Another Terrific Metric to Track Salesperson Effectiveness

One of the biggest challenges for presales staff can be working with sales people who don’t “get it” with respect to the need to do sufficient Discovery prior to demos.  Previously I offered a metric that helps separate the great vs. good vs. not-so-good sales people by measuring the dollars-of-revenue per number-of-demos done. In this case the more efficient and effective sales people will have larger numbers.

 Another good metric to track and measure is the number of demo meetings booked in comparison with the number that actually take place on the original dates.

 Very often, sales people will ask for a presales resource to be assigned for a particular date, but then that date moves (sometimes several times!). This impacts the entire organization negatively, as that presales resource could not be used for other opportunities (that might have been better qualified, with better Discovery completed, and a much higher likelihood of coming to fruition). With the less effective sales reps, we would often see requests for multiple dates for demo meetings for a single customer. Those dates often slipped and we received requests for new dates…

 In one infamous case, one rep had tied up presales resources for a full two-week window without ending up with a single meeting! (What a sad waste…).

Mapping Browser-Based Applications to Projector Resolution

Just saw this recently: You can use CTRL - and CTRL (Shift) + to zoom your display larger or smaller when using browser-based applications. This is very useful for rapidly adjusting to LCD projectors of various resolutions. (If you have ever been surprised when you connect to a projector, particularly an older one, and suddenly find that you have to use scroll bars to access large portions of your screen – you’ll know why this tip is so valuable!) CTRL – shrinks your screen, fitting more in view CTRL + expands your screen, zooming in... Remember that you need to use three keys simultaneously: CTRL Shift +

[Warning: Shameless Self-Promotion Alert] Great Demo! Public Workshop May 22-23 - Next Week

Our next Great Demo! Public Workshop is scheduled next week - May 22-23 in San Jose, California. Registration information can be found here (http://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2012/10/26/great-demo-workshop-on-may-22-23-2013/). This is a 1.5-Day Workshop, with the first day focusing largely on core Great Demo! concepts and the morning of the second day addressing more advanced topics and techniques. This is an excellent opportunity for individuals, small groups or for teams that have new hires. You can register using the link above or contact me for more information (PCohan@SecondDerivative.com).

Reflector – Share iPad/iPhone screens in Remote Demos

Saw something very cool in a recent Great Demo! Workshop – one of the participants showed how to share his iPad via his Mac over WebEx… In other words, he was doing a demo on his iPad and shared it with customers located remotely, via his Mac while running WebEx (or GoToMeeting, etc.). Reflector is an app that enables this, using AirPlay to mirror an iPad or iPhone on a Mac or PC. Check it out: http://www.reflectorapp.com/

Why Don't Customers Remember My Demos?

We typically encounter about 3000 interruption-based marketing messages every day – in the form of web/email/magazine/newspaper/radio/TV ads and commercials, billboards, other signage, and even the drink cans, bottles and snacks that we consume in conference rooms during meetings! Our brains are presented with this onslaught constantly. Accordingly we make very rapid yes/no, keep/discard decisions about what is important (things that are threatening, attractive, unusual, or humorous) and what can be ignored and discarded right away. To add to this, our brains also operate in “stack” fashion, with the most recent inputs tending to push the slightly older inputs out of the stack, to be forgotten. In demos, we are constantly battling these forces as we seek to have the information that we deliver stick firmly in our customers’ brains – and hopefully more firmly than information coming from our competition. What can we do to help customers retain the key ideas we want them to remember? Consider the following… Percent of Information Retained vs. Mode of Delivery: - Lecture: 5% - Reading: 10% - Audio/Visual: 20% (each additional sense that is brought into the experience increases retention by about 10%) - Traditional Demos: 30% - Discussion Group: 50% - Practice by Doing: 75% - Peer Teaching/Immediate Use: 90% Clearly, our objective is to find ways in demo meetings to push the mode of delivery down that list. For example, the use of props can help increase the number of senses that are involved. Enabling customers to ask questions (rather than pre-answering them) pushes retention to the level of a Discussion Group. Inviting one or more members of the customer to “drive” a portion of the demo moves the mode to Practice By Doing. Using engaging stories is another good method, particularly in conjunction with these additional ideas. Look for as many ways as possible to get your audience directly involved in your demos. Combinations of the above ideas can help make your message particularly memorable and “sticky”. There are a few articles on my website at www.SecondDerivative.com/Articles.html that develop these ideas more fully, as well: - Storytelling and Demos - We Are Programmed To Forget – And Its Impact on Demos - What Makes a Demo Truly Remarkable

Practice Your Demos with Existing Customers

In addition to practicing demos with: - Other SC’s/presales team members - Sales people - Your spouse/significant other - Dog (always positive) or cat (typically more cynical) - Customer Champion You can also consider vetting demos with existing, friendly customers who may be willing to give you honest and often very useful feedback. This strategy is particularly useful when testing new Vision Generation demo ideas (for new products, updates, or existing products targeted at new customers, etc.).

