What’s the Fastest Way to Infuriate a Prospect Executive?

 

Be LATE for a meeting that YOU scheduled with them!

 

Remember: 

  Being early is on time;

  Being on time is late;

  And being late is inexcusable!

Precision vs Accuracy in Demos

What’s the difference between precision and accuracy – and how does this relate to demos?

 

“Accuracy is how close a given set of measurements are to their true value, while precision is how close the measurements are to each other.” (From Wikipedia)

 

In other words, being precise is the ability to hit the same area over and over, being accurate is the ability to focus on the specific target. Both are required, however, to be effective!

 

You could be wonderfully precise, but way off target; similarly, you could be accurate, but your spread could be disastrously large.

 

In the world of demos, we need to be both precise and accurate!

 

Accuracy maps to understanding and targeting the Specific Capabilities desired by our prospects; precision is the ability to address only those Specific Capabilities and address them effectively.

 

Sadly, traditional demos can be both inaccurate and imprecise. At worst, they are like shooting at a target while blindfolded – good luck with that! At best, they are precise but inaccurate, such as when the same overview demo pathway is followed repeatedly.

 

This analogy also tells us why traditional overview demos are so ineffective. It is like having the ability to throw a tightly repeatable pattern of darts at any random surface (walls, floor, furniture, whatever…), while hoping to achieve a high score. The pattern of darts is always the same, but they end up far from the target!

 

Doing Discovery identifies the targets; Great Demo! enables accurate and precise demos to take place! You can find both books on Amazon.

Unique?

Every person believes that they are unique and, of course, they are. Similarly, prospect organizations also see themselves as unique. This offers a key opportunity when doing discovery!

 

Gaining an understanding of your prospects’ perceived uniqueness provides tremendous insights into your prospects’ culture: How do they see themselves?

 

Cultural attributes can range from vigorous to conformist, questioning to dronelike acceptance, inventive to stuck-in-the-mud. A few examples I’ve heard include:

 

“We’re a start-up…”

“We’re a 9-year-old start-up…”

“We’re a small, but agile division in a large, otherwise stodgy company…!”

“We are slow and conservative…”

“We have a culture of being challenging and questioning, but in a good way…”

 

Hearing how your prospects see themselves and their perceived uniqueness can tell you a lot about their likelihood of purchasing right away vs next quarter, next year, or never!

 

Here’s more on learning about organizational uniqueness and how to uncover it! (See page 104 in the “Culture” section of Doing Discovery).

Demos, Discovery, and AI: Fireside Chat Recording

  

Great weekend listening: We unpacked a lot in this 47-minute conversation!

 

Minutes:Seconds

00:30 Welcome and background

02:15 How and why Fahad founded PuppyDog.io – the fundamental challenge

03:40 Great Demo! origin story – real-life with a twist!

07:00 A great doctor analogy…

08:00 How do you construct a great demo?

09:15 Five key pieces of discovery information

11:30 Begin with the end in mind: Do the Last Thing First!

12:20 Peel back the layers

13:30 How has discovery changed over the years

15:45 The importance of perceived uniqueness

16:45 Traditional overview demos – and an analogy

18:30 Personas – and an AI breakthrough

20:45 Getting the right data – and AI training sets

24:30 Lessons learned from Gartner: reduced windows for technology advantages

25:45 Can humans keep up with the pace of change?

29:45 Storytelling: making ideas memorable!

36:00 Automated demo tech over time

38:15 Lessons learned from reviewing hundreds of automated demos – nine key elements

41:15 Can AI enable demos to adapt to changing tech and prospect situations?

43:30 Contact info – and an offer!

 

Enjoy – and let me know if you have a demo you’d like me to review! PCohan@GreatDemo.com 

 

Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwXSjWhjfi4 

Is Di an Element?

Yes! Doing discovery is the single most important element of software sales and buyer enablement processes! 

