Demonstration Skills Level 6: Manages and Explores Prospect Questions

 

“Any questions so far?” “Nope, we’re good…”

 

There are three parts to this level:

 

1.     Assessing and managing the flow of questions.

2.     Exploring the intent behind prospect questions.

3.     Encouraging an actual conversation to take place!

 

Let’s start with number 3!

 

Vendor reps operating at skills Levels 1-5 all suffer from a high risk of vendor monologues. These reps are eager to pack as much info into their demos as time allows, which reduces or eliminates the possibility of prospect questions or feedback.

 

A classic indicator of monologue delivery is the following frequently repeated exchange:

 

“Any questions so far?”

 

“Nope, we’re good.”

 

“Peeling Back the Layers” in Great Demo! methodology is all about encouraging a productive, bidirectional conversation to take place. Prospects that actively participate in the demo, through inquiry and commentary, are much more engaged and are much more likely to retain the key ideas presented, particularly if it was their questions that drove the discussion!

 

OK, now that we are actively encouraging questions, let’s return to how to manage the flow.

 

Achieving the number 1 above is a dynamic process of determining, “Is this something I need to answer now, or should it be deferred until later?” The use of a questions Parking Lot is an indicator of successful question management. (See Chapter 8 in the Third Edition of Great Demo! for details on this process.)

 

Far too many demos are diverted in the first few minutes by prospect questions that drag the presenter into the weeds. Innumerable prospect executives have left demo meetings early because of lengthy, detailed explanations by vendor reps thrashing further into the underbrush! 

 

I’d be an extremely rich person, monetarily, if I had a dollar for every time a vendor provided protracted paragraphs of answers to questions that only needed a crisp “Yes” response! (Please take up a collection for me.)

 

Number 2 above is exploring the why behind prospect questions. Is the question being asked in earnest vs a “I’m just curious?” Is it a “landmine” planted by a competitor? Does it represent the need for a “KO” capability vs a less important “nice to have” feature?

 

How many times have we heard a prospect ask, “Can your software do X?” and the vendor responds “Absolutely! Let me show you how this works…” or “No, but we have a workaround – here, I’ll show you…” without any reciprocal inquiry?

 

In both cases, the vendor missed an important opportunity to seek clarification. 

 

“How important is this to you?” 

“What prompted your question?” 

“What is it you need to accomplish with this kind of capability?” 

“How often would it be used?”

 

Prospect responses to these questions can make or break a demo. Skilled question management can keep you out of the weeds, enable you to identify and categorize prospect needs and wants, and address competitive threats while simultaneously encouraging the conversation.

 

The Level 6 practitioner manages and investigates prospect questions thoughtfully!  

 

Measurement(s) for Achieving Level 6:

 

A)    Achieves a Talk:Listen ratio of 50:50 or better (larger “Listen” numbers are better).

B)    Applies Parking Lot principles.

C)    Asks clarification questions.

 

Pros:

 

-       Enables a true conversation to take place.

-       Improves retention of key ideas.

-       Uncovers and clarifies prospect issues not addressed in discovery.

 

Cons:

 

-       May still be difficult to differentiate from competition.

-       May still leave money on the table.

 

Grade: B+

 

 

Want a bit more? See “The Elegant Art of Managing Questions and Time”

https://greatdemo.com/the-elegant-art-of-managing-questions-and-time/ 

And see this for more on Informal Success Stories:

https://greatdemo.com/fabulous-fuel-for-sales-presales-and-customer-success-the-incredible-utility-of-informal-success-stories/

 

For the full methodologies, see:

 

Great Demo! Third Edition:

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

 

Doing Discovery:

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

 

Demonstration Skills Level 5: Vision Generation!

Solving the “No Disco No Demo!” vs “Just Show Me a Demo!” Dilemma

 

How often are you asked to provide an overview demo to a sales qualified lead that goes nowhere? How frequently does it seem that prospects who ask for demos are just planning for the future, and have no intention of buying in the short term?

 

The ability to differentiate between prospects who are “Just Browsing” vs in an “Active Buying Process” is another major skills watershed. Those who are unable to make this determination are doomed to long sales processes that far too frequently end in No Decision outcomes (or their sales processes never end and are on the forecast forever!).

 

Prospects who are Just Browsing are doing exactly that: They just want a taste of your capabilities, not a seven-course banquet. These prospects are often in the early stages of exploration or planning for their next fiscal year. The don’t want to engage, yet, in a sales process. How do you satisfy them?

 

You deliver a Vision Generation Demo!

