We Just Need a Prius, Not a Tesla...!

Just heard this nice revision of the old expression regarding “Buying it back”.  It used to be (in the U.S.), “We just need a Chevy, not a Cadillac…!” – now, you can hear the same idea communicated in a more up-to-date manner:  “We just need a Prius, not a Tesla…!”  Fabulous…

FYI – for those unfamiliar with the term, “Buying it back”:  this is where you have presented capabilities in a demo that the customer doesn’t perceive they need – and they say, “Either take those capabilities out, or give us a discount…”  That’s “Buying it back”!

Other contributions of the same idea are welcome (what do people say in the UK, on the Continent, in Australia, Japan, etc.?).

SkyTap – Consistent (Working!) Demo Environments…

I recently came across SkyTap, (www.SkyTap.com) an organization that provides cloud-based environments for development, testing, training – and yes, demos and POC’s.  I’ve had the chance to have a couple of conversations with the folks at SkyTap and to see a demo of the environment in action – it looks like an excellent solution to many of the demo environment challenges that we face.  

Very simply, it provides a consistent, stable copy of your demo environment (some might call it their “Gold” environment), accessible 24/7/365 from a web browser.  My understanding is that it is particularly useful for non-SaaS offerings (the more complex the environment, the more valuable it should be).   More information can be found here:  https://www.skytap.com/solutions/enterprise-sales-demos/. 

Any comments or experiences to share using SkyTap?  It seems like a really good thing!

“I’ll Call You At 3:00…” – Time Zone Cluelessness

Not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES last week I received email messages from vendors’ sales and presales folks that presented dates and times for a phone call – but without a time zone indicated…!  Here’s the first example, from a vendor trying to sell me software:

“I’m available at the following times:

·         Tue:  9, 10, 1, 3

·         Wed after 10

·         Fri: 2

…”

Please please please (please) list a time zone when proposing times for a call…!  Sheesh.

By the way, in all three cases the email “signatures” also lacked any indication of location, which would have at least given me (the recipient) a clue… 

[Extra credit quiz question:  how many time zones are there in the U.S.?}

[Warning: Shameless Self-Promotion Alert!] May 18-19 Great Demo! Public Workshop – Last Chance

We have just a few seats remaining available for our upcoming Great Demo! Public Workshop, scheduled for May 18-19 in Sunnyvale, CA (Silicon Valley).  Registration and additional information can be found here.

Public Workshops are excellent opportunities for individuals, small groups or for teams that have new hires.  The May session will be a 1.75-Day Workshop, with the first day focusing largely on core Great Demo! material and the second ¾ day addressing more advanced topics and techniques.  

“Let Me Show You What’s Going On ‘Behind the Scenes’…” More Demo Ineptitude

How many times have you heard someone say, in a demo, “Let me explain what is happening behind the scenes…”?  As an audience member, do you typically care about these details?  (Nope).  Do high-ranking managers typically want to see or learn these details?  Nope.

And yet, the more technical the offering, and the more technical the presenter, the more often we hear these frightening words spoken.

Contemplate the following two examples:

You are considering purchasing a hybrid car.  What is the most important thing you care about, with respect to that car?  The answers are typically “gas mileage” or “the environment”.  For those of you who have considered a hybrid, have you looked at the batteries?  (Possibly).  Did you care that “the battery pack of the second generation Toyota Prius consists of 28 Panasonic prismatic nickel metal hydride modules—each containing six 1.2 volt cells—connected in series to produce a nominal voltage of 201.6 volts. The total number of cells is 168, compared with 228 cells packaged in 38 modules in the first generation Prius….”  (http://www.hybridcars.com/hybrid-car-battery/).  (Nope).  Similarly, did you care how the car decides when to change from full electric to gas engine?  (Nope).

Have you ever purchased a book on Amazon using the “Buy now with 1-Click” button?  Do you care what happens “behind the scenes” when you click that button?  (Nope).  All you really care about is getting your copy of your book delivered to your tablet or mailbox.  (You are welcome to run this experiment yourself by purchasing a copy of “Great Demo!”).  Do you care how many separate vendors and steps are involved (Amazon, credit card company, merchant bank, database tracking your history, printer, packager, shipper, etc. etc. etc.)?  Nope.

Yes, there are certainly some people who are interested in “what goes on behind the scenes”, but they are fewer in number –and are typically lower-ranking.

Recommendations?

Before you (or your team) dives into a detailed show-and-tell of “what’s happening behind the scenes” ask yourself is this important (to the customer) or necessary to learn?  Or, at least, ask the customer if he/she/they would like to know these details before plunging in…!

Curious Thoughts On Coaching, Demos, Life, the Universe and Everything… But Mostly on Coaching

I recently completed an interview with the fine folks at Refract (http://enable.refract.tv/enable-blog/musings-from-a-software-demo-guru-an-interview-with-peter-cohan/) that explores a range of topics, then settles down and explores coaching for presales (and demos, in particular) – and a curious thought struck me:

Very few presales managers have ever been taught how to coach…! 

This is intriguing and gently frightening…  Think about it:  most front-line presales managers are promoted from their previous individual contributor positions into their new manager roles because they excel at presales.  In many cases, they are given their new roles without any training on how to manage.  In nearly all cases, they are expected to coach their new team, but are never provided with training on how to coach.