And here’s where you’ll find why, what, and how, including:

 

-       The Discovery Space

-       Discovery Documents

-       Perspective

-       Wants and Needs

-       Probes

-       Expansion Questions

-       Why? Questions

-       Biased Questions

-       Diagnostic versus Biased Questions

-       Empathy and Quid Pro Quo

-       Outflanking Competition

-       Vision Reengineering

-       The Reverse Demo

-       Trust and Credibility

-       Avoiding “No Decision”

Doing Discovery with Your Prospects’ Executives

“Get to the point…!”

 – Nearly Every Executive Exasperated by Traditional Salespeople

 

What’s in This Article for You?

 

-       A Real-life Story

-       Another Real-life Story

-       Who Is an Executive?

-       Discovery with Executives

-       Two More Tips

 

A Real-life Story

 

A few years ago, I was contacted by an executive who was a previous customer and who had recently taken a leadership position at a new company. Our conversation lasted only twenty minutes, but covered the following…

 

Read the balance of this article here!

Automated Demos Leveraging AI: Webinar Tomorrow

I’ll be joining the fine folks at PuppyDog.io for this exploration of proven practices and cutting-edge technology: Wednesday November 13 at 9:00 AM Pacific Time.

 

“Join us for an exclusive fireside chat with Peter Cohan, author of Great Demo! and Doing Discovery.

In this session, Peter will reveal what makes a product demo truly compelling by exploring the impact of context-based demos that address each buyer's unique needs and challenges.

Also discover how AI-driven personalization can elevate demos, crafting experiences that resonate deeply with buyers and drive engagement.

Don’t miss this chance to gain actionable strategies for creating demos that captivate and convert. Register now to secure your spot!”

The Five Most Used Words by Vendors Today Are…

“Can you see my screen?”

 

While using these five words isn’t necessarily bad, it’s boring and unremarkable. Are there any intriguing alternatives? Yes!

 

For example, after you start screen sharing move your mouse to the upper-left corner of your screen and ask, “Can you see my mouse in the upper-left corner?” After an affirmative response from your audience, do the same with the bottom-right corner and again get audience confirmation.

 

This approach provides two advantages:

 

1.     You are confirming that your audience actually can see your full screen and

2.     You are driving interactivity right from the beginning of the session!

 

Give it a try!

You'll find many more tips and practical practices for online demos in Chapter 13 "Virtual Demonstrations" in Great Demo!

Creating Demos That Sell: Leveraging AI to Win Over Customers

 

I’ll be joining the fine folks at PuppyDog.io for this exploration of proven practices and cutting-edge technology: Wednesday November 13 at 9:00 AM Pacific Time. 

 

“Join us for an exclusive fireside chat with Peter Cohan, author of Great Demo! and Doing Discovery.

In this session, Peter will reveal what makes a product demo truly compelling by exploring the impact of context-based demos that address each buyer's unique needs and challenges.

Also discover how AI-driven personalization can elevate demos, crafting experiences that resonate deeply with buyers and drive engagement.

Don’t miss this chance to gain actionable strategies for creating demos that captivate and convert. Register now to secure your spot!”

What Can Demos Learn from Music?

 

Listen to one of your favorite songs… What do you hear? 

 

Loud sections vary with soft passages, swelling and diminishing, cymbal crashes and silence… Scooping vocals and runs that end with subtle vibrato…

 

It’s amazingly stimulating, and it keeps us engaged, often deeply!

 

Musicians use methods to engage audiences that we can also apply in our demos to drive similar engagement.

 

Dynamics, for example, are the louds and softs of music, and you can draw people in by alternating them. Speaking normally followed by a dramatic decrease in volume literally causes an audience to lean forward and listen more closely. This is particularly useful when you want to communicate an important point.

 

The Power of the Pause: In music, a moment with no sound can be extremely dramatic. When you describe a key screen or idea, pause to give your audience time to absorb the concept, think about it, and provide a comfortable gap for questions or comments. There is no requirement to fill “dead air!”

 

The use of alliteration and careful word selection impacts your audience’s attention. Hard consonants and sibilants are percussion to the melody of your sentences.