Menu Approach – Controlling the Content

A Great Demo! Workshop participant pointed out (today!) that the Menu Approach offers an additional advantage: it (by definition) enables you to control what content can be explored. With a restaurant menu, the range of offerings is limited to what is on the menu (with the exception of a few daily specials, perhaps). This keeps the diners “on track” with respect to what the kitchen can create and serve. The Great Demo! Menu Approach provides that same control when presenting topics to your audience as it limits the topics (hopefully) to what you are able to demo.

Demo Jedi Mind Tricks

Don’t you wish this would work in real life?

Customer:  “Can your product do X, Y, and Z?”

SC (while waving hand slowly):  “…These are not the capabilities you are looking for…”
Customer:  “These are not the capabilities I am looking for…”

Customer:  “We’ll need to try your software in a POC.”

SC (while waving hand slowly):  “…You don’t need a POC and you are ready to buy…”
Customer:  “We don’t need a POC and we are ready to place the order now.”

Customer:  “Your competition’s offering is much better than yours.”

SC (while waving hand slowly):  “…There is no viable competition…”

Customer:  “There is no competition and we are ready to place the order now.”

Have any other examples of Demo Jedi Mind Tricks to share?

[Warning: Shameless Self-Promotion Alert] Upcoming Great Demo! Public Workshop May 22-23

Our next Great Demo! Public Workshop is scheduled for May 22-23 in San Jose, California – Registration information can be found here (http://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2012/10/26/great-demo-workshop-on-may-22-23-2013/).

This is a 1.5-Day Workshop, with the first day focusing largely on core Great Demo! concepts and the morning of the second day addressing more advanced topics and techniques. This is an excellent opportunity for individuals, small groups or for teams that have new hires.

Register using the link above or contact me for more information (PCohan@SecondDerivative.com).

Situation Slides - Three Options for Delivery

In Great Demo! Workshops we teach the idea of using a Situation Slide to start demo meetings, especially for Technical Proof demos, with Situation Slides generated and presented using PowerPoint or Keynote.  A number of Workshop participants ask if this is the only way to present Situation Slide information or are there other options? 

There are (at least) three methods of delivery that practitioners use today:

-          As a slide presented using PowerPoint or Keynote

-          Presented verbally

-          Using a whiteboard or flipchart

Using PowerPoint or Keynote, some practitioners use the “controlled vocabulary” version of the slide:

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

Critical Business Issue:   Achieve/exceed quarterly and annual quota
Problems/Reasons:        Poor insight into pipeline/forecast
Specific Capabilities:      Rapid view of actuals, status, problems
Delta:                                $2M incremental revenue; recover 2.5 FTE
Critical Date:                    Implementation by June 1, 2013 to be ready for 2^nd half forecasting session

More experienced practitioners remove the Job Title/Industry line (since the customer typically knows who he/she is…!) and translate the “controlled vocabulary” labels to words or word phrases that the customer might typically use, for example:

Challenge:                          Achieve/exceed quarterly and annual quota

Issues:                                 Poor insight into pipeline/forecast
Requirements:                  Rapid view of actuals, status, problems
Value:                                  $2M incremental revenue; recover 2.5 FTE
Timeline:                            Implementation by June 1, 2013 to be ready for 2^nd half forecasting session

This same information can be presented verbally, without the need for a “formal” slide.  This can be particularly useful and compelling when the demo is intimate, with one or a very few players – and it also shows that the sales team has internalized the customer’s situation.

A third option is to use a whiteboard or flipchart and present the information verbally while writing a few key words on the whiteboard/flipchart to highlight the most important aspects of the customer’s situation.  This has proven to be particularly successful – and compelling – as it appears to be ad hoc (even if the sales team has carefully planned what they want to say and write…)!  Even better, these few key words tend to stay visible during the course of the, reinforcing the problem, solution and value.

Any other modes of delivery that people have tried?