 

These use Informal Success Stories combined with a few key software screens, often dashboards or reports, to build a vision of what is possible in your prospects’ minds. A complete Vision Generation Demo can be executed in ten minutes or less, satisfying these prospects while avoiding the horrors of Lead Churn.

 

Prospects who are in an Active Buying Process, on the other hand, may want a Vision Generation Demo to kick off their investigation process, followed by substantive discovery and Technical Proof Demos. How do you determine your prospects’ level of interest? You ask!

 

(Chapters 4-9 in the Third Edition of Great Demo! provide the complete recipe for Technical Proof Demos and Chapter 11 details the formula for Vision Generation Demos.)

 

Measurement(s) for Achieving Level 5:

 

A)    Differentiates Just Browsing from Active Buying Process prospects.

B)    Presents Vision Generation Demos when appropriate.

C)    Bonus: Applies the Menu Approach as a lead-in for Vision Generation Demos.

 

Pros:

 

-       “Less is more” Vision Generation Demos satisfy many prospects’ desires.

-       Productively recycles many leads that would otherwise have churned.

-       Enables champions and other prospect stakeholders to sell internally.

 

Cons:

 

-       May be difficult to differentiate from competition.

-       May still be a unidirectional monologue.

-       May leave money on the table.

 

Grade: B+

 

 

See this article for more on The Menu Approach:

https://greatdemo.com/the-menu-approach-a-truly-terrific-demo-self-rescue-technique-3/

 

And see this for more on Informal Success Stories:

https://greatdemo.com/fabulous-fuel-for-sales-presales-and-customer-success-the-incredible-utility-of-informal-success-stories/

 

For the full methodologies, see:

 

Great Demo! Third Edition:

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

 

Doing Discovery:

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

Demonstration Skills Level 4: Communicates Business Value

Value! Value! Value! Value!

 

The number one complaint from presales, sales, and customer success leaders about their teams’ demos is that “they don’t communicate business value.” And in order to communicate business value, teams need to know what the value is for their prospects!

 

This is a watershed skill level. Those who fail to communicate business value will struggle with their demos; those who convey tangible value are positioned for success.

 

Most vendor demos don’t communicate value at all, leaving prospects without the ability to sell internally. Some vendors describe generic value, and a subset of these vendors go further to make it tangible. However, the real objective is to communicate the tangible value gains for each specific prospect. Let’s break these important ideas down!

 

Generic Business Value:  

 

Case 1: In the simplest case, presales, sales, and customer success teams should be able to articulate the intangible benefits of their solution. This might be phrased as, “Our software enables you to reduce the time needed to…” This is too generic and is nearly meaningless.

 

Case 2: Slightly better is to communicate the kinds of tangible gains seen across the industry, “Our customers report savings of 2-4 weeks in process time.” But will this resonate with the current prospect? Hard to say!

 

Case 3: An additional improvement is to be more specific, “Other customers who are very similar to you report process reductions of 2-3 weeks.” This will feel more relevant for the current prospect but note that the numbers are someone else’s.

 

Specific Business Value:

 

In the absence of doing discovery, vendors are limited to generic value statements. Correspondingly, discovery needs to be executed with the clear objective of uncovering meaningful, prospect-specific value elements.

 

During discovery, any time your prospect “admits pain,” your job is to quantify it. Each of these is a Delta: the difference between your prospect’s current state and their desired future state. While capturing and communicating Deltas is richly developed in both Doing Discovery and Great Demo!, here is an introduction.

 

When your prospect says, “It takes too long…” your response should be two questions:

 

1.     How long does it take today?

2.     How long should it take?

 

The difference is the Delta: A simple and direct expression of value. A few additional questions will enable you to do the math (“maths” for you in the UK, etc.) to calculate meaningful business value statements.

 

Measurement(s) for Achieving Level 4:

 

A)    Presents tangible, prospect-specific business value metrics.

 

Pros:

 

-       Often sufficient to achieve Technical Proof.

-       Enables prospects to build internal business cases.

 

Cons:

 

-       Still unsuitable for Vision Generation.

-       May still be a unidirectional monologue.

-       May be difficult to differentiate from competition.

-       May leave money on the table.

 

Grade: B

 

See this article for more on uncovering Deltas:

https://greatdemo.com/lets-talk-about-value-uncovering-the-delta-new/ 

 

For the full methodologies, see:

 

Doing Discovery:

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

 

Great Demo! Third Edition:

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

 

And this story in “Suspending Disbelief” illustrates the power of doing superior discovery:

“You Know You Already Closed Me” https://tinyurl.com/yc7rsrmy