 

Explore this for yourself! Listen to some of your favorite music and note the dynamics, pauses, crescendos, fermatas, and other hooks designed to engage and stimulate you. (For extra credit, identify the movement of Tchaikovsky’s fifth symphony that has that fabulous ringing pause!)

 

Musicians listen carefully and respond to one another in nearly all types of music, just as we should do in demos with our prospects. They also engage in musical conversations in many genres, ranging from “call and response” (e.g., Ray Charles’ “What’d I Say”) to the rich dialogs found in jazz, blues, rock, bluegrass, baroque, classical, romantic, modern, and contemporary music.

 

Take a note from music and apply these ideas in your demos!

 

For more tips and practical practices, grab a copy of Great Demo! (even better, listen to the Audiobook version!).

Make EVERY customer a reference customer!

Make EVERY customer a reference customer!

“No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot.”

Doing Discovery Tip: Relationship Building

One of our objectives in discovery is to build trust with our prospects. A simple and effective method is to find common ground – something that is a combination of being relatively unique yet shared.

 

A small example: During a Zoom call with a prospect I noted a beautiful black and white photo on the wall behind the prospect and commented on it. The prospect smiled and said it was one of his favorite photos, an Ansel Adams reprint (Moonrise Over Hernandez). A brief discussion yielded information that both of us had done black and white printing previously and both used Adam’s Zone System. This wonderful connection of shared interests enabled a richer discovery conversation to take place going forward.

 

It seems that many (most?) humans seek to find common ground in our interactions, and I wonder if it is ingrained in our nature. In any case, when you do find common ground, you suddenly share something delightfully meaningful. A connection has been established!

 

You’ll find many more discovery tips here!

Uncovering “pain” is NOT ENOUGH!

45% of all SaaS sales opportunities end as “No Decision” outcomes. That’s nearly HALF of the opportunities you pursue! Would you like some of that time BACK in your lives?

 

Do Discovery well BEYOND “pain” – here’s how!

Storytelling Umami!

What makes a good story great?

 

Your story might include the key storytelling elements and yet still not be compelling. Why? It lacks storytelling umami!

 

The way your story is told can have enormous impact on its reception and retention. Your word choices and delivery can make all the difference.

 

When we taste food, we encounter salt, sweet, sour, and bitter. But the fifth taste sense, umami, provides us with a richer experience, often described as savory, complex, “yum” or “om nom nom…!”

 

In storytelling, the same principle applies and makes the difference between “adequate” and “exceptional.”

 

Storytelling umami include your word choices and delivery: such tasty items as pitch, tone, speed, dynamics, pauses and other timing factors, your facial expressions, your posture, gestures and other movements, and props and visual aids. Simply raising an eyebrow or offering a wry smile can have surprising impact, for example.

 

Add a dash of storytelling umami to make your stories truly delicious!

 

Learn more about storytelling and demos in Great Demo! Chapter 11 “Storytelling” starting on page 332.

Forgotten vs Verbatim: A Storytelling Superpower!

 

Describe a key capability to a prospect as a “fact” or feature and it is often quickly forgotten.

 

Use a compelling analogy or metaphor and that capability will be remembered, and it can be recommunicated successfully.

 

However, when you wrap a good story around the capability, not only will retention be high, but your prospect will communicate that story to others with very high accuracy, often nearly verbatim!

 

What makes a story a good story? 

 

Chip and Dan Heath in Made to Stick identified five key elements:

 

-       Simple Message: The concept or message needs to be clear and easy to understand 

-       Real Experience: It must be believable and perceived as being true 

-       Element of Surprise: An unexpected twist, event or outcome generates interest and tension 

-       Evokes Emotion: The best stories are those that evoke an emotional response 

-       Relevant: Good stories relate directly to the subject or key point

 

A story with these five elements can take a boring idea and make it delightfully sticky!

 

Learn more about storytelling and demos in Great Demo! Chapter 11 “Storytelling” starting on page 332.