Logging In As “Admin” – Failure to Suspend Disbelief…

What are we telling our customers when we log in as “Admin”?  Given that one of our objectives in a demo is to “suspend disbelief”, an “Admin” login is telling the customer that the session won’t be real – it won’t reflect what typical users would see – and anything that is obviously fake hurts our cause.  Instead of “Admin”, I’d suggest that you choose a more user-oriented, realistic login (like your own name), whenever possible.

Difficulties in Demonstrating Toolkit and Toolbox Software

Many organizations don’t describe their offerings as complete applications, but rather as toolkits or toolboxes – and very often struggle to find effective ways to demonstrate them and communicate value.  Toolkit offerings enable enormous flexibility, but may demand an ability to visualize what end deliverables might resonate with specific customers.

Consider the following toolkit list of components:

·         - The intelligent NXT features 32-bit microprocessor, a large matrix display, 4 input and 3 output ports, and Bluetooth and USB communication link

·         - Three interactive servo motors

·         - Four sensors: Ultrasonic Sensor, 2 Touch Sensors and the all-new Color Sensor

·         - Color Sensor has triple functionality: distinguishes colors and light settings, and functions as a lamp

·         - Easy-to-use software (PC and Mac) with icon-based drag-and-drop programming and 16 fun building and programming challenges

·         - All the elements (612 pieces) you need

·         - Personalize with the Sound and Icon editors

·         - Share your project files with your friends with the Pack-N-Go project packager

·         - Batteries not included

What could you build with this?  What solutions does this enable – what problems does it address?  Pretty tough!

We can take a lesson from a toy company:  Lego.  These folks have taken the concept of “a pile of bricks” – a toolkit– to a wonderful array of tangible, easy-to-envision deliverables.  For example, the toolkit listed above is the components listing for Lego’s Mindstorms robots:  “The NXT generation of buildable, programmable robots is here!”

And how does Lego help their customers visualize the end result?  They use Illustrations of the (very cool) robots that the kit can build.  Check them out here:  http://shop.lego.com/ByCategory/Product.aspx?p=8547&cn=389&d=292.

These same ideas can be applied to Vision Generation demos for toolkit and toolbox software:  generate and present Illustrations of high-probability end-results that your tools can build – and present them as examples for further exploration and discussion.

"I Just Wanted To Close My Door..."

You know you are doing an excellent job in Discovery when your contact says, in response to a question from you, “Just a moment, let me go close my door…”  Clearly, he or she is about to reveal information that is sensitive – and you have earned sufficient trust for that information to be shared with you.  Delightful!

Remote Demos - Remind Your Customer to Turn Off Email / IM Alerts

I remind vendor teams to turn off their email and IM previews/notifications, both to avoid embarrassing situations and to look that much more professional – a Great Demo! Workshop participant recently noted that vendors should suggest the same to their customers. 

In other words, help your customers avoid distractions and the risk of anything confidential or personal bleeding through into a web meeting…!  (Don’t you love the horror stories, however…?)

Another Reason to Use a Discovery Document

Doing Discovery while working from a Discovery Document (a list of questions and/or topics you want to cover) enables you to relax and focus on listening to (and documenting) your customer’s answers to your questions – and frees you from trying to remember what questions to ask!

[Warning: Shameless Self-Promotion Alert] Great Demo! Public Workshop May 21-22

Our next Great Demo! Public Workshop is scheduled for May 21-22 in San Jose, California – Registration and additional information can be found at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/great-demo-workshop-on-may-21-22-2014-registration-8886783609?aff=cohan.

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).

If Everyone Says Their RFP Win Rates Are Really Bad Then...

It suddenly struck me, if everyone says that their RFP win rates are really bad, then … who’s winning all those RFPs? 

Hmmmm…  In addition to losing to competitors, is it possible that a large percent of RFPs end up as “No Decision”?  I wonder what percent of RFPs do end up as a “No Decision” result?

Either way, a few observations:

1.       What an incredible waste of resources generally expended on RFP responses that go no where (which we already knew)!

2.    Why aren’t more vendors choosing to NOT participate or at least “pull back” from RFPs where they know they are “Column Fodder” – and/or the RFPs are written with ludicrous non-real-world “use cases” that can’t be rationally addressed by ANY vendor?

3.  "Hope” must be a very powerful thing!  (In spite of enormous onslaughts of logic and measurement).

