Demo Desperation – Another Sales Prevention Team True Story!

 

“Wait! Don’t go away, we haven’t gotten to the best stuff yet!”

 – Vendor rep watching people leave the room...

 

It was an important opportunity, and the vendor organized a two-hour face-to-face demo with the prospect’s team of twenty to make sure there was sufficient time to cover everything. Sadly, discovery had been limited to the confirmation of the prospect’s general “pain,” some demographics about the number of users, and tech stack requirements. 

 

With this limited information, the vendor began the meeting with fifteen minutes of corporate overview presentation, followed by their standard demo, starting with system configuration, then general navigation, followed by function after function in a long, linear flow. 

 

It was a perfect example of a stunningly awful Harbor Tour!

 

A few minutes into the demo portion, one person excused themself and left the room. And since the vendor never asked for introductions of the prospect’s team, the vendor had no clue that they’d just seen the key executive leave the room!

 

Ten minutes later two more prospect players quietly headed for the door. As the meeting reached one hour, several additional people mumbled something about “having another meeting…” and slipped away. 

 

It was at this point that the presenter begged, “Wait! Don’t go away, we haven’t gotten to the best stuff yet!”

 

Now only eight of the original twenty remained, one of whom commented to their neighbor, “I’ll stay as long as the donuts hold out!”

 

Important opportunity squandered, with no sale resulting.

 

Additionally, because it was an important opportunity, the vendor had sent a team of four folks to the meeting (including a salesperson, solution consultant, product specialist, and professional services rep) incurring the costs of airfare, lodging, rental car, and food to the tune of ~$5,000, not to mention the associated opportunity cost (pun intended)!

 

Moral: Do the Last Thing First!

 

 

Resources: 

 

Illustrations: Doing the Last Thing First!

https://greatdemo.com/illustrations-doing-the-last-thing-first/

 

Why Structure Demos Like a News Article?

https://greatdemo.com/why-structure-demos-like-a-news-article/

 

The Menu Approach – A Truly Terrific Demo Self-Rescue Technique

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

 

And see the stories in “Suspending Disbelief” for more engaging lessons learned!

https://tinyurl.com/yc7rsrmy

 

Help, Mr. Wizard…! Another Sales Prevention Team True Story!

 

"Tell me, old friend, when did you abandon wisdom for madness?"

 – Gandalf to Saruman

 

 

Software wizards are intended to make a complex workflow simple to use, but only if a reasonable path is followed! Here’s another true story:  

 

The presenter started a wizard to execute an analysis of business data and was still walking me through the options sixty minutes later!  

 

Once he’d finally completed that portion of the demo, I asked him to show me how to execute that same workflow using the wizard the way someone would typically use it on a day-to-day basis.  

 

How long do you think it took?

 

Two-and-a-half minutes start to finish.

 

Moral: Execute all demo pathways with the fewest number of clicks!

 

Resources: 

 

Page 157 in Great Demo!

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

 

And see the stories in “Suspending Disbelief” for more gems!

https://tinyurl.com/yc7rsrmy

Setup Mode Horror – Another Sales Prevention Team True Story!

"Life is too short for you to be the caretaker of the wrong details."

 – Alexandra Stoddard

 

 

I watched a ninety-minute demo recording and noted two rather astonishing things…

 

Astonishing Thing Number One:  

 

Approximately half of the demo was consumed by setup and configuration items, including setting up the environment, configuring the application, creating and editing templates, forms, reports, dashboards, etc.

 

This wasn’t astonishing on its own, perhaps, until…

 

Astonishing Thing Number Two:  

 

At the end of all this setup activity the vendor said proudly, “Of course, you won’t have to do any of this. We take care of it during implementation. It’s all done by our Professional Services team…”

 

Wait. What did you say?

 

You just spent forty-five minutes showing stuff your prospect will never need to use? (Enter your choice of an appropriate exclamation of surprise and astonishment here ______.)

 

But wait, there’s more: A bonus Astonishing Thing!

 

I called the presales manager who had sent me the recording and asked, “Why did half of the demo present capabilities that your prospect will never use?” 

 

They responded, “Oh! We’ve been told that these are key differentiators and that we must include them in every demo!”

 

Moral: Don’t take guidance from the Sales Prevention Team!

 

Resources: 

 

Stunningly Awful Demos – The Painful Irrelevance of Setup Mode

https://greatdemo.com/stunningly-awful-demos-the-painful-irrelevance-of-setup-mode/ 

 

Page 244 in Great Demo! 

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

 

And see the stories in “Suspending Disbelief” for more gems!

https://tinyurl.com/yc7rsrmy

An Online Oops… A Sales Prevention Team True Story!

 

“It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.”

–  John Wooden

 

A lack of situational awareness can be costly.

 

I was watching an online demo a while ago, when one of the prospect team members asked a question. The salesperson chatted to the presenter, “Ignore that question, that guy is an idiot!”

 

Sadly, the salesperson didn’t realize that he had included “Everyone” in the chat, not just the presenter.

 

End of demo, end of sales cycle…!

 

Moral: Be careful of what you chat and to whom!

 

Resources: 

 

See Chapter 13 in Great Demo! 

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

 

Want more fun, bitesize, engaging stories and lessons learned?

See my new book “Suspending Disbelief!” 

https://tinyurl.com/yc7rsrmy

The Terrible Tabs Death March - A Sales Prevention Team True Story!

 

“The happiness of most people is not ruined by great catastrophes or fatal errors, but by the repetition of slowly destructive little things.”