Discovery - For Highly Transactional Sales Cycles

Doing sufficient Discovery is clearly critical for mid-size and large software sales opportunities – but what about situations where the sales cycle may be a few days or weeks and the size of the opportunity is on the order of $3K - $12K?  Is Discovery still important?

Yes…!  The challenge is to strike a balance between operating in a transactional mode (read “moving fast”) and enabling the customer to feel that you have invested sufficient time to understand their situation. 

It is not unreasonable to consume 15 minutes in a Discovery conversation with a customer in a 30 minute “demo” call – the end result will be a customer that, typically, feels good about the transaction about to take place.  Investing this time in Discovery will enable you, as the vendor, to focus on the key needs and capabilities, reducing what would typically be a 30 minute rapid “Harbor Tour” to 10-15 minutes of crisper, focused demo.

Should you use a script for your Discovery questions?  Yes and no…!  Yes, you should have a list of questions/topics to cover; no, I don’t recommend following it religiously, but rather be prepared to bounce around in accord with where the customer takes the conversation – but use the list to make sure you cover the key questions and topics needed.

Doing Discovery – Before An NDA Is In Place

Many organizations are unwilling to share sensitive information before an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) is in place, limiting the information that can be uncovered in Discovery conversations.  Three recommendations:

1.       Acknowledge and respect that the customer may be unable to provide information until an NDA is executed; don’t push.

2.       Help the customer realize that it IS worth the time and energy to complete an NDA.   One simple way to accomplish this is to ask a few questions that the customer can’t (yet) answer – after a reasonable number of “I’m sorry, I can’t share that yet – it’s confidential information”, they will realize for themselves that it makes sense to execute an NDA.

3.       You should make the offer:  “Why don’t we execute an NDA so that we can continue the conversation…?”

A couple of additional ideas:

First, recommend that the NDA be mutual – bidirectional – so that any pricing or similar confidential information you provide can be protected under the same agreement.  This also helps to position you on a more equal basis with your customer.

Second, set a date for the next discussion so that there is s a reasonable level of urgency associated with getting the agreement completed.

iPad Prompter For Demos and Presentations

I recently saw a wonderful use of an iPad – as a “teleprompter” for a demo/presentation.  The presenter was showing a demo from a laptop computer and used his iPad for his notes and personal “script” alongside.  In this particular case he was operating from a podium and the audience couldn’t see the iPad – very elegant!

Additionally, he only need to “swipe” downwards on his iPad to move to his next page of notes/script – a quick hand motion that was much easier than finding a PGDN key or similar.  Great idea!

[Warning: Shameless Self-Promotion Alert] Upcoming Great Demo! Public Workshop March 6-7 – Next Week

Our next Great Demo! Public Workshop is scheduled for May 22-23 in San Jose, California – Registration information can be found here   (http://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2012/10/26/great-demo-workshop-on-may-22-23-2013/).

This is a 1.5-Day Workshop, with the first day focusing largely on core Great Demo! material, and the morning of the second day addressing more advanced topics and techniques.  This is an excellent opportunity for individuals, small groups or for teams that have new hires.

Contact me for more information or to reserve seats (PCohan@SecondDerivative.com).

Discovery: Unique, But Part of a Group

People (and companies) perceive themselves as unique, particularly with respect to their situations – but they also want to feel that they are not alone, that others suffer from similar problems (and have found good ways to solve those problems that may also apply to them…). 

When doing Discovery, one objective is to make the customer feel comfortable that you understand their unique situation.  This is best accomplished by asking good, relevant questions. 

A second objective in the Discovery process is to help the customer visualize the possibility of a solution to their problems (not the details, just that a solution is possible).  One way to achieve this is, after you have a clear understanding of their situation, is to comment “We’ve been able to help others in situations that were very similar to yours…”  This places them into a group where they perceive they are not alone…  [Some sales methodologies, e.g., Solution Selling and CustomerCentric Selling, call this generating “hope and curiosity” – great phrase!).

It is interesting how the humans hold onto both ideas – of being unique and part of a group – simultaneously.  Humans are really fascinating…!

Doing Discovery “Beyond the Fence” – Other Important Questions to Ask

Imagine you are doing a major remodel of your house and you are in a discussion with the architect about new house design – what should you consider?

There are two sets of items: “inside the fence” and “beyond the fence”.  Most people focus their attention on the “inside the fence” items, such as the new layout, fixtures, trim, appliances, paint color, etc.