The result is a negative feedback loop: 

VP:  “You need to coach your team…” 

Presales Manager:  “I try to tell them what to do…” 

VP:  “Well, do it better…”

Presales Manager (inwardly):  “Arrrrrrgh….!”

Interestingly, many arenas outside of the business world require coaches to learn how to coach.  Example?  Some years ago I volunteered as assistant coach for my daughter’s soccer team.  I’d played soccer for years (reasonably good goalie at one point) and knew the game – and figured I should be able to coach the girls.  However, I was surprised to learn that the league required all prospective coaches to learn how to coach – and I had to take a 2-day course on coaching.  I was even more surprised to find how useful (and ultimately important) it was to have learned those coaching skills (partly to help develop the team and partly to manage the parents on game day…!).

Brief segue:  What is the difference between training and coaching?  You can train someone to follow a process; coaching explores how well that process is being executed and makes improvements in performance.  Training introduces process; coaching improves the performance of that process. 

For example, you can teach someone how to run a 5 kilometer race:  you start, pace yourself over the first 4.5 kilometers, and then “kick” the last half a kilometer to finish.  The runner listens to the instructions, then runs the course as best he/she understands or interprets the plan.  That’s training.

Coaching is what happens next.  A Coach, who has watched and timed our athlete during the run, reviews what happened with him/her – and offers corrections and changes.  “Start a bit faster; remember to focus on smooth, steady breathing, and when you see the final half kilometer distance sign you can start your ‘kick’ – increase steadily over that half a km so that you are at top speed in the last 100m before the finish line.”  That’s coaching – working to improve the performance of the process.

Our athlete (after a bit of a rest), runs the course again, focusing on the guidance from the coach – and sees some significant improvement.  Importantly, that’s the positive feedback loop that coaching enables.

So, for you new (and experienced) presales managers, Is there hope on the horizon for you who wish to coach (or coach better)?  Why, yes!  For Great Demo! practitioners and their managers, I can provide coaching tools and guidance on how to coach – simply send me an email if you’d like to start the conversation at PCohan@SecondDerivative.com. 

Are there any additional sources for learning coaching skills you've come across?

Podcast: An Interview with Peter Cohan

Scott Sambucci, who leads SalesQualia, drives a discussion with me on demos, life, the universe and everything (OK, mostly on demos).

LISTEN NOW: http://traffic.libsyn.com/salesqualia/Peter_Cohan.mp3

Here’s Scott’s description of what we covered and more detailed notes:

• Why you only have once chance at a product demo and how to do it right the first time.

• There no such thing as standard demos and how to discover the “Critical Business Issues” of your target accounts in preparing your demos.

• “The Curse of Knowledge” and how answering your prospect’s questions before they ask can KILL your demo.

• How to demo your software crisply…!

Notes:

• How did Peter get into demo skills training.

• Do the Last Thing First – don’t teach people how things work, rather show them what good things will help them solve their problems.

• Assembling and using data from demos, delivery and sales results.

• Doing it right the first time – your demos will be much shorter and you’ll likely do fewer demos to get the business.

• No such thing as a standard customer/demo.

• Doing Discovery, ask sufficient questions to be able to design a demo that fits the customer’s need.

• The “Curse of knowledge”, when you have seen it all before and you forget that every customer is unique. 

• Pre-answering questions before they are asked takes away the role of the audience.

• How to address having new people in the meeting that you haven’t had a chance to do needs assessment with.

• Always start a demo with three questions:  What’s your name, job title and what would you like to accomplish?

• Turning the demo from being all about the vendor to all about the customer.

• Use the fewest number of steps to complete any particular task.

• Manage your infrastructure. Expect your hard disk will crash! Be ready for anything.

• Do the Last Thing First reprised. 

The entire podcast runs just about 1 hour in length – that should be just about perfect for 1 or 2 commutes…!

Go BE A Customer… Why?

I am often surprised at how many participants in Great Demo! Workshops have never been a customer – or have never seen another vendor’s demos.  This lack of experience – and perspective – makes it hard for these participants to understand what a “Bad” demo looks like (and hence, what “Good” or “Great” might look like).  For these “newbies”, I have a strong recommendation:  go out and BE a customer.  For the seasoned veterans, see my “Additional Note” below…

Here’s the assignment:

Find a software package you are earnestly interested in and become a prospect for that vendor.  Experience, first-hand, what if feels like to be a lead.  You’ll likely get a call in response to signing-up for information or a demo; you’ll likely see a “standard” demo.  Make notes on how the vendor treats you, how you feel about the experience along the way, what kinds of questions they ask before talking about their product or plunging into a demo.  Make notes about the demo itself:  what did you like; what did you find boring or pointless?  How interactive was it vs. a firehose delivery?  How much of the demo were capabilities you were interested in seeing?

If you choose to buy the product, great!  Continue to note the post-purchase experience, as well.  Installation, implementation, initial use, help as needed… Did they reach out to you later on to “upsell”?  Was this a “Land and Expand” experience?

