A colleague pointed out that many people are perfectly comfortable staying exactly where they are with respect to skills and practices. They come to work, do what they are supposed to do (in their opinion) and go home. Done and done.
That’s great! Because it gets them out of the way of people who truly want to improve, to get better, to find new ways to achieve their goals. YOU, who seek ever-improvement, are my audience!
(And I’m grateful and invested in you…!)
I joined Emmanuel King Ibironke of The Intelligence Forge for this discussion of demos, discovery, and founding and developing a training and content business. The first half of this discussion focuses on founding and growing a new company; the balance introduces Great Demo! methodology:
00:00 Teaser and ad
02:00 Welcome and introduction
03:00 Have you ever seen a bad software demo?
The problem, and origins of the solution: A revelation!
08:45 Getting traction… When you are self-employed, you have a fool for a boss!
09:30 What happens when you are oversubscribed?
13:00 How were you funded?
15:30 Getting started, getting references…
17:30 What about AI?
21:00 AI, the Technology Adoption Curve, and the story of Buck’s Café
24:00 The magic wand question…
27:00 LinkedIn content and strategy.
28:00 The single most broken piece in sale processes is doing discovery:
A harsh but accurate analysis of a 30-minute discovery call.
31:30 Where do the Great Demo! and Doing Discovery methodologies apply?
33:00 What does a great demo look like? The key elements of the process…
37:30 How long should a great demo be?
39:30 A demo horror story!
41:30 The top three mistakes vendors make vs Buyer Enablement…
45:00 And champion enablement!
46:00 Moving forward from here…
47:30 Storytelling! Features vs Advantages vs Benefits vs Analogies vs Stories.
52:00 Good stories get retold!
54:00 What happens if you are gone?
55:00 What is one great piece of advice?
You can find the full recording here – enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZYaOdWXbnw
What’s in this article for you?
- Assess yourself and your team
- Ten levels of demonstration skills
- Exploration of each level’s characteristics
- Measurements for achieving each level
- Pros and cons of each level’s demos, plus grades
- The significant gains enjoyed by advancing through the skills levels
A head of presales commented, “They don’t know what they don’t know…! 50% of our sales opportunities end in ‘No Decision’ and 30% of our demos are just pure waste. We must move from our traditional approaches to a validated, proven methodology that delivers improved results!”
Here’s a simple method to assess where you and your team stand, based on ten levels of increasing demo skills proficiency:
Level 1: Follows the standard demo script
Level 2: Customizes based on prospect’s market/industry
Level 3: Customizes based on discovery information uncovered
Level 4: Communicates tangible business value
Level 5: Applies both Vision Generation and Technical Proof Demos
Level 6: Manages and explores prospect questions
Level 7: Uses Biased Questions to outflank competition and reengineer vision
Level 8: Applies storytelling techniques to reinforce key ideas
Level 9: Applies these skills to the broad range of demo scenarios required, including demos for prospects occupying different portions of the Technology Adoption Curve, presenting new products, Executive Briefing Centers, transactional sales cycles, expansion opportunities, lunch and learn sessions, tradeshows, demos for analysts and third parties, channel partners, internal demos, and other scenarios
Level 10: Captures and reuses demo success scenarios, and integrates, aligns, and leverages the skills above into a cohesive demonstration methodology
Where are you and your team on this spectrum?
Enjoy the full article here!
https://greatdemo.com/assessing-demonstration-skills-levels-how-do-you-rate-2/
What’s important about “methodology”? A great deal!
A methodology is an integrated, coherent suite of skills that interconnect, leverage and support one another, enabling process, playbooks, coordinated motions, consistency, tracking, measurement, and structured coaching. Methodology addresses four key questions:
1. Why do things a certain way.
2. What should be done.
3. How to execute specific skills: explicit instructions.
4. When to apply the skills and in what order.
An Analogy: Let’s Build a House!
Contemplate construction skills: The ability to hammer nails, drill holes, saw wood, pour cement, connect wiring, plumb sinks, install drywall, paint, etc.
Each of these skills takes time to learn and master.
Building a house requires these skills and coordinated timing and flow.
In order to know what to build, an architect generates plans that include pages for the foundation, framing, plumbing, electrical, HVAC, roofing, painting, cabinetry, and more.
The contractor takes the plans and coordinates the timing for each step: That’s the methodology of construction!
You can’t install wiring until the framing is in place, but you also need to do the electrical before internal drywall.
Imagine the disaster if a concrete foundation is poured and then the contractor realizes that plumbing and electrical conduits should have been installed first!
Methodology is what coordinates individual skills with the correct timing and flow.
Methodology enables skills to be taught and practiced, both individually and as integrated components. In Great Demo! methodology, for example, Informal Success Stories feed Vision Generation Demos and associated Menus, supporting a variety of demo scenarios (including “just show me a demo” requests from prospects, Executive Briefing Center demos, demos for 3rd parties, and many more).
The application of the Inverted Pyramid structure in Great Demo! delivery is another example of methodology vs individual skills, guiding us to present the most important content early in our demos, followed by inviting our prospects to Peel Back the Layers as deeply as they desire. The Inverted Pyramid arrangement tells us why, what, how, and when to present information in a demo.
