Delight in Being Surprised

Delight in being surprised – embrace it – because it means you just learned something!

And if you’re curious, here are terrific opportunities to learn!

https://greatdemo.com/blog/ 

“We Tell Great Stories but We Lose the Business…!”

 

This lament came from a head of sales.

 

He noted that they had invested in storytelling training, thinking that storytelling skills would give his customer-facing team superior sales performance over his competition. Sadly, it didn’t!

 

In fact, he reported that win rates and sales stage conversions had decreased since the training took place.

 

We explored his situation, and I watched a number of his team’s discovery calls and demo recordings.

 

What became clear was that his team’s focus on storytelling negatively impacted their application of core discovery and demo skills: They believed that good storytelling would replace the need to execute these fundamentals well.

 

The recordings also showed that only a few team members were actually good at storytelling.

 

Worse, many of the stories employed by the team were not engaging or compelling. They were simply facts (and claims!) reset in storytelling structures. They lacked authenticity and impact.

 

Storytelling is not a replacement for core skills; storytelling supplements, enhances, supports, and entertains.

 

-       Surgeons can’t simply tell stories about successful surgeries; they must also have the necessary skills (before they open you up!)

-       Contractors can’t simply tell stories about great construction projects; they must also have the necessary skills (before they pour your new foundation!)

-       Chefs can’t simply tell stories about fabulous meals; they must also have the necessary skills (before they feed you something unpalatable!)

 

Sales, presales, and customer-success teams can’t simply tell stories about happy customers; they must also have the necessary discovery and demo skills to execute their roles successfully.

 

Establish a superior core set of skills, then add storytelling!

 

 

And here are excellent starting points!

 

Doing Discovery

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

 

Great Demo! Third Edition:

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

 

Doing Discovery Workshops

https://greatdemo.com/training/workshops/doing-discovery/ 

 

Great Demo! Workshops

https://greatdemo.com/training/workshops/great-demo/ 

 

Then add storytelling (here are some examples):

 

Suspending Disbelief:

https://tinyurl.com/yc7rsrmy 

“Doing Discovery” SE Book Club – What’s YOUR Discovery Skills Level?

 

I joined Kintan Brahmbhatt, Co-Founder and CEO of Olto Labs, for this intriguing and enlightening discussion of discovery skills, methods, tips, and examples. We used the Seven Levels of Discovery Skills as our guide, exploring:

 

-       Uncovering Pain (the endpoint for most organizations’ discovery calls!)

-       Exploring Pain more deeply (plus a bit of tech stack)

-       Examining Impact (why is the pain important, who is impacted and how?)

-       Capturing tangible Value (value specifics, not vague generalizations)

-       Vision Reengineering (because prospects don’t know what they don’t know!)

-       Other dimensions of discovery, including “Burn Victims,” champion enablement, and the Technology Adoption Curve

 

You can find the recording here – enjoy!

https://www.linkedin.com/events/sebookclubwithpetercohan-olto7350680020169740289/ 

 

And here’s where you can find “Doing Discovery” as well as “Great Demo!” and my just-released collection of fun, engaging, life-lesson short stories “Suspending Disbelief”:

 

Doing Discovery

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

 

Great Demo! Third Edition:

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

 

Suspending Disbelief:

https://tinyurl.com/yc7rsrmy 

Diary of a Sales Engineer – Storytelling Episode!

 

From the fabulous Hosts:

 

“Stories are what make us human.
They’ve helped us pass down knowledge 

and values for generations.

Take the tortoise and the hare.
You already know the lesson, because stories stick.
They spark emotion. And emotion is what we remember.

That’s why we were hyped to bring Peter Cohan 

back on Diary of a Sales Engineer 🎙️

We dug into his new book, Suspending Disbelief: A Collection of Sales, Presales, and Marketing Stories (and Lessons Learned) 

.

He read a few of his favorites,  and we shared some big laughs along the way.

🎁 And yep, Peter’s giving away a SIGNED copy of the book to one lucky listener (details below)

 

YouTiube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8T8E2N7Fo4
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0GfIbZLw2KR9t9sfyYqwMI?si=ol68edgsSLO1LBptoF_L8w

This episode is light, deep, and packed with storytelling wisdom.
→ Listen in.
→ Learn something new.
→ And maybe win a signed book 👀

hashtag#ducklife hashtag#salesengineering hashtag#presales hashtag#storytelling hashtag#podcast”

Ass-u-me – A Short-cut Discovery Tragedy!