If you don’t purchase the product, no worries – you are under no obligation!  However, continue to note how the vendor continues to pursue you and your reactions.

Overall, this experience is critical to gaining a sufficient understanding of how YOU want to be treated as a prospect and customer.  Use this when reflecting on your own sales processes and demos…!

[Additional Note:  This is a great idea even if you have had previous experience on the customer side of the table.  It helps to stay current on how vendors are operating today…!]

[Additional Additional Note:  This is a great idea for on-boarding new presales (and sales) hires)]

[Warning: Shameless Self-Promotion Alert!] Upcoming Great Demo! Public Workshops

Two Great Demo! Public Workshops are currently scheduled for 2016, as follows:

-          May 18-19 – Sunnyvale, CA (Silicon Valley).  Registration and additional information can be found here.

-          October 12-13 – Sunnyvale, CA (Silicon Valley).  Registration and additional information can be found here.

These are excellent opportunities for individuals, small groups or for teams that have new hires.  Both sessions will be a 1.75-Day Workshops, with the first day focusing largely on core Great Demo! material and the second ¾ day addressing more advanced topics and techniques. 

Both Workshops will take place in Sunnyvale, CA (in the heart of the Silicon Valley), in conjunction with the folks at SKMurphy.  

We’ve found that these sessions are most productive when there are two or more participants from each organization – and best when a combination of sales and presales participants are present (singletons are also fine). This helps to mimic real-life interactions as much as possible, both when preparing demos and delivering them in the role-play sessions.

PS - If you do decide to register for San Francisco Bay Area Public Workshops and are coming from out of town, you might want to make reservations now at the hotel where the Workshop will take place or nearby, as hotels tend to fill up fairly quickly. 

Vision Generation – It’s All About Perspective…!

I was reminded of this classic story by a colleague who noted that it is a good allegory for Vision Generation demos with differing audiences… Wonderful!

A man walks up to a construction site where he sees several bricklayers working on a wall.  He asks one of the brick masons "What are you working on?"  The first worker looks at him like he's an idiot and says "I'm laying bricks!  What does it look like?"

He walks up to the second brick mason and asks, "What are you working on?"  This guy shrugs his shoulders and replies, "I'm building a wall."

He approaches the third man and asks the same question.  This mason pauses, turns around, looks carefully at his questioner and with excitement in his voice says, "I'm building a majestic cathedral.  It's going to be amazing!"

How Much of Your Demo Is "Set-up Mode" (And Why Is This Painful)?

I was recently watching a series of demos presented by a vendor to their customers and noted two rather astonishing things:

Astonishing Thing Number 1:  Approximately 50% of the elapsed time of the demo was done showing “Set-up Mode” items (setting up the environment, configuring the application, editing and creating templates, etc.).  [These demos ranged 60-90 minutes long.]

Astonishing Thing Number 2:  At the end of all this Set-up Mode activity, the vendor noted that, ”Of course, you won’t have to do any of this – we generally take care of it as part of implementation, done by our Professional Services team…”

Rhetorical Question:  Why did they show the Set-up items at all? 

Rhetorical Answer:  Because they (and we) are Victims of Momentum – we tend to do the same things the same way over and over, unless someone gives us a serious shove in a new direction.

Rhetorical Question:  What is the impact on the customer of seeing all of the that Set-up Mode stuff? 

Rhetorical Answer:  It makes the software look waaaaaay too complicated.

Cynical Rhetorical Question:  I’ll bet you’ve never heard that phrase before, from a customer…!

Recommendation:  Put the Set-up Mode portions of your demos “behind your back” – only bring them out in response to specific questions from your customer.  Focus on the key deliverables and the business value those deliverables provide your customer (“Illustrations”, in Great Demo! vocabulary).  intriguingly, it is likely that you can answer most Set-up Mode questions verbally, without ever moving your mouse.

How much of your current demos are Set-up Mode?

Start Your Demo in Email...?

Here’s a non-obvious tip:  start your demo in email, showing an “unopened” email message – which could contain or link to an alert, report, or notification of some kind.  Opening the email and clicking the link, for example, takes the user to the details of the alert or opens the report for examination (for Great Demo! practitioners, these are likely good candidates for Illustrations).  Why start in email?

In spite of vendors’ desires, most users spend most of their time in two applications.  What are they?

-          Email

-          Web browser

Intriguingly, most vendor software demos ignore that reality and present a vision of customer users operating largely in the vendor’s software.  While there may be some packages where this is the case, the sad reality is that most users spend their work-day lives reading and responding to email and searching, reading and browsing on the internet (some of which may even be for legitimate business purposes!) . 

Do the experiment yourself:  what percent of each work day would you say you spend in which applications?  In my case (probably representative of a typical sales person, sales manager or CEO of a small business), the breakdown is something like:

- Email:              40%

- Browser:          30%

- Excel:              10%

- Word:              10%

- PowerPoint:      5%

- Other Apps:      5%

For many software products, once they are installed and configured, they are only accessed when there is an issue to resolve, exception to explore, or report to review.  Why not map to that day-to-day paradigm, accordingly?  If your offering sends email messages that contain important alerts, exceptions, or reports, consider starting your demo with an example unopened email that then takes the user into the product or shows the desired report.