 – Ernest Dimnet

 

I joined a face-to-face demo where the vendor presented a screen with ten tabs and then proceeded to march through each of them, one by one, in detail.

 

It was very interesting to watch the body language of the audience as this demo progressed. The response to the initial page was positive. It was a well-constructed dashboard, and it looked good.

 

The next tab was received with moderate interest, but by the third tab many of the audience members were visibly sagging in their seats!

 

By the fourth and fifth tabs nearly everyone had checked out (perhaps even the presenter, who had clearly presented these tabs many, many times!). And there was an audible sigh of relief as the final tab was described.

 

This was a classic case of the presenter following the old, established, traditional demo pathway: a slow, painful march towards no sale!

 

The Moral? Focus on the Specific Capabilities your prospect needs to solve their problem!

 

Resources: 

See Chapters 5-9 in Great Demo! 

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

Want more fun, bitesize, engaging stories and lessons learned?

See my new book “Suspending Disbelief!” 

https://tinyurl.com/yc7rsrmy

Do You Use Ranging Probes?

Of course, you are familiar with Open and Closed Probes…

 

What’s an example of an Open Probe?

(THAT’s one!)

 

And do you use Closed Probes?

(And THAT’s a Closed Probe!)

 

So, what is a Ranging Probe?

 

When doing discovery, Ranging Probes are a wonderful solution when dealing with “squishy” information or situations where your prospect’s answers might span a spectrum. Acting like a prism, Ranging Probes can separate intertwined answers into individual colors!

 

Let’s follow an example conversation:

 

You ask, “What’s your typical sales cycle length?”

 

Your prospect replies, “Ummmm….” Your prospect is struggling to condense several possible situations down to a single choice. They’re thinking, “Well, it depends on the market and product…”

 

You cleverly rephrase, realizing that your prospect isn’t sure how to answer, “Okay, what are your fastest sales cycles, what are your longest, and what might be a typical average?”

 

Your prospect responds, “Oh, the shortest run a month, the longer cycles can be a year to eighteen months, and the average is around six months…”

 

Notice that you just been rewarded with three pieces of information on this topic. That’s an unanticipated advantage of Ranging Probes! Now you know much more about your prospect’s sales cycles than just a simple average.

 

Be prepared to rephrase a question as a Ranging Probe whenever there is potential flexibility or squishiness in the response. A long, “Ummmm…” from your prospect is often a good indicator of this situation!

 

You’ll find many more practical tips like this in Doing Discovery here!

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

Demos and Prospects’ Initial Mindset

What are your prospects’ emotional stances when you start your demos?

 

Enthused?

Curious?

Skeptical?

Cynical?

Annoyed?

Apathetic?

Neutral?

 

How does their mindset change over the course of the demo? 

What causes those changes? 

Or does their mindset not change at all?

 

And if YOU are the prospect, what is your emotional stance at the beginning of a demo to you? How and why does your mindset change during the demo (or does it stay the same)?

The Sad Story of the Way Cool Tool: A Surprising Product and Demo Lesson!

  

Drawing tools are always evolving, seeking to improve and streamline image and diagram production. And in the world of chemistry, drawing chemical structures has its own particular challenges that resulted in this unexpected outcome!

 

Our product manager and development team had created a chemical drawing capability that enabled chemical structures to be drawn with a single mouse click followed by dragging. It was fabulous! You could click, hold your mouse button down, and draw out the complex hexagonal chemical structures in a single fluid motion (think “tetra-methyl-chicken-wire”), saving the user dozens of clicks.

 

It was truly way cool! And so, it was named the “Way Cool Tool.”

 

As soon as it was released, we showed it in every demo to both new prospects and existing customers. We reveled in showing it. We found every possible reason to show it, over and over, because (of course) it was waaaay cool!

 

One day, several months after its release, a long-term customer took us aside after a demo and said, “I’m sorry inform you, but we never use your ‘Way Cool Tool.’ We are almost always working from existing structure templates, which we then modify with a few additions or changes. But we never use your ‘Way Cool Tool.’”

 

True story! 

 

The moral?

 

Seek to understand – and gain a clear understanding – of how your customers actually use and want to use your software. Those are the best pathways for your demos!

 

You can find more product, presales, sales, and customer success stories in “Suspending Disbelief” here!

https://tinyurl.com/yc7rsrmy 

For Founders – Storytelling, Sales, and Business Growth: Turning Ideas into Revenue!

 

Do’s and Don’ts: Fabulous Framing for Founders!

 

“Peter E. Cohan shares how storytelling, sales strategy, and business thinking drive real growth.

Learn how to communicate value, build strong business cases, and position yourself as an expert.”

 

I joined Craig Sheets and “Behind Closed Books” for this engaging and pragmatic discussion of founding and growing your business, including: 

 

00:00   Introduction

00:30   Welcome and topics

04:00   Naming your company – and what not to do!

12:30   A surprising way to write a book

15:30   Print-on-demand and publishing options

16:30   Getting to the point!

24:00   Marketing, being perceived as an expert, and bootstrapping

28:00   Struggling to “pull the trigger” in starting the business?

32:30   Tax and company structure pragmatics!

40:00   Storytelling, business success, and effective stories

50:00   Five ways to communicate ideas

55:30   Some thoughts on AI (of course!)

64:30   Freeze-dried beer!

69:30   Origins, changes, and growth

 

You can find the full recording here – enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP5-QsGPOw4