What’s the Value of Better Demos? Part 5: No Decision?

 

Avoiding No Decision Outcomes

 

B2B software sales teams suffer from a surprisingly large number of No Decision results (where your prospect doesn’t purchase your offering, they don’t go with a competitor, they choose to do nothing and remain with status quo).  

 

How large? The best B2B software companies report ~20-25% of their forecasted opportunities ending as No Decision, the worst are around 75-85%, with most running around 45-50%.

 

This is frightening…! Why?

 

It means that about half the sales projects that you pursue end up going nowhere! (Would you like some of that time back in your life? Say, “Yes”, with passion…!)

 

There are typically three reasons why sales opportunities end as No Decision outcomes:

 

A.    Is there a Critical Business Issue or is it just a problem the prospect is willing to live with?  

B.    Is the value clear and sufficiently large to drive the purchase (The “Delta” in Doing Discovery and Great Demo! methodologies)?

C.     Is there a date by when the prospect needs a solution in place (A “Critical Date” in Doing Discovery and Great Demo! methodologies)?  

 

Doing Discovery and Great Demo! practices help qualify-in or qualify-out deals before investing time in any substantive demo. Far too many sales projects languish “Living in the Land of Hope.” 

 

How many of your organization’s opportunities suffer this fate?

 

 

Resources:

 

Avoiding No Decision Outcomes

https://greatdemo.com/avoiding-no-decision-outcomes/ 

 

Let’s Talk About Value – Uncovering the Delta

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

 

Critical Dates – Prevent Prospect Procrastination

https://greatdemo.com/critical-dates-prevent-prospect-procrastination/ 

 

Great Demo! Third Edition

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

 

Doing Discovery:

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

 

Training

https://greatdemo.com/training/workshops/great-demo/ 

 

More Supporting Articles

https://greatdemo.com/learn/articles/ 

What’s the Value of Better Demos? Part 4: Overview Demos?

No stunningly awful Harbor Tour demos, please!

 

Far too many overview demos are delivered too early in a sales process, without sufficient discovery, resulting in wasted resources, losses to more competent competitors, and investing unwisely in No Decision outcomes.

 

Some vendors attempt to use an overview demo to start the dialog with a prospect and may try to use “disco-demos” to do discovery along the way. This is a difficult starting point because once you start to move your mouse, you typically stay in your offering, losing the opportunity to do true discovery.  

 

If you ask presales managers how many of these overview demos actually lead to productive sales projects, the answers can be painfully low: Wasted overview demos in many organizations range from 10-20% to as high as 75%. A survey revealed that on average, “Unqualified” (wasted) demos averaged 30% overall and many leaders say that more than 50% of demos are unqualified. Ick. That’s a lot of waste.

 

Traditional overview and disco-demos show way too much yet still miss the mark for prospects. 

 

Instead, consider crisp, extremely effective Vision Generation Demos (see Chapter 11 on page 258 of the Third Edition of Great Demo!) to satisfy prospects’ desires to “see what’s possible,” stimulate interest, and move the prospect gently (but firmly!) into a discovery conversation. 

 

That’s a huge improvement!

 

 

Resources:

 

The Gruesome Anatomy of a Typical One-Hour Web Overview Demonstration

https://greatdemo.com/the-anatomy-of-a-typical-web-overview-demonstration/ 

 

Discovery on the Fly? Some Plane Thinking

https://greatdemo.com/discovery-on-the-fly-some-plane-thinking/ 

 

Great Demo! Third Edition

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

 

Doing Discovery:

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

 

Training

https://greatdemo.com/training/workshops/great-demo/ 

 

Supporting Articles

https://greatdemo.com/learn/articles/ 

 

What’s the Value of Better Demos? Part 3: Waste Avoidance!

 

What constitutes a “wasted” demo? 

 

1.        Stunningly awful Harbor Tour demos

2.        "Overview” demos that go nowhere

3.        Demos that result in No Decision outcomes

4.        Unnecessary repeated demos

5.        Traditional demos delivered to large, unqualified audiences

6.        Any “deep dive” demo presented to an executive

7.        Demos that should have been sufficient to close the business that ended up in a POC or POV

8.        Nearly all “end-to-end”, “show-them-the-full-range-of-our-offerings” demos

 

It is interesting but not surprising to note that this list is largely comprised of demos delivered without sufficient discovery. This suggests that one practical solution is to invest in improving the team’s discovery skills. 

 

Archimedes said, “Give me a place to stand, and a lever long enough, and I will move the world.” This could be rephrased for sales as, “Give me superior discovery skills, and a few good leads, and I will move the SaaS world!”

 

If you can avoid wasted demos, you’ll enjoy some terrific gains.

 

 

Resources:

 

The Gruesome Anatomy of a Typical One-Hour Web Overview Demonstration

https://greatdemo.com/the-anatomy-of-a-typical-web-overview-demonstration/ 

 

Great Demo! Third Edition

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

 

Doing Discovery:

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

 

Training

https://greatdemo.com/training/workshops/great-demo/ 

 

Supporting Articles

https://greatdemo.com/learn/articles/ 

What’s the Value of Better Demos? Part 2: Opportunity Cost

 

A wise colleague commented, “Just because you could show a demo doesn’t mean that you should…!”

 

There are only 225-ish selling days per year (do the math for your situation). Clearly, any time consumed by demos that do not yield reasonable progress is wasted. That same time could have been invested in sales opportunities with better likelihoods of success, so the loss of that time is doubly hurtful!

 

Ask yourself, “What sales opportunities could I/we have pursued if I/we had not been consumed by demos that went nowhere?”