 

Not long ago, I was working with a high-level champion who had purchased and enjoyed our product at his previous company and wanted to implement the same at his new firm. He took care of much of the purchasing process: it was an easy sale.

 

But, because he had been through a successful implementation before, I assumed that he had prepared his team for the transition. This assumption was, sadly, incorrect! As a result, I ignored key portions of my own discovery process (including neglecting Transition Vision, VREs and related), and we both suffered as a result.

 

Moral: When you assume, you make an (ahem) donkey out of you and me…!

 

Learn more about doing more effective discovery here:

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

 

 

You’ll find 35 additional story gems in my new book, 

“Suspending Disbelief: A Collection of Sales, Presales, and Marketing Stories (and Lessons Learned)” 

https://tinyurl.com/yc7rsrmy 

 

If you missed some of these knowledge nuggets, you’ll find more patiently waiting for you at 

https://greatdemo.com/blog/.

In a “Bake Off?” Demo First!

When in a competitive “bake off” or similar situation 

where multiple competitors will deliver demos to a prospect, 

be first. 

 

Why? 

 

Two reasons!

 

1.     Being first takes advantage of the anchoring effect. 

 

The first time the prospect sees a capability,

it fixes that version as the anchor. 

All other versions from the other vendors 

will be compared to the first, 

with the first version setting the standard 

and often perceived as “best”

 

2.     Being first also leverages the primacy/recency effect,

where the first things seen by the prospect

are remembered the best.

 

And if you can’t go first, offer to go last, because: 

 

1.     That’s the next best position, 

taking advantage of the recency portion 

of the primacy/recency effect: 

You’ll be the last set of capabilities your prospect sees.

 

2.     You get to say that they truly “saved the best for last!”

A Late Majority Story: No Compelling Reason to Change!

 

 

Buck’s Restaurant in Woodside, California was renowned as a place where many Silicon Valley startups were founded. Stories of cocktail-napkin drawings sketched at Buck’s that resulted in new and disruptive products and new market categories abound.

 

When you were greeted at reception, the employee would not ask, “How many

are you in your party?” but rather, “Who are you meeting?” Truly a fabulous place!

 

Imagine my surprise when I happened to glance behind the counter at Buck’s cash register machine (today we’d call this a POS device: Point of Sale) and noted that it was running DOS (yes, DOS).

 

Amazed, on my way out I asked Buck, “Tell me, why are you still using a DOS-based payment system?” 

He said, “It works. No compelling reason to change…”

 

Moral: The Technology Adoption Curve strikes again!

 

 

Learn more about doing discovery across the Technology Adoption Curve starting on page 300 in Doing Discovery: https://www.amazon.com/Doing-Discovery-Important-Enablement-Processes/dp/B0B8RJK4C2/

 

If you missed some of these knowledge nuggets, you’ll find more patiently waiting for you at https://greatdemo.com/blog/.

 

AND you’ll find 35 additional story gems in my new book, “Suspending Disbelief: A Collection of Sales, Presales, and Marketing Stories (and Lessons Learned)” here: https://tinyurl.com/yc7rsrmy 

Next Tuesday August 5 – The SE Book Club – Doing Discovery!

“In discovery, people and organizations want you to understand their perceived uniqueness; 

with solutions, they want to be part of a group.”

 

Join us to explore “Doing Discovery,” charting new territory to help sellers differentiate and win!

 

Here are a few destinations to choose from in our live session journey:

 

- Wants vs Needs

- Probe Types

- Expansion Questions

- Uncovering Value

- Investigating Impact

- Why? Questions

- Biased Questions

- Diagnostic vs Biased Questions

- Empathy and Quid Pro Quo

- Outflanking Competition

- Vision Reengineering

- The Reverse Demo

- Trust and Credibility

- Avoiding “No Decision”

- Starting Discovery

- Summarizing and Summaries

- The Curse of Knowledge

- Executives

- Enabling Your Champion

- Groups Versus Individuals

- Communication Within Your Team

- Overactive Listening

- Burn Victims

- The Technology Adoption Curve

- New Products – Disruptive Products

- Expansion and Renewals

- Transactional Sales Cycles

- Discovery on the Fly

- Discovery Metrics

 

Join the expedition here!

https://www.linkedin.com/events/7350680020169740289/ 

 

Want to embark on your own voyage?

Get the book!

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

 

And let us know which topics you’d like to discover!