This thought process is similar to what many sales teams address when doing Discovery with their customers – the sales team focuses on the items that are closely related to the features and functions of their software – existing vs. desired workflow, pain points in the current process, missing capabilities, etc.  That’s good, but we can do better…!

A great architect asks questions about the remodel customer’s “beyond the fence” items:  E.g., neighborhood and general look of the neighborhood, weather, prevailing wind and storm conditions, local traffic and typical flow, noise sources, sun arc and hours, streetlights, schools, crime, specific neighbors (and their pets/livestock), etc.  A great sales team similarly asks questions that go “beyond the fence” from typical product-specific thinking with doing Discovery.

What are example questions you might ask “beyond the fence” for your offerings?  (You might consider adding these to any existing "Discovery Documents" you already use...)

[Warning: Shameless Self-Promotion Alert] Upcoming Great Demo! Public Workshop March 6-7

Our next Great Demo! Public Workshop is scheduled for March 6-7 in San Jose, California – Registration information can be found here (http://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2012/11/02/great-demo-workshop-march-6-2013/).

This is a 1.5-Day Workshop, with the first day focusing largely on core Great Demo! material, and the morning of the second day addressing more advanced topics and techniques.  This is an excellent opportunity for individuals, small groups or for teams that have new hires.

Contact me for more information or to reserve seats (PCohan@SecondDerivative.com).

UPDATES:  Here are two brief testimonials from recent Workshop participants:  http://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2013/02/18/chris-kane-great-demos-impact-on-the-vendorrisk-sales-presentation/

http://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2013/02/19/ilya-semin-of-datanyze-on-value-of-great-demo-workshop/ 

Mixed Face-to-Face and Remote Demos – 3 Good Practices

What should you do when find yourself in a demo where part of the audience is face-to-face with you in a conference room and a number of additional participants are connecting remotely (e.g., via WebEx or GoToMeeting)?  In addition to the ideas already published in my Remote Demos articles and blog tips, here are three more “best” practices to consider:

First, operate as if everyone is remote.  That way, you are using your mouse and various annotation tools to draw attention to elements of your software on both the projector screen in the face-to-face room and the remote participants’ screens as well.  Clearly, any physical pointing you do using your hands (or stick or laser pointers) can only be seen by those who are face-to-face. 

However, there is an additional twist:  you also need to be the “Active Conduit” of information, communicating what is going on in the face-to-face room out to those who are remote.  For example, if there is a side-bar conversation, you need to let the remote participants know and give them updates and the outcome, as appropriate, when that side conversation completes.  Similarly, if someone asks a question in the face-to-face room, you may need to repeat it for the remote participants. 

Along similar lines, you also need to continue to drive interactivity with your remote participants, using the annotation tools, asking questions of them, checking latency with them, etc., to keep them engaged.  There is a tendency for presenters to forget about those who are connecting remotely and simply focus on those who are face-to-face…!

[Send me an email at PCohan@SecondDerivative.com if you’d like copies of the articles I mentioned]

Recording Web Demos - An Elegant Approach

I often recommend that sales and presales teams record their web-delivered demos (e.g., via WebEx and GoToMeeting) so that they can watch/listen to the recordings and improve their practices (pace, tone, mousing, word-choice, use of annotation tools, hearing customer questions accurately, etc.).  It can sometimes be a bit uncomfortable to ask the customer if it is OK to record the session, however. 

One delightful approach is to ask the customer if it is acceptable to record the demo “so that you can replay it for yourselves, if desired, or share with colleagues”.  Wonderful!

“Demo Days” Are Becoming More Important

A common complaint amongst presales folks is that they rarely get a chance to see one another’s demos.  Individuals form habits and fall into ruts (“we are victims of momentum”), repeating demos over and over (sometimes numbingly!) with very few opportunities to improve.

Presales teams are equipping and operating out of more home offices, struggling to learn more products and technologies, dealing with an ever-increasing pace of business, and gathering at fewer face-to-face meetings (e.g., sales kick-off meetings and quarterly inquisition events, with agendas already overstuffed) – and the challenge is only getting tougher.

Carving out time for “Demo Days” accordingly becomes very much more important.  In the past, Demo Days were often face-to-face sessions where individual presales team members would share particularly successful demos, tips, best practices and introduce new products, but they often consumed ½ day or longer to make them useful, since teams didn’t get together very often. 