Very simple, very elegant!

"Vanilla" vs. "Custom" Demos in Some Organizations - The Difference?

What’s the difference between “Vanilla" vs. "Custom" Demos in some organizations?

The “Vanilla” demo is a script, created by the vendor, designed to show a “typical” workflow or “day-in-the-life” for a customer, typically showing as many “important” features as possible in a demo that runs 30 minutes or more.

The “Custom” demo is that SAME demo, but with additional emphasis on the features uncovered as “needs” during Discovery or qualification. 

It would be like going to shop for a car, as follows:

Case 1 (“Vanilla”):  A couple walk into a car dealership showroom and the salesperson takes the couple on a tour of the entire line of cars, spending 5-10 minutes at each (compact, sedan, SUV, mini-van, truck and sports coupe).

Case 2 (“Custom”):  A couple walk into a car dealership showroom and tell the salesperson, “We are interested in SUV’s…” and the salesperson STILL takes the couple on a tour of the entire line of cars, spending 5-10 minutes at each (compact, sedan, SUV, mini-van, truck and sports coupe), but with stronger emphasis of the key features of the SUV.

Moral?  Don’t do that.

New Terrific Coaching Tool for Web-Delivered Demos

What are the main challenges for managers who wish to coach their team members’ delivery of demos?  (And for team members who desire to improve?)

-          Lack of available time to join demos delivered over the web

-          Hard to find time with team members to discuss and give feedback

-          Really hard to be consistent in delivering feedback

-          Hard to track what specific feedback was delivered

-          Hard to be quantitative and hard to normalize across a set of individuals or teams

-          Really hard to track progress for individuals (and teams) over time

[Coaching is tough to do and tough to do well, in spite of it being one of the most important tasks for a manager…]

So…  What if there was a tool that enabled managers to provide feedback to their team members for web-delivered demos (e.g., using WebEx, GoToMeeting, etc.)?  What if it offered the ability to deliver coaching feedback asynchronously, independent of manager/team member availability?  What if it offered consistent coaching guidelines and attributes – and the ability to assign numeric rankings?

Well, check it out:  the fine folks at Refract.tv (http://enable.refract.tv ) have an offering that does this – and does it well.

But wait, there more…!  Here’s an example of the tool in real-life use:  Richard Smith at Refract did a demo for me, which he recorded (I’m playing the manager of an inside sales team at a software company in this demo).  He then sent me the recording and I played the role of his manager, offering feedback on his demo – I’ve annotated the demo with my comments, using a Great Demo! coaching example template. 

Here’s the link to the annotated recording for your viewing pleasure:  https://app.refract.ai/Public/Link/b66edbce-81fe-4497-b731-743e86b9cead-opt

The column on the left shows my coaching observations; the right hand side of the screen has Richard’s embedded recording with a “play/pause” button on its bottom left.  Clicking “play” will play his demo.  As it plays, you’ll see my coaching comments appear beneath the recording pane (you may need to scroll down, depending on your screen size). 

Alternatively, you can jump from comment to comment by clicking on the items in the observations column (e.g., “Introduction”, “Situation Slide Elements”, “Shallow vs. Deep”, etc.).   This reduces playback time for the team member significantly, as he/she can jump from comment to comment and not have play the entire recording – nice!

Would love to hear your feedback on the tool…

Further Beyond BANT – Great Discovery Questions – Competitive Advantages

Contemplate the following idea:  Every competitively advantageous feature in your offering should have one or more Discovery questions associated with it – and the best time to introduce those competitively advantageous capabilities is in Discovery, via a series of Biased Questions.

Corollary:  Every key competitively advantageous feature in your COMPETITOR’s offering should also have one or more Discovery questions associated with it – and the best time to out-flank and minimize the impact and importance of those features is also in Discovery, via a series of Biased Questions designed to negate the importance of that capability. 

Second Corollary:  If you determine that your customer really values the competitor’s capability and sees it as highly important, if you cannot match or even the score with other capabilities of your own, you may choose to pull back and end your sales process (for the present) – and make that decision in Discovery.  If you are going to fail, fail early and fail inexpensively (as opposed to doing a series of demos, followed by a long POC, and then losing to your competition)!

Vision Generation Demos - The Crisp Cure for Stunningly Awful Harbor Tours

What is a Vision Generation demo?  It is just enough demo to generate a vision in the customer’s mind that a solution to a business challenge is possible – and to enable a Discovery conversation to take place. 

A Vision Generation demo should only take a few minutes – and may consist entirely of one or two well-chosen screens or screen-shots (“Illustrations” for you Great Demo! practitioners…).  Let’s explore…

Many software vendors have two types of demos:  

1.  Overview

2.  Deep Dive

Both types, when delivered in the absence of sufficient Discovery information, can lead to stunningly awful results.  Generally speaking, “Deep Dive” demos are delivered after a reasonable amount of Discovery has been completed.  Most overview demos, however, are inflicted with little or no Discovery information in place (and qualification questions alone are not sufficient!).