[Corollary – The old joke:  “Doctor, it hurts when I do this…!”  “Then stop doing that…”]

Remote Demos - Who Else Is In The Room?

For Remote Demos (as well as face-to-face situations) I strongly recommend that you go around the virtual room and ask three questions, at the start of any demo meeting:

1.       What is your name?

2.       What is your job title?

3.       What would you like to accomplish in our session today?

In addition, for Remote Demos, a nice touch is to also ask of each named participant on the WebEx or GoToMeeting (or other online tool) participants’ list, “Anyone else in the room with you?”  This helps to reduce the possibility that participants are undiscovered or otherwise hiding in the virtual corners of the virtual room…!

Let’s Talk About Value – Uncovering the Delta

To paraphrase Mark Twain’s comment about the weather, everyone talks about value, but very few people actually do something about it.  Clearly value is important:  Insufficient perception of value is one of the three main reasons that sales opportunities end up as a “No Decision”.

Value vs. Value

 “If you use our product, you’ll save time and money…!” offers the salesperson.  “Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah…” thinks the customer.

“When we spoke last week, I believe you said you are hoping to recover $250,000 annually as a result of addressing your problem”, says the salesperson…  “That’s right”, replies the customer, “that’s the kind of change I need to meet my objectives.”

Which approach is more compelling?

In the first case, the salesperson sounds like he is reciting from a marketing brochure and it clearly doesn’t connect with the customer (sorry, marketing folks…!).  In the second example, the salesperson had done sufficient Discovery to uncover the customer’s perception of the value – and the salesperson was simply reviewing that information to make sure it was accurate and had not changed since their last communication.

We can quickly understand three key ideas about value and value communication:

1. Specific numbers are much more compelling than word phrases

2. Customers’ numbers are much more compelling that vendor or industry numbers

3. The lack of sufficient value, as perceived by the customer, is likely to result in a “No Decision”

This last item is semi-obvious, but needs to be called out clearly:  There are typically three reasons why a sales opportunity becomes a “No Decision”:

1. The problem is not perceived by the customer as sufficiently important (not seen as a Critical Business Issue)

2. No critical date or compelling event 

3. Insufficient perception of value

Any one or more of these items that is lacking or incomplete increases the probability that the sales opportunity will be a “No Decision” result.  

Let’s explore “Insufficient perception of value” a bit further...

The Delta

Value can be easily defined as:  The difference between the way things are today vs. the way they could be or need to be with a solution in place, expressed in terms of a tangible number.”  In Great Demo! methodology, this difference is called the Delta – the tangible expression of the value of making the change, expressed in terms of specific units of time, people or money.

[While value can clearly include both tangible and intangible elements, the tangible elements of value are typically more important in a sales process.  Very simply, the customer cannot take intangible aspects of value to the bank, nor (typically) convince a CFO to invest $125K in software without a reasonable ROI analysis.]

Easy Deltas

Many Deltas are easy to uncover and communicate.  Consider the following brief portion of a conversation with a head of sales:

You ask, “So tell me, please, where are you with respect to your quota this year?”

He replies, “I’m currently at 72% of quota – $7.2 million out of $10 million – and we’ve got about 45 more days in the quarter…  I gotta find a way to get that $2.8 million gap closed!”

You smile, quietly, to yourself – the Delta is $2.8 million – a very compelling number!

Here are a few examples of easy-to-uncover Deltas:

- The difference between the project deadline and the current estimated completion date (the Delta is the number of days that the project will run over)

- The current number of leads converted vs. what was listed in the marketing VP’s quarterly goals (the Delta is the number of leads needed to meet that goal)

- Current bookings vs. quarterly quota for a regional sales director (the Delta is the revenue $$$ needed to meet quota)

The two types  of questions to ask in these cases are:

1. Where are you today?

2. Where do you need to be?

Easy Deltas!

Operational Deltas

Many operations-oriented Deltas can be uncovered during Discovery, conversationally.  For example, the customer says, “It takes us forever to complete this process today…!”

You respond, “Sorry to hear this – tell me, how many people are involved in the process today?”

“20 folks” is the reply.

“And how often does this process take place?”

“Every week”, says the customer.  

“So that’s about 50 times a year”, you comment.  “And on average, how much time does each person on the team spend each time this process is done?”