Now teams can accomplish the same objectives via the web using WebEx, GoToMeeting and similar tools – and by scheduling shorter, more regular sessions, teams can share ideas more rapidly and substantially improve their performance overall. 

Based on what I’ve seen with Great Demo! Workshop participants, a recommended best practice is to schedule “Demo Days” at least once per month (hmmm – perhaps we should call these new sessions “Demo Hours”).  Optimally, everyone on a team of 12 people would have a chance to present a demo about every 6 months (plan on ~2 demos per 1 hour session); everyone on the team would accordingly see 22 demos from their colleagues each year.  That’s a lot of learning…

Think about it – what you might learn from a colleague could result in closing business that might otherwise be lost…!

For teams already executing “Demo Days” or “Demo Hours”, what is your frequency, how long for each session, and how many team member typically present a demo?

Selective Attention – the Importance of Precise Pointing in Demos

Absolutely fascinating…  Take a look at this jpg (a series of three images:  paste the link in your browser and read the introduction on the first image – you can click to zoom in):  http://i.imgur.com/zCjFj94.jpg

In Great Demo! Workshops I teach participants to use a pointer (fingers/hand, stick/telescoping pointers, mouse, etc.) to direct audience attention specifically to what you want the audience to see – and pay attention to.  The question often arises, “…but won’t they look at all the other stuff on the screen, in addition to what I’m pointing to?”

Clearly, not typically!  (Apparently, only a very small fraction of people who saw this jpg noticed the unusual attributes the first time through…)

This image is courtesy of a recent Great Demo! Workshop participant who was kind enough to share it (thanks!).

Great Quote

“Never take demo advice from people who don’t have quotas…”

– from a recent Great Demo! Workshop principal.

[Warning: Shameless Self-Promotion Alert] 2013 Great Demo! Public Workshops

For 2013, we have scheduled three Great Demo! Public Workshops, as follows:

-          March 6-7 – Registration information can be found here

-          May 22-23 – Registration information can be found here

-          October 9-10 – Registration information can be found here

These are all 1.5-Day Workshops, with the first day focusing largely on core Great Demo! material, and the morning of the second day addressing more advanced topics and techniques.

Public Workshops take place in San Jose, California, in conjunction with the folks at SKMurphy.  This is an excellent opportunity for individuals, small groups or for teams that have new hires.

We’ve found that these events are most productive when there are two or more participants from each organization (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.

Contact me for more information or to reserve seats (PCohan@SecondDerivative.com).

Discovery Questions – Vision of the Solution Ongoing

Discovery questions can and should not only include discussion of the desired solution as visualized for initial deployment, but might also explore looking further out in time.  Discussion might include:

-          Early “wins” and how best to achieve them (which also relieve the pressure on the buyer to have justified his/her purchase – very important!)

-          Ongoing development/maintenance/support – including product roadmaps

-          Involvement in user’s groups (and possible presentations of completed applications and achievements)

-          Further deployment, expansion or development of additional applications, etc.

-          A view as to the state of things 3-5 years out – what is the long-term vision the customer has in mind

Interestingly, in some cases a very strong vision of the customer’s future state several years out may be one of the strongest driving forces in the sales process (particularly for some industries and more so, most typically, in Europe than in the U.S.)…!

Demos – And Grocery Lists

I am constantly amazed at how vendors, in their demos, expect audiences to retain and remember the (often) enormous number of features and functions presented – particularly when human brains are rather poor at remembering undifferentiated lists of information.  For example:  Have you ever had the following happen to you?

You drive to the grocery/supermarket with a mental list of 5 items in your head.  Everything is fine until the moment you step through the door into the store, when you suddenly can’t recall 2 (or more) of the items on your mental list.  You can remember the first item or two, and perhaps the last one, but – darn it! – what were those other items?  Being presented with the hundreds of items (and advertising) seems to have knocked those middle items off of your mental list – and you often don’t recall what they were until you exit the store…

What can we do to combat this when WE are presenting demos?  Here’s a short list (additions welcome):

-          Do the Last Thing First

-          Organize your content in “chunks”

-          Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you just told them…

-          Repeat (adults learn by repetition; adults learn by repetition; adults learn by repetition…)

-          Summarize (an elegant way of repeating)

-          Find ways to make your delivery more interesting and remarkable (see my articles “What Makes a Demo Truly Remarkable” and “We Are Programmed To Forget” on my website – or email me for copies at PCohan@SecondDerivative.com)

-          Other ideas?