As a result, overview demos have a range of (customer-generated) names, including:

- Show-up and throw-up

- Spray and pray

- Tech splatter

- The IKEA demo

- Living in the Land of Hope

- Whisky-Tango-Foxtrot, and, of course,

- The Harbor Tour

These painful demos often last 30, 45, or 60 minutes – or even longer.  I’ve heard vendors say, “We couldn’t possibly do an overview of the system in less than 2 hours…”

Customer recipients during and after these demos are often heard to mutter phrases such as:

“Where is this going?”

“OMG-when-will-this-end?”

“Kill me now…”

 “That’s an hour I’ll never get back…”

“What was the point?”

 “Who invited those guys in here?”

Equally bad, vendors know that they are wasting time delivering overview demos that go nowhere…  (Not to mention potentially huge travel and opportunity costs, so I won’t).  What if you could reduce your traditional overview demos from 1 hour down to a few crisp minutes?   What could you use that time for, instead?

Clearly, the best solution is to complete sufficient Discovery prior to any substantive demo.  However, many customers are either unwilling or unable to provide Discovery information in the absence of a demo.  They may even say, “Just show me an overview and I’ll let you know if anything looks interesting…”

How do we solve this conundrum? 

One Guideline and Two Ideas

First, consider the following "rule":  no demo shall last longer than 4 minutes without receiving sufficient Discovery information.  Note that "receiving sufficient Discovery information" can take place during or immediately after those 4 minutes of demo...  Think in terms of quid pro quo – if I show you something (a brief demo), I expect something in return (some Discovery information). 

Second, contemplate the idea of Vision Generation demos:  JUST ENOUGH demo to enable a Discovery conversation to take place.  In Great Demo! methodology, a Vision Generation demo might include an example Situation Slide ("Here's how we helped other ______ [job title] in _____ [industry]...") followed by a compelling Illustration or two.  Total time?  About 4 minutes or less...

This highly successful approach is based on reference selling, gently borrowed from a range of sales methodologies (including Challenger, Solution Selling, CustomerCentric Selling, Sandler, SPIN, Miller Heiman, Value, TAS, etc.), and applied specifically when you’ve been asked to present an overview demo.  It goes like this:

A customer arranged a demo meeting with you, but has not (yet) agreed to a Discovery conversation.  His expectation is that you’ll deliver some kind of “overview” demo…  What you know so far is that he is the VP of Sales of a mid-size software company (and you sell sales automation software tools). 

You say, “I’m glad we are able to invest this time together today.  Before we get into a demo, let me share how we’ve helped other VP’s of Sales at similar-sized software organizations address some of their business challenges…”  You then present the following slide in PowerPoint:

SITUATION

Job Title/Industry:             VP Sales, Mid-size Software

Critical Business Issue:    Achieving/exceeding quarterly and annual quota

Problems/Reasons:          Poor insight into pipeline/forecast

Specific Capabilities:        Rapid view of actuals, status, problems

Delta:                                $2M incremental revenue

You note that “VP’s of Sales at other, similar software companies shared their concerns about making their quarterly and annual numbers.  They said what was holding them back is that they had little or no visibility into their current forecast and pipeline going forward.  They said it took way too much time and effort to determine which sales projects were solid, which were at risk, and where there were holes or gaps in their pipelines.  They often had to go back and forth with IT, who would run searches on their behalf, but the results were often not what they needed, requiring several iterations of the process – and errors and miscommunication often took place.  The result was that it was very difficult to coach the sales team properly and they were often at risk of missing their quarterly numbers.”

You continue, “They said they were looking for some way to access the full forecast and pipeline information, see exactly which deals were in good shape and which needed assistance, and understand exactly where the forward-looking pipeline was strong and where there were gaps.  They said they wanted to get this information in a dashboard or similar vehicle that they themselves could query and drill down for details, without any need for IT.”

You explain, “We provided those capabilities – and our customers report that they’ve been able to generate 1-3 million dollars in incremental revenue and redeploy several full-time-equivalents in sales and sales operations to other, more productive tasks.”

You then ask, “How does this compare with your situation?”

There are three possible answers from your customer [Quiz – before reading on:  what are they?]:

1.  “I have that same situation…”

2.  “I have a similar situation…”

3.  “My situation is different…”

After your customer’s response, you ask, “Tell me about your specific situation…”

Customer says (for example), “Oh, well, I am under pressure to make my numbers – that’s consistent.  However, we have pretty good pipeline management capabilities today, but I do have a number of sales people who either sandbag [under-forecast] or who have Happy Ears [over-forecast] and both of these groups need coaching.  Right now I don’t have good insight into their projects – our current system doesn’t support this…”

You ask (as you begin to take notes), “What are you using today…?”

What has just taken place?  You and your customer have just entered into a Discovery conversation – which is exactly what you want.  Delightful!

Discovery, Then Demo, Then Discovery…

In the scenario above, it is likely that you continue the Discovery conversation for some time – and you may get to the point where you’ve now learned enough to provide a more substantive, focused demo. 

In the spirit of quid pro quo it may be your turn to provide information – and a short, focused demo segment based on what you’ve learned so far may be very reasonable.  After that, back to Discovery…

Here’s a quick road-map of the process so far:

-  Vision Generation Demo (≤4 minutes)

-  “How does this compare with your situation?”