Fascinatingly, the VP of Enablement of one of our Great Demo! customers noted that, “Methodology enables enablement…!” An insightful and provocative perspective!
Measurement(s) for Achieving Level 10 – Methodology Implementation:
A) Operates as a team or organization as opposed to individuals.
B) Establishes objectives and tracks metrics to improve team performance and efficiency.
C) Actively evolves and tunes the methodology in accord with company objectives, market changes, and culture.
Organizations that achieve Level 10 Methodology Implementation enjoy remarkable scaling and amplification metrics and establish substantial competitive advantages vs their peers.
Explore the Articles on our website for guidance on these individual topics, including:
- Informal Success Stories:
- The Menu Approach:
https://greatdemo.com/the-menu-approach-a-truly-terrific-demo-self-rescue-technique-3/
- Demos for Executives:
https://greatdemo.com/demos-for-executives-a-never-stop-learning-article/
- Presales Metrics:
https://greatdemo.com/presales-metrics-what-to-measure-and-why-2/
See the Third Edition of Great Demo! and Doing Discovery for the full methodologies!
Great Demo! Third Edition:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C9SNKC2Y/
Doing Discovery:
https://www.amazon.com/Doing-Discovery-Important-Enablement-Processes/dp/B0B8RJK4C2/
What is “Demo Capital” and what does it enable?
Demo Capital supports amplification of demo and discovery best practices!
Level 10 is really an organizational objective. While one person can collect and leverage experiences, stories, and other demonstration capital and assets, contemplate what a team can amass with the appropriate guidance and support systems.
As presales, sales, and customer success practitioners mature, they recognize the importance of altruism and mutual enablement. Sharing what has worked and not worked with their peers generates a virtuous feedback loop, enabling individuals to tap into the broader experiences of the team.
These positive feedback loops often start informally with post-demo vendor team discussions of “What went well?” “What didn’t go so well?” and “What could we have done better or differently?” Formalizing this process to make post-demo reviews a structured, regular habit is a key indicator of Level 10 practice.
Informal Success Stories are part of the lifeblood of an vendor organization and are used by seasoned customer-facing folks as integral components of their processes. They provide the foundation materials for the Menu Approach, Vision Generation Demonstrations, Biased Questions, Vision Reengineering, and storytelling.
Application of these in customer-facing situations often starts with a phrase such as, “Let me share how another customer, very similar to you, solved this…” The balance of the story (often a “Hero’s Journey”) describes how your customer’s challenges were overcome by using your offering.
Now, imagine a room of fifty presales, sales, and customer success team members at an annual kickoff meeting. Each person has been asked to document a customer success story that they personally experienced: just one story each. Fifteen minutes later they send those stories to an enablement person who organizes them into a library. Suddenly, everyone has forty-nine new success stories to draw from and use in their sales, presales, and customer success efforts.
That’s a nearly fifty-fold amplification effect in a quarter of an hour!
Additionally, these success stories are terrific examples of what good, well-qualified prospects look like, representing high product “fit” with respect to prospect needs and wants, enabling happier customers and reducing churn.
Next, collect and share particularly compelling Illustrations, successful Menus, Biased Questions and examples of Vision Reengineering. These valuable demo assets can and should be leveraged to accelerate onboarding, upskilling, and advancing your team’s overall level of execution.
Organizations that achieve Level 10 enjoy remarkable amplification and acceleration of sales, presales, and customer success processes while rather dramatically reducing the number of wasted demos and No Decision outcomes. They become organizations that high-performing customer-facing people want to join!
Individual Measurement(s) for Achieving Level 10:
A) Completes regular, structured post-demo reviews.
B) Submits Informal Success Stories, Illustrations, Menus, and other demo assets into a team or corporate library.
C) Bonus for serving as a mentor to others.
Organizational Measurement(s) for Achieving Level 10:
A) Captures the key output of regular, structured post-demo reviews.
B) Collects, curates, and distributes Informal Success Stories, Illustrations, Menus, and other demo assets.
C) Implements and applies consistent feedback loops to drive a constant practice of improvement.
Pros:
- Amplifies and scales across your entire customer-facing team.
- Generates, attracts, develops, and retains high-performing staff, mentors, and front-line managers.
Cons:
- Requires personnel tasked to establish, develop, and maintain supporting processes and systems.
Organizational Grade: A+
Explore the Articles on our website for guidance on these individual topics, including:
- The Menu Approach:
https://greatdemo.com/the-menu-approach-a-truly-terrific-demo-self-rescue-technique-3/
- Informal Success Stories:
- Demo Capital:
https://greatdemo.com/demo-capital-underutilized-undervalued-and-often-insufficient/
See the Third Edition of Great Demo! and Doing Discovery for the full methodologies!
Great Demo! Third Edition:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C9SNKC2Y/
Doing Discovery:
https://www.amazon.com/Doing-Discovery-Important-Enablement-Processes/dp/B0B8RJK4C2/
