over, you should consider automating it.

 

 

“The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.”

– Bill Gates

 

 

I was watching a face-to-face demo of a science software product. The person presenting the demo was competent, but uninspiring.

 

The demo was delivered using a tool that enabled each new screen to be presented simply by hitting any key on the keyboard. Each screen had been captured, previously, and pressing any key simply advanced to the next screen. This certainly made it easy to drive, but perhaps too much so!

 

The presenter tapped their keyboard and delivered a description of the screen and then repeated the process. Over and over, in a monotonic, bored voice that told the audience, “I’ve done this so many times before that I could literally do this in my sleep!”

 

The audience was quiet. There was zero interactivity, just the sound of the next keyboard tap and the presenter’s weary, tired, passionless voice.

 

Stunningly awful!

 

 

Moral: You’d better be passionate about your products!

 

 

If you are enjoying this series of posts, grab a copy of “Suspending Disbelief” – it delivers 35 more bitesize, engaging stories and lessons learned. Enjoy it here!  https://tinyurl.com/yc7rsrmy 

 

For practical guidance on the use of passion, pace, timing, language, humor, and other factors in demos see Chapter 15 in Great Demo! here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C9SNKC2Y/

 

Even an Idiot Executive Can Run It!

 

He did indeed touch type: He just used two fingers.

 

 

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication"

– Leonardo da Vinci

 

 

I once worked for a wonderful head of sales named Tom Jones. No, not Tom Jones the singer, Tom was an ex-Marine, ex-hardware salesperson who ascended the ladder and joined our software company as the Global VP of Sales.

 

He was highly skilled in sales practices, but woeful at actually using software.

 

As an example, all his email messages were short and drafted in ALL CAPS. We were never sure if he had hit the Caps Lock key accidentally and never turned it off, or if he really wanted it to appear that he was yelling!

 

We were looking to purchase a new sales forecasting system. While I felt the product had what we needed and was far superior to the other, less capable options also under consideration, there were concerns from the sales team that this offering might be too difficult to use. 

 

A demo had been scheduled to address this concern.

 

I met with the vendor salesperson and suggested that we ask Tom to drive a short portion of the demo to really prove how easy it was to use. The rep was reluctant but agreed.

 

And so, very early in the demo, the vendor rep invited Tom to take the mouse and execute a few tasks, including accessing reports for the current forecast and next two quarters’ pipeline. Tom managed it without error and immediately several of our team members exclaimed, “Well, if Tom can do it, we can do it!”

 

Done deal.

 

 

Moral: That’s a very effective way to prove ease of use!

This is a great example of “Let Your Prospect Drive” in demos – see the section starting on page 197 in Great Demo! here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C9SNKC2Y/

 

And here’s some great summer reading – at the beach, on a plane, in your favorite spot! “Suspending Disbelief” offers 35 fun, bitesize, engaging stories and lessons learned like the one above. https://tinyurl.com/yc7rsrmy 

Multiple Currencies?

 

(Before the appearance of the Euro, we had a collection of envelopes each containing a European currency: German Marks, French Francs, Italian Lira, Spanish Peseta, etc. Preparing for a trip included remembering to select and bring the appropriate envelopes. Things are much easier now...!)

 

 

“Money often costs too much.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

 

From a colleague: “I once heard a story of a sales consultant being asked about their ERP system’s ability to handle multiple currencies. She pulled some dollars out of one pocket and another currency from another pocket, shoved them back in and said, ‘Yup, we handle multiple currencies ...”

 

Delightful!

 

 

Moral: Props and visual aids should be easily transportable or locally procurable!

 

 

And here’s some great summer reading – at the beach, on a plane, in your favorite spot! “Suspending Disbelief” offers 35 fun, bitesize, engaging stories and lessons learned like the one above.

https://tinyurl.com/yc7rsrmy 

 

For practical guidance on the use of props and visual aids in demos see the section starting on page 376 in Great Demo! here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C9SNKC2Y/

English, Simply

  

This was a personal Dunning Kruger experience for me.

 

 

“In literature the ambition of the novice is to acquire the literary language; the struggle of the adept is to get rid of it.”

– George Bernard Shaw

 

 

Many years ago, I participated in several face-to-face users’ group meetings in Europe. I thought my presentations at these conferences were well above average, and much better, particularly, than our CEO’s talks, whose delivery in my opinion was overly simple and deliberate.

 

At the close of the first day of one meeting, a few customer participants and speakers gathered in the hotel bar to socialize. Fishing for compliments (I was much younger and perhaps less wise than today), I asked some of my European customers who they appreciated most as speakers.

 

I was surprised (and slightly appalled, initially!) to learn that “the best speaker, without question, is your CEO…” When I asked, “Why?” they pointed out that for all the Continental participants, English was a second language. They said that “Your CEO’s delivery is easy to understand, and he uses words that we don’t have to look up afterwards!”

 

Lesson learned!

 

 

Moral: Use international English and slow down your delivery.

 

 

And here is more great summer reading – at the beach, on a plane, in your favorite spot! “Suspending Disbelief” is 35 fun, bitesize, engaging stories and lessons learned like the one above.

https://tinyurl.com/yc7rsrmy 

 

For practical guidance on the use of language, humor, and other factors in demos see Chapter 15 in Great Demo! here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C9SNKC2Y/

Demos: Stuff Over Fluff

 

If your demo content isn’t meaningful, adding decorations won’t help. In fact, it may hurt!

 

 

“Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.”

– Mark Twain

 

 

You’ve just entered an elegant restaurant for a celebratory dinner (congratulations!). The lobby is beautiful, but you wait a long time to be seated. Finally, you are escorted to your table and are seated in architecturally stunning, but uncomfortable chairs. The table is covered with white linen with an extensive array of plates, glasses and silverware, and each napkin is cleverly folded into a swan in the precise center of each dinner plate. A fresh bouquet of flowers decorates the center of your table, flanked by expensive salt and pepper grinders.

 

Everything looks fantastic!

 

Your waiter takes your napkin, opens it with a flourish, and drapes it carefully across your lap, then hands you the menu showing today’s offerings, luxuriously described with an abundance of adjectives.

 

Everything sounds fabulous!

 

After perusing the options, your waiter takes your order and then returns with mineral water, bread rolls, butter, and a glass of the wine that you’ve chosen.

 

You sip some water, but it is tepid and flat. You taste the wine, but it is not particularly good, and it is certainly not what you would have expected from this restaurant (and for the price)! The butter is warm, and the rolls are hard and dry. You are beginning to get disappointed, but you brush it off thinking, “I’m sure the balance of the food will be wonderful…”

 

Sadly, it’s not! The salad lettuce is wilted and old, the salad dressing is simply sour, the croutons lack crunch, the soup arrived cold (albeit in a gorgeous tureen), and your main dish was unacceptably awful. Overall, while the plating and presentation of each dish were exceptional, the food itself was pretty poor. 

 

Would you return or recommend this restaurant to others? Likely not!

 

Moral: In your demos focus on substance first, then style.

PS – just wait until you get your bill (which will be presented in an extravagant custom holder)!

 

 

Want more fun, bitesize, engaging stories and lessons learned? See my new book “Suspending Disbelief!”

https://tinyurl.com/yc7rsrmy 

 

For practical guidance on the use of humor, language, and other factors in demos see Chapter 15 in Great Demo! here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C9SNKC2Y/