-  Discovery questions and conversation – 10, 20 or 30 minutes – as long as is comfortable

-  Brief focused demo (brief Technical Proof demo, in Great Demo! methodology vocabulary)

-  More Discovery questions and conversation

-  Another brief focused demo segment, if appropriate

-  Repeat as needed…

Your objective is to gain a clear and complete understanding of your customer’s situation – partly so that you can put together and deliver a more substantive focused (Technical Proof) demo, if needed – and partly so that your customer is comfortable that you have a sufficient understanding of their situation.

Discovery is done partly for you, the vendor – and partly (largely!) for the sake of the customer.  Customers are typically unwilling to accept a solution if they feel the vendor has an insufficient understanding of what they believe is their unique, specific situation.

One Guideline and Two Ideas?

For those of you who were paying attention and counting, you’ll note that I promised one guideline and two ideas – it looks like I owe you one more idea, so…

The Vision Generation demo described above assumes that you have a reasonable understanding of your customer’s top challenges before the meeting.  However, what if you don’t have a good idea of your customer’s main problem areas?

Consider using the Menu Approach to identify customer challenges and topics of main interest.  (The Menu Approach article on my website at www.SecondDerivative.com/Articles.html describes how to put this into practice in detail – you can browse for it or simply send me an email and I’ll send you the article.)

The Menu Approach presents the customer with a list of high-probability topics of interest – and invites the customer to choose which topic(s) are of most interest to them.  You can then transition to a corresponding Situation Slide and use an appropriate Illustration or two for each topic – delightful!

Note that the Menu Approach can be applied on-the-fly during the meeting – or you can send a Menu of topics (with brief textual description of each topic) to your customer ahead of time and ask them to rank the topics in terms of importance to them: “High”, “Medium”, or “Low” – and send the list back to you. 

This “self-Discovery” exercise enables you to target the “High” importance topics for crisp Vision Generation demos and to drive the Discovery conversation in accord with what is perceived as most important by the customer. 

But Wait:  There’s More

Finally, here are a few additional ideas you may find useful – or at least amusing!

A colleague of mine, when asked to “just show us an overview demo” by his customers, responds, “I’d be happy to – our overview demo takes about 2 hours for each product – and we have a pile of products.  When would you like to schedule this?”

When receiving the same request (“just show me an overview”), another colleague tells the customer, “Oh, do you really want me to show-up-and-throw-up?  Spray-and-pray?  Take you on a tour of an Ikea?  You really want a Harbor Tour demo?”  After the laughter dies away, he says, “I can either torture you for a few hours of overview demo – or we can invest a few minutes of discussion to focus in on what you want.  Your choice…!”

Another Great Demo! practitioner described the “Serial Serving” analogy.  He told the customer, “Well, asking me to do an overview demo is like asking me as a waiter in a nice restaurant to just start bringing dishes of food to your table – and let me know when you get something you like…  Or, I can show you a menu of what we offer, so that you can see what is possible for your meal and then choose what is most interesting to you!”

Vision Generation – An Encrispened Demo

A Vision Generation demo is designed to provide the customer with just enough demo for the customer to be willing to invest more time with you.  Four minutes of Vision Generation may be all that is needed to start a substantive conversation.

Just think:  if you are able to reduce your traditional overview demos from 1 hour down to 4 minutes, what delightful (and more productive) activities could you use that time for?

Copyright © 2016 The Second Derivative – All Rights Reserved.

Traditional “Overview” Demos – Similar to Serial Serving…?

A recent Great Demo! Workshop participant noted that traditional “overview” demos are similar to what he called, “Serial Serving”.  Intrigued, I asked, “What is Serial Serving?” 

He replied, “It is like being presented with dish after dish of food in a restaurant, none of which you requested, but you sample them as they appear – with the result that you are full before they finally bring something you really like…!  Each dish is carefully prepared by the chef and served by the waiter, but without any input from the customer – an onslaught of offerings…”

I raised a questioning eyebrow…  Obligingly, he elucidated:

“Imagine you walk into a nice restaurant and are seated at a table.  The waiter doesn’t bring you a menu, however, he brings a plate of sautéed shrimp straight from the kitchen, saying ‘This is one of our most popular dishes…!’  Unfortunately, you don’t really like shrimp and ask the waiter to take the plate away. 

The waiter returns and places a large bowl of cooked green-leaf vegetables in front of you, saying, ‘This is another popular specialty of ours:  soy-seasoned spinach, collard greens, and kale.’  You try a few bites and it is acceptable, but not really what you had in mind.  You push the plate aside…

The waiter reappears, this time with a plate of polenta, covered with a confit of red peppers and onions; he presents the dish, noting, ‘Nearly everyone likes this…!’  However, you are not really a polenta fan – you try a few bites and again push the plate away…

Now the waiter presents, in quick order:  potato soup, a grilled beef steak (with special Spanish spices), stewed tomatoes, rabbit stew, cheese fondue, and pot-au-feu, commenting that ‘We just added these dishes recently and we are very excited about them…!’  You try small portions of each – and begin to feel a bit overwhelmed.