“Hmmmm – I’d say about one and a half days, on average”.

Doing the math:

20 people x 50 times per year x 1.5 days each time = 1500 person days

You offer, “So, it looks like this is currently consuming 1500 days each year of your team’s time.  What would you like it to be, or what does it need to be, to feel that you have solved the problem?” 

Customer replies, “Good question – if I could just reduce this to a half day per person, I’d be a hero to my team and I know I’d meet my objectives…”

Ah ha!  Doing the math again:

Current Situation: 20 people x 50 times per year x 1.5 days each time = 1500 person days

Desired Future 20 people x 50 times per year x 0.5 days each time =   500 person days

Subtracting 500 from 1500 you get (everyone say it together) 1000 person days – that’s the Delta.  That’s the difference between the way things are today and the desired future state with a solution in place – and the numbers came from the customer’s lips!

Two notes on this:

1. When you comment that “It is currently consuming 1500 days each year…” many customers will say, “Wow, I had no idea the problem was that big!”  What a great way to help move a customer’s perception of problem from simply a Business Issue to realize that it is, in fact, a Critical Business Issue!

2. Customer says, “if I could reduce this to a half day per person…” you may know that your solution could complete the task in 10 minutes – but whose numbers are they?  Give yourself the ability to set expectations reasonably and the opportunity to truly delight the customer when they realize (later on) that 10 minutes is all that is needed.

And a moral, coming in the next section…

When to Explore the Delta?

When many sales teams hear a customer admit “pain” in a Discovery conversation, the sales people think, “Ah ha – we have uncovered the problem, so now we can present a solution…!”  Truly great sales teams hold back at this point and, instead of offering a solution, ask a few more questions.  When you hear any of the following phrases from your customer, consider each as an opportunity to explore the Deltas:

“It takes us forever to get this done today…!”  

   [How many people, how often, how long?  What would you like it to be?]

“We have too many people focused on this…”  

   [How many people, how often, how long?  What would you like it to be?]

“We have considerable project overruns…” 

   [How many projects, how much overrun?  What does it need to be?]

“I can’t get this done with the current staff.”  

   [How many staff today, how many extra are needed?]

“We do far too many unsuccessful demos…”  

   [How many people, how many demos, how long…]

The moral?

Any time you hear the customer admit “pain” it represents an opportunity to explore and uncover one or more Deltas for that pain.  Don’t let those opportunities escape!

Translating Value to Value

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

- High Level (e.g., C-level, SVP, VP):  these people are typically most interested in gaining or saving Money.  (Which is why a CFO needs to see an ROI analysis before she will agree to move forward with the purchase of $125K of software – intangibles are rarely applicable.)

- Middle Level (Sr. Directors, Directors and Middle Managers):  while arguable, these folks are typically concerned with People resources.  For example, most middle managers at budget time will say, “I need more people…!” 

- Low Level (e.g., staff and individual contributors):  “I just want to go home on time…!”  Here the team’s concern is Time – a few hours saved so that they can focus on other, unaddressed tasks, for example.

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

For example, we uncovered the following information in Discovery:  Solving the problem will save 20 people 2 hours per person, per week – and the fully burdened cost of each employee is $150K.  If we translate for each of the above players, we would communicate:

- High Level:  $$ saved or gained annually [20 people x ¼ Day x 50 weeks per year x 150K / ~250 working days per year] = $150K annual savings

- Middle Level:  # of People redeployed [20 people x ¼ Day x 50 weeks per year / ~250 working days per year] = 1 FTE that can be redeployed to other, more productive tasks

- Low Level:  Time saved = ¼ Day each time the workflow is executed

Who’s Numbers?

Let’s go back to our starting point in this article:

“If you use our product, you’ll save $250,000 a year…” says the vendor to the customer – and the customer looks skeptical, but doesn’t say anything.  Ever see this happen in a demo meeting?  Very simply, vendors’ numbers are the least believable, in the mind of the customer.  

So who’s numbers are most believable?  The customer’s numbers, of course.  That’s why it is so important to stay in “you” mode when reviewing Discovery information with a customer at the beginning of a demo:

“I believe you said you are looking to save $250,000 a year – is that still correct?”  Much stronger!