 

~30% of all demos delivered are considered wasted effort by presales teams. These are often “overview” demos presented with little or no discovery. 

 

How much of your team’s time is consumed annually by these fruitless pursuits?

 

Even worse, the average No Decision (or “Do Nothing”) outcomes for B2B software vendors is ~45%. That means that nearly half of the sales opportunities you chase go nowhere. These are the forecasted opportunities that never close, in spite of consuming an astounding amount of time in many cases. 

 

How many opportunities did you pursue during the last year that never closed, yet included one or more overview demos, qualification discussions, discovery conversations, deeper demos, POCs, POVs, proposals, etc.?

 

(Extra Credit: Count the number of No Decision outcomes from the past year. Estimate how many hours were consumed by the activities above. Cry.)

 

Time is the one resource that we cannot get any more of. (Sadly, there are only 28 hours in a day…!) 

 

What else could have been done with the resources squandered in wasted demos and No Decision projects?

 

Think of your use of time as either “investing” or “wasting.” Investing implies a positive outcome; wasting time is pointless!

 

Resources:

 

Avoiding No Decision Outcomes

https://greatdemo.com/avoiding-no-decision-outcomes/ 

 

Great Demo! Third Edition

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

 

Doing Discovery:

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

 

Training

https://greatdemo.com/training/workshops/great-demo/ 

 

Supporting Articles

https://greatdemo.com/learn/articles/ 

What’s the Value of Better Demos?

For the clueless, not a thing. (Yes, there are those who believe their demos are just fine, no reason to change or improve. Let them continue with that belief…!)

 

But for those who are awake and aware, better demos are exceptionally valuable!

 

On a per-prospect basis:

 

-       Getting the initial business vs a competitor

-       Achieving the order with the least expensive form of proof

-       Securing the renewal (vs churn)

-       Upselling, cross-selling, and expansion

-       Improving sales-stage conversion rates

-       Avoiding POCs/POVs and other evaluations

-       Avoiding No Decision outcomes

 

With respect to your metrics and KPIs:

 

-       Improving sales-stage conversion rates

-       Improving win rates

-       Reducing No Decision outcomes

-       Reducing rates of “wasted demos”

-       Increasing ARR numbers

-       Reducing cost-of-sales and cost-of-renewals

-       Reducing churn

 

With respect to a market, vertical, or channel:

 

-       Establishing market presence and expansion into new verticals

-       Increasing one’s market share and blocking competition

-       Enabling market dominance

-       Gaining rapid traction with a newly launched product

-       Leveraging the investment made in new releases

-       Enabling an effective channel strategy

-       Amplifying sales overall

 

For sales, presales, and customer success leadership:

 

-       Achieving your quarterly objectives

-       Achieving your annual objectives

-       Increasing your team’s efficiency and effectiveness

-       Investing in your team’s growth and development

-       Reducing onboarding and time-to-competency/time-to-readiness

 

For the individual presales, sales, and customer success practitioner:

 

-       The joy of knowing that it was your demo that got it done!

-       Acclamation from your colleagues

-       The associated commission or bonus from that order

-       Winning just one or two more opportunities – to make quota

-       Winning just one or two more opportunities – to move to the next commission level

-       Winning just one or two more opportunities – to go to “President’s Club”

-       Achieving personal growth and development milestones

-       Becoming a mentor to others

-       Progressing towards a promotion or moving towards management

 

So, how could we not pursue improving our demos?

 

Resources:

 

Great Demo! Third Edition

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

 

Training

https://greatdemo.com/training/workshops/great-demo/ 

 

Supporting Articles

https://greatdemo.com/learn/articles/ 

What’s the Difference Between “Assess” and “Asses”?

 

It’s just one “s”…!

 

That’s right, the difference between “assess” and “asses” is just one “s,” but it can make all the difference in the world, like the difference – and the outcome – of doing great discovery vs jumping into a harbor tour demo!

Book Review: “Seller Activity Is Not Buyer Movement”

 

“Suspending Disbelief is one of those sales books where a lot of the lessons may feel familiar until you experience them through the stories.

 

That’s what Peter Cohan does particularly well.

 

Instead of telling you not to skip discovery, over-demo, make assumptions about the buyer, or keep selling after someone is ready to buy, he lets you watch those behaviors play out and see the consequences. That makes the lessons much harder to forget.

 

“You Know You’ve Already Closed Me” particularly resonated with me. I’m a big believer in diagnosing before prescribing. When a buyer believes you genuinely understand their situation, you’ve created more commercial trust than another twenty minutes talking about your product ever could.

 

But “A Prospect’s Tale” was the standout.

 

What struck me wasn’t simply the contrast between bad discovery and good discovery. It was seeing the seller’s entire operating system from the buyer’s side.

 

With one vendor, there’s plenty of activity. Meetings, demos, proposals, a POC, follow-up. From inside a sales organization, that can look like deal progression.

 

From the buyer’s perspective, almost every additional activity is creating more friction.

 

That distinction matters.

Seller activity is not buyer movement.

 

The contrast with the second buying experience makes the point even stronger. Good discovery doesn’t just produce a better demo. It shapes a better buying process, helps the customer make the internal decision, and carries forward into implementation and value realization.

 

My biggest takeaway from the book is probably this.

 

The seller’s operating system eventually becomes the buyer’s experience.

 

That’s what makes these stories useful. They aren’t simply reminders about better sales technique. They force you to see familiar seller behavior through the eyes of the person sitting on the other side of the table.

 

Well worth the read for anyone in sales, presales, or sales leadership.

 

-       Scott S”