Without respite (and no entremets or intermezzo), our waiter delivers a platter of petit-fours, a carafe of cabernet, an urn of sea urchin roe, a bowl of braised Brussels sprouts (in a bold Bordeaux), a seared sliver of salmon (slightly seasoned with sesame), a mug of mugwort, a ramekin of rutabaga ratatouille (with a rhubarb reduction), and shots of soju, sherry, Sambuca, sangria, sauterne, schnapps, and scotch (several with peated barley, several with plain barley).  Obligingly, you sample what you can (with a special emphasis on the selection of shots, most likely, at this point).  You are now full, definitely overwhelmed – a bit concerned about the likely size of the bill…!

Sadly, you were never served what you really wanted (rack of lamb). 

As you leave, the waiter asks, ‘What did you think?  What did you like?’

You respond, not wishing to offend him, ‘Oh, it was all pretty good…’

He asks, ‘Will we see you back again?’

You reply, again trying to be courteous, ‘Oh yes…’ – but you have absolutely no plan to be back – ever…!

That’s Serial Serving – and it is exactly synonymous with what vendors do when they present traditional overview demos!”

Great Demo! and Stunningly Awful Demos Articles – What Have You Missed?

In response to a number of requests, here’s a quick update on the articles published over the past year (plus a few months):

-          Stunningly Awful Demos:  Waaay Out of Alignment

-          Stunningly Awful Demo Phrases

-          Stunningly Awful On-Boarding Demos – The Trouble Begins

-          Stunningly Awful Sales Tactics – The Future-Sales Prevention Team

-          Stunningly Awful Demo Communication

-          Let’s Talk About Value

-          Stunningly Awful Sales Kickoff Demos

They are all available at www.SecondDerivative.com/Articles.html.  You are welcome to download the PDF versions and forward them on to others, as well!

The Great Demo! blog delivers these articles fresh off of the virtual press, along with a range of other tips, tools and ideas – you can find the blog at www.SecondDerivative.com/Blog.html.  

Beyond BANT - Great Discovery Questions

When doing Discovery, “BANT” is simply insufficient for non-transactional software sales cycles.  (BANT = Budget, Authority, Need(s), Timeline).  It can be a good starting point, but clearly more in-depth questions and discussion is needed with our customers.  Here are a few example questions to help stretch the discussion beyond BANT:

- Tell me about the culture here:  what is the team’s willingness/ability to change? 

- How does your company perceive itself – or want to be perceived:  as an Early Adopter, a Fast Follower, more of a Majority type, or a careful Late Adopter?

- When was the last time the team had a change of process or implemented new software?

- What happened with the past few new systems you purchased and installed?  How did those implementations go?

These few questions represent just a couple of areas to explore beyond BANT – any others you’d like to add to the list?  (It should be a long list…!)

Encrispening Demos – Hard to Do But Well Worth It!

It is much harder to produce a short, crisp demo than to execute a traditional long one.  Why?  Because It requires more thought and more effort to cut something down than to leave everything in.

It doesn’t really require much thought to simply replay a traditional demo over and over (and over and over), but it takes a great deal of thought and effort to take a 90 minute traditional demo and encrispen it to 20 minutes.  What do I keep in?  What do I cut out?  What do I have ready to go, but keep behind my back until the customer asks?

The Great Demo! methodology provides the recipe for encrispening demos – to make them crisp, concise and wonderfully focused on exactly what the customer wants and needs.  The rewards for the investment in effort are tremendous:

Tangible returns reported by Great Demo! practitioners include:

-      Gains of 10% or more in improved close rates overall

-      Demo win rate increases of 25-75% have been reported

-      Reduced “No Decisions” by half

-      Reduced sales cycle length by 50%

-      Reduced of cost-of-sales by 25%

-      Reduced “wasted demos” by 50%

-      Free POC’s and evaluations transformed into paid events

-      Eliminated or reduced the need for POC’s and evaluations

-      Increased deal size and breadth by 2x – both licenses and services

Intangible Benefits are reported as well:

-      Great Demo! practitioners’ customers report a more solution-oriented, consultative, customer-centric approach from the field organization.

-      Captured and leveraged high value “Informal Success Story” information (reference stories).

-      Established positive differentiation from competitors.

-      Dramatically improved Discovery – “You really listened to us…” comments from customers.

-      And substantial improvements are often reported in communications between sales and presales, and in team practices.

Encrispening challenges aren’t limited to demos, of course, as this telegram exchange between Mark Twain and his publisher:

Publisher said:

NEED 2-PAGE SHORT STORY TWO DAYS.

Twain replied:

NO CAN DO 2 PAGES TWO DAYS.  CAN DO 30 PAGES 2 DAYS.  NEED 30 DAYS TO DO 2 PAGES.

Wishing everyone Great Demos in 2016…!

The Curse of Knowledge

The Curse of Knowledge is, indeed, a curse for presales and sales folks – and the seasoned veterans are at highest risk.  It comes in (at least) two flavors:  

1.       When doing Discovery – “I already know your problems and situation – so I don’t need to ask you…” 

2.       When anticipating questions – “Everyone always asks that – so I’ll pre-answer it before you ask…”

When doing Discovery, seasoned veterans know their customers better than those customers know themselves.  Customer problems and situations have been heard countless times before – so why bother to ask questions?  We already know their situation and we already know what solution is best for them, right?  The problem here is that customers believe their situations are unique – and aren’t comfortable to accept a proposed solution from a vendor who hasn’t asked enough questions of them.