What if you were unable to get specific numbers from your customer – who’s numbers are next best?  Other, similar customers – organizations that are perceived as peers to your target customer.  Their numbers are next best and can be very compelling, particularly for Vision Generation demos or during Discovery conversations:

“Other customers that we’ve worked with, who are very similar to what you’ve outlined to us so far, reported that they were able to save $100,000, $200,000 and sometimes as much $300,000 each year…”

Who’s numbers are next on the list, lower down?  Industry and analyst numbers – Gartner, for example.  The value of these numbers is pretty low, however, since they represent broad swaths of customer types, sizes, and geographies.  Not particularly compelling for an individual customer.

And who is at the bottom of the list?  (Let’s all say it together) The vendor’s numbers.  These are, without question, the least believable by customers:

“We calculate you’ll save $250,000 each year…”  The result?  Disbelief and skeptical looks.  

[Corollary:  Customers that present their own Situation Slides that include their own numbers are the most compelling of all!]

Note also that vendor-generated “ROI Calculators” and “Value Calculators” suffer a similar fate.  Even though the customer may plug in his own numbers, the calculations have been done by the vendor, which makes the results suspect!

Value Realization

Have you ever made a major software purchase (that required senior management or board-level approval)?  What happened the moment you issued that purchase order – and when was that pressure finally released? 

That pressure is finally lifted when the person who made the purchase enjoys a value realization event – some kind of small victory where value is recognized – which can be broadcast through the organization to validate that the purchase was indeed worthwhile (and worth value).  Note that this is not the point in time where the full ROI of the solution is enjoyed – it is simply one small success.  

Consider the following:

- Typical sales people pursue the process through getting the order.

- Good sales teams follow it through the implementation and the “Go Live” date.

- Truly great sales teams track the process all the way through the point in time where the buyer is able to “declare victory” – the point in time where value is realized.   

Building this “Transition Vision” with the customer of how the customer will move from their current painful situation through “Go Live” all the way to a Value Realization event is part of doing Discovery – and the vendor that does this well enjoys a distinct competitive advantage over vendors that do not! 

That suggests a few additional Discovery questions, such as:

“How will you measure success?”

“How will you measure an initial success?”  [This is better phrasing for a “small victory”]

“What key milestone or change are you looking for after deployment?”

(By the way, the point in time where initial value is realized for the customer is also the point in time when the customer becomes a reference – and the astute reader recognizes that vendors should go back to their customers at the point of value realization and collect this information…!)

Back To Twain

So everyone talks about value, but very few people actually do something about it.  You and your organization can join the few who uncover tangible expressions of value – right from your customers’ lips – and reduce your “No Decision” numbers…!

ZoomIt – Annotations When Using Lync (and other tools) for Remote Demos

While I generally recommend WebEx and GoToMeeting for Remote Demos, largely due to their imbedded annotations capabilities, there is now a viable option for Lync and other packages that lack annotation capabilities (the ability to draw over the live application that is being demonstrated):  ZoomIt provides some of these tools, plus the ability to zoom to focus on a specific area of the screen.

I’ve seen it in action and the annotation tools are reasonably good, although not as rich as in WebEx or GoToMeeting; zooming can also be helpful, but be careful not to execute a zoom too fast (or you will have people reaching from the Dramamine!).

You can find ZoomIt here:  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897434.aspx and it is free to use.

Frightening Statistics on Doing Discovery

I’ve done some informal interviews with heads of sales and presales recently and uncovered the following, rather consistent statements:

- Heads of sales and presales tell me that about 10% of their teams actually do Discovery very well.  [Group 1]

- About 70% of their teams think they do Discovery well, but actually do not (in the eyes of their senior managers).  [Group 2]

- The remaining 20% of their teams do realize that they don’t do Discovery well.  [Group 3]

Interesting, and rather frightening gap that deserves additional thought – and action to address…!  Looking at these three groups again:

- Group 1:  These people are either consciously or unconsciously competent.  Their knowledge and process steps need to be captured and taught to the balance of the team.

- Group 2:  These people are unconsciously incompetent.  This is extremely dangerous – they don’t know that they aren’t doing a good job.  As a result, they don’t realize what they lack and aren’t willing to take time to learn.

- Group 3:  These people are consciously incompetent.  They recognize that they lack certain skills and knowledge and are (typically) interested or willing to learn.

A couple of ideas to close the gap:

1. Gather your best sales and presales people together (the Group 1 folks) for ½ a day and have them generate Discovery documents and the key process steps that they follow.  Distribute to the balance of the field.  Train managers and mentors to coach Discovery role-play sessions for their team members (first making sure that the managers and mentors can use the Discovery documents and execute the process steps well before they work with their teams!).

2. Hire a 3rd party to facilitate and teach the above (hint hint).

Sunday Funnies – Sadly Amusing Video of a Conference Call…

http://twentytwowords.com/what-if-the-annoyances-of-conference-calls-happened-in-real-life-meetings-painfully-accurateand-hilarious/

Enjoy!

Presales Anxiety – Not Knowing All of the Answers…

Many presales people share concerns about being sufficiently deep with respect to product knowledge (and industry knowledge, and customer knowledge, and competitor knowledge, and 3^rd party knowledge, and systems knowledge, and VM’s and laptops and tablets and smart-phones and on and on…).  A reasonable concern!

Here’s a rescue:

You are not expected to know the answers to every question in the universe (the answer to the question about life, the universe and everything is, of course, 42…).

Your objective is to know the answers to just enough questions to be perceived as competent and credible.  Your responsibility – and the expectation on the part of the customer – is to be the conduit of answers (of questions that you don’t know how to answer) back to your customers, later on.  Post meeting, your job is to access the appropriate resources to get those answers and then deliver the answers back to your customers.

The use of “Parking Lots” in managing questions is an excellent approach in managing and tracking questions (and answers).  Many Great Demo! practitioners use a Word document to capture questions – and then use strike-through text to show questions that have been adequately addressed in a session, leaving the unanswered questions in normal text.  This provides a written record of what was addressed in a demo meeting or Discover session and what remains open.  Very elegant!

Land and Expand Great Demo! Tactics

Here are a number of Great Demo! tactics that folks have reported have been working particularly well for teams doing “Land and Expand”:

-          Transition Vision and tracking through Value Realization:

Customers will only expand their licenses once their original license has been successful, in their eyes.  This is certainly not the date the order is placed (although many sales teams are only concerned with this)!  Interestingly, deployment into production use is also not the key event on this timeline, although very important.  Rather, it is the date when the customer is able to declare a victory (can be a small victory) with some kind of Value Realization event. 

Successful Land and Expand practitioners work with their customers in Discovery to determine what and when define a Value Realization event – and then track progress all the way through that date.  It is at that point in time that, if successful, the customer becomes willing and able to help expand the licensing more broadly.

-          Asking, “Who else might find this useful?” in Discovery and related pre-expansion questions:

A number of Land and Expand teams have reported that they include expand-oriented questions in their initial Discovery conversations with customers.  Examples include:

“Who else might find this useful?”

“Which other groups have similar challenges?”

“Who else is impacted by your current problem?”

-          Applying the Menu Approach:

Finally, a large number of Land and Expand practitioners are singing the praises of the Menu Approach – it is proving a terrific way to do vision expansion both at the Land and Expand stages:

o   Using the Menu Approach in Discovery to give the customer ideas of where else the tool(s) can be applied

o   In Lunch-and-Learn sessions

o   In Webinars (and before webinars, in the invitation emails)

o   At customer-specific “trade-shows” (very similar to lunch and learn, but less structured)

o   At EBC presentations (Executive Briefing Center) – a very good tactic for working with executives, who may simply want a high-level understanding of what is possible

In addition, combining the Menu with accompanying Illustrations for each Menu item is proving very effective at accomplishing crisp, engaging Vision Generation.

Any other ideas to suggest?

Implementing Methodology Training – How to Move the 40%

In most organizations, participants of any methodology or skills training tend to cluster into three groups:

-          Group A:  Those who “Get It” – they understand the new concepts and are eager, comfortable and confident to put the new ideas into practice right away.

-          Group B:  Those who understand the new ideas – but aren’t yet entirely comfortable to apply things right away.  They want to see success with their peers before they try on their own.

-          Group F:  Those who say something like, “I’ve been selling/doing demos for 20 years and you can’t tell me how to sell/demo…!”

For many methodology training outcomes, Group A represents about 30% of the total, Group B 40%, and Group F the remaining 30%.  What can be done to improve adoption?

Group A – simply needs to feel good about what they are doing.  They need positive feedback on the changes they’ve made and obstacles removed that might impede their progress.

Group F – well, voluntary or involuntary attrition will take care of them…!