Guidance?  A smart man knows the answers; a wise man knows what questions to ask…

When anticipating questions from customers, let them ask their questions (even – and especially – if you’ve heard that same question 100 times).  Pre-answering questions takes away the possibility of a conversation with the customer.  Further, there are always people who feel obligated to ask something, and if you’ve pre-answered the typical questions, you may force them to pose a question that is way out in the periphery… 

Guidance?  Have your answers prepared and ready to go – but keep those answers (metaphorically) behind your back…  When the customer asks the question, you are prepared.  You (metaphorically) take the answer from behind your back and respond to the question.  Your demo is going perfectly when the customer is asking the questions you hope and expect them to ask at that point!  

‘Twas the Night Before The Big Demo (with apologies to Clement Clarke Moore)

‘Twas the Night Before The Big Demo

(with apologies to Clement Clarke Moore)

‘Twas the night ‘fore the demo and all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, ‘cept my SC and his mouse;

I’d proposed a big licensing deal with great care

In hopes a big order soon would be there;

Management was restless and not in their beds

As visions of bonuses danced in their heads;

And my VP with his forecast and me with my own,

Had just started a long EOQ roam,

When out from my mobile there came a great ring-tone,

I sprang from my chair to answer my phone,

What could it be?  Was it good news or no?

A last-minute order?  A contract?  PO?

Greetings, said my assistant, who spoke on the line,

It was someone to see me, offering help at this time!

Who could it be at this late eleventh-hour,

To make the deal sweet and avoid something sour?

Away to the door I flew in a flash,

And swept it open in my quest for fast cash,

When who to my wondering eyes should appear,

The DemoGuru! And standing so near!

He came in my office and, while dusting off snow,

Said, “I have some news that you’ll want to know.”

He drew up a chair and asked for some tea,

And said to my VP, SC and to me:

“Your deal is in trouble and I’ll tell you now,

Your demo’s confusing, complex and lacks ‘Wow!’

It’s riddled with features and functions and more,

And too many cool things, mouse clicks galore,

Don’t flog them with features and other neat stuff,

Stick with the substance, stay away from the fluff,

The more that you show is not always nice,

Customers may say, ‘Please lower the price!’

The Buzzword-Compliant Vocabulary list,

Are words, I’m afraid, that are better-off missed,

Not Flexible, nor Powerful, nor Easy-to-Use,

Not Robust, nor Seamlessly Integrated abuse,

And no corporate overview, please don’t do that,

After ten minutes they’re grabbing their hats,

Present as a team, so if things get hairy,

Sales folks aren’t lost in the back with Blackberry.

Your customer’s queued and ready to go,

They love the vision you’ve built with them so

They want Technical Proof in the demo you’ve planned,

Just the key capabilities, everything else banned.”

“But how can we do this?” I heard myself cry,

“We’re victims of momentum, we’re nervous to try,

Another approach, a new way to go,

We have to admit we’re just a bit slow!”

“Do the Last Thing First!” he said with a smile,

“Then peel back the layers, and Do It with style,

Peel it back in accord with their interest,

Stay focused and execute, and you’ll find it best,

Your customer’s Situation is a great way to intro,

Their Problems and Reasons, from CBI flow,

Review these and check – is this still the case?

Are we aligned or are we off-base?

Start with the end, that big pay-off piece,

Illustrate and describe, those are the keys!

Capture their interest, compel their attention,

Make sure it aligns with their mode of consumption.

When it clicks and they’re hooked, they’ll then ask for more,

There’s absolutely no way that they’ll head for the door,

They’ll say, “Please show us, prove that it’s so,

Show us the rest, please do demo.”

  

Then Do It, just Do It, with no extra clicks,

To return to that Illustrative image that sticks,

Make it simple, make it fast, make it easy and clear,

Then they will realize they’ve nothing to fear,

Encourage their questions, most are not new,

Good ones and Great ones (and Stupid ones too),

Treat Hostiles with courtesy, use your Parking Lot so

Those mean, crusty folks can’t damage your flow,

Peel back the layers, Do It Again,

Show only what’s needed, put nothing else in,

Let them drive the demo, let them think they’re in charge,

While their Vision Solution you work to enlarge!

Summarize, summarize, tell them again,

‘Cause adults do learn by repetition,

And when you show a key take-away screen,

Leave it up, let it linger, so they’ll know what they’ve seen!

“I get it – I’ll do it!” exclaimed my SC,

“This is all so obvious, it’s way clear to me!”

And he sprang into action, his mouse flew like lightening,

(Frankly, his speed was a little bit frightening!)

And with that the DemoGuru smiled and he said,

“Your way is now clear, put that baby to bed,

Your deal’s now on track, your order secure,

You’ll make your numbers at the end of the year,

Then he strode from my office in a blink of a pun,

Turned ‘round and he said, “My job here is done,”

Ere he drove out of sight, I did hear him say,

“Great Demo! to all and to all a Great Day!”

Copyright © 2005-2012 The Second Derivative – All Rights Reserved.