Group B – here’s the biggest opportunity!  They need to see success stories from their peers as one mechanism, so that they are more comfortable to try out the new ideas.  They also need to gently (but firmly!) be pushed to adopt the new habits.  Periodic manager coaching helps with this – but what if there were a way to enable coaching and guidance to take place with every important interaction?

I’m very pleased to note that FactorLab offers a really elegant solution called GROW (www.FactorLab.com – “Making Success a Habit” – what a great line!).  After each interaction (or demo, in the case of Great Demo!), team members simply tap answers to a few quick coaching questions in an App.  While subtle, these actions help to reinforce the key ideas of a methodology and build desired habits.

For example, in the case of Great Demo!, the GROW App asks if the Situation Slide was complete (really key, correct?), did the demo start with the Illustration, and a few other important ideas. 

Participants can use the App to coach themselves and/or ask for help from their managers – what a delight!  Check it out at www.FactorLab.com. 

[Note:  in the case of Great Demo! Workshops, customers report that Group A is often larger than expected – and Group F can be very small!].

[Warning: Shameless Self-Promotion Alert] Great Demo! Public Workshop March 5-6

The March 5-6 Great Demo! Public Workshop is now full – our next Public Workshop will take place May 21-22.  You can learn more about it here or contact me directly (PCohan@SecondDerivative.com).

Skills Training and Managers - The Good, the Bad, and the Truly Ugly

See if this sounds familiar:  a manager organizes skills training for his/her team and, on the day of the training, the manager kicks things off and then disappears.  Assuming that the manager has not had this particular skills training, what’s wrong with this picture? 

It is unlikely that this manager will be able to coach or provide guidance to his/her team on the specific skills, reducing that manager’s ability to achieve one of his/her biggest goals – to grow and develop the team.  We can, accordingly, categorize managers into three groups:

The Good:  Those who actively participate in skills training (and are therefore enabled to coach their teams).

The Bad:  Those who attend skills training, but who spend 90% of the time reading and writing emails, often with noisy, “clacky” keyboards (and are, by doing so, unconsciously telling their teams that the skills being learned are not sufficiently important for the team’s attention, either).

The Truly Ugly:  Those who don’t attend at all (and are therefore unable to coach or support their teams).

The moral?  Managers should embrace skills training with the same commitment and “presence” that they expect from their teams…

(There is, of course, a “Great” category for managers as well:  those who attend the training, pay rapt attention, support and reinforce the ideas during the training, and then take steps to learn how to coach their team…!)

Transition Vision and Value Realization

Have you ever made a major software purchase?  What happened the moment you issued that purchase order – and when was that pressure finally released? 

-          Typical sales people pursue the process through getting the order.

-          Good sales teams follow it through the implementation and the “Go Live” date.

-          Truly great sales teams track the process all the way through the point in time where the buyer is able to “declare victory” – the point in time where value is realized.   

Building this “Transition Vision” with the customer of how the customer will move from their current painful situation through “Go Live” all the way to a Value Realization event is part of doing Discovery – and the vendor that does this well enjoys a competitive advantage over vendors that do not! 

(By the way, the point in time where value is realized for the customer is also the point in time when the customer becomes a reference…)

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 recently:

-          Stunningly Awful Demo Outcomes – Why Objections Shouldn't Need To Be Overcome

-          Stunningly Awful Competitive Differentiation – What, When, and How

-          Surprisingly Delectable Demos – Delightful Dining Analogies

-          Stunningly Awful Demos - Two Words to Avoid

-          Stunningly Awful Demos - The Gruesome Anatomy of a 1-Hour Web Overview Demo

-          Stunningly Awful Demos - Insufficient Discovery

 

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

‘Twas the Night Before The Big Demo

‘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!”

[Warning: Shameless Self-Promotion Alert!] Great Demo! Public Workshops – 2014 Schedule

We are offering three Great Demo! Public Workshops in 2014, as follows:

-          March 5-6 – Registration and additional information can be found at http://skmcohan140305-cohan.eventbrite.com

-          May 21-22 – Registration and additional information can be found at http://skmcohan140521-cohan.eventbrite.com

-          October 15-16 – Registration and additional information can be found at http://skmcohan141015-cohan.eventbrite.com

These are 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.  They are excellent opportunities for individuals, small groups or for teams that have new hires.

We’ve found that these sessions 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.