Users’ Groups: An Underutilized Competitive Weapon!

 

Customers sing your praises to prospects (then beat you up about desired functionality)!

 

One of my first recommendations as a board member was to push the CEO to organize a users’ group meeting.

 

He said, “But we only have twelve customers…”

 

I responded, “Ah! Then we should have started earlier!”

 

Users’ groups are competitive weapons for SaaS vendors, enabling differentiation beyond your products.

 

Why do customers participate in users’ group meetings?

 

0.     The free bar at face-to-face meetings…!

1.     To learn how other customers are using the software

2.     To push the vendor to implement or improve capabilities

3.     To get insight into the product roadmap (and influence it).

 

Number 1 above is often the most interesting and most important for current customers: 

 

-       What applications are being used successfully by other customers?

-       How are other customers’ implementations different or better?

-       What additional applications and use cases have other customers put into play? 

-       What value are they enjoying? 

-       What implementation and adoption challenges were encountered and overcome?

 

And the value to your customers increases with increasing complexity and application breadth of your product(s). Users’ group meetings for “toolkit” offerings, for example, offer very high value for customers.

 

Next, why do vendors hold users’ group meetings?

 

1.     To learn how their customers are using the software

2.     To gain insights into customer desires and future needs

3.     To move prospects forward in their evaluation and buying processes.

 

Number 1 yields extremely valuable formal and informal success stories (see “Fabulous Fuel for Sales, Presales and Customer Success: The Incredible Utility of Informal Success Stories” – https://greatdemo.com/fabulous-fuel-for-sales-presales-and-customer-success-the-incredible-utility-of-informal-success-stories/)

 

Number 2, of course, provides excellent input into your product planning and roadmaps.

 

And number 3 can be a very powerful social referencing and proof-point mechanism! When you invite prospects to your users’ group meetings, they interact with existing customers, asking questions like “Are you happy with the software?” and “Would you buy it again?” The answers may be all the proof needed to move forward with a purchase.

 

And there’s a fourth nugget that can occasionally be uncovered: Why did your current customers choose you over other options? The answers to this question are sales and marketing gold!

 

Finally, an active users’ group can help you outflank competition. When you and your competitors’ offerings are very similar with respect to features and capabilities, you can use whole product analysis to bias the comparison in your favor: your users’ group may provide the critical advantage! (See “Competitive Differentiation via Whole Product Analysis” here: https://greatdemo.com/competitive-differentiation-via-whole-product-analysis/).

 

 

When’s your next users’ group meeting?

Another Member of the Sales Prevention Team

 

Want a horror story? 

(I love sales and demo horror stories!)

 

 

"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!

 

 

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

See my new book “Suspending Disbelief!”

https://tinyurl.com/yc7rsrmy 

 

For more tips and best practices for online and virtual demos see Chapter 13 in Great Demo! here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C9SNKC2Y/

“I Already Saw Your Demo….”

“And I didn’t see anything interesting.”

 

That was the prospect’s response to the vendor’s inquiry, “Would you like to learn more?”

 

First impressions can be devastating!

 

Website-based automated demos and outbound automated demos need to resonate with the prospect’s specific challenges and desired outcomes. It they don’t, the sales cycle stops before it really begins!

 

Recent survey results showed that over 2/3 of vendors using automated demos weren’t happy with their results or knew they should be doing better. Download the white paper for the details. https://greatdemo.com/demo-automation-insights/ 

 

And if you want to improve your automated demos outcomes, read and apply these guidelines!

https://greatdemo.com/automated-demos-best-practices/ 

Doing Discovery Pro Tip: "Why" Questions Drive the Conversation Upwards

 

And help uncover Critical Business Issues.

 

True story:

 

I asked a sales manager, “What’s the biggest challenge you face in your job today?”

 

He responded, “We need more good leads.”

 

“And why is that important?” I queried.

 

He replied, “Without good leads we don’t have enough opportunities to pursue.”

 

“I understand,” I said, “and you are not alone…! But tell me, why is that an issue? What happens if you don’t have enough opportunities?”

 

He grimaced, slightly, and said, “Well, without enough good opportunities, we won’t hit our numbers…”

 

“Uh huh,” I responded, “So the main challenge for you is achieving your numbers: making quota. Is that right?”

 

“Oh!” he exclaimed, “Exactly!”

 

In discovery, “Why” questions tend to drive the conversation upwards, towards uncovering Critical Business Issues (goals and objectives), as opposed to drilling downwards into more detail.

 

You’ll find more on using “Why” questions starting on page 180 in “Doing Discovery”

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

Handling Questions in Demos: Verbal Aikido

 

One of the key ideas of Aikido is to deflect your opponent’s 

energy and momentum or use it against them. 

The same idea can apply to demos!

 

 

“If you're going through hell, keep going.”

– Winston Churchill

 

 

I was delivering a demo and halfway through the meeting 

a hostile audience member said, 

“How come your software sucks so bad and costs so much?” 

(This is verbatim!)

 

I responded, “This requires more development 

than I’d like to invest right now. 

I’m going to capture it here on the whiteboard, 

along with all the other questions. 

We’ll plan to address it later on during our Q&A session.”

 

This was acceptable to everyone, but I hesitated 

before adding it to the list. 

 

The classic method of “parking” the topic would be 

to write it as it was expressed. 

 

However, I didn’t want the audience staring at 

“How come your software sucks so bad and costs so much?” 

for the balance of the meeting. 

 

And a slightly distilled version like, 

“software sucks, costs so much” 

wouldn’t improve things.

 

I recalled a lesson I’d learned in a training session 

that discussed reducing prospects’ questions to their 

“Neutral Pillars,” which is a terrific method 

of capturing an idea with a positive spin.

 

I applied the Neutral Pillars approach and wrote down, 

“Quality and Value” on the whiteboard. 

Much better: a bit of verbal aikido!

 

 

Moral: Park hostile questions and use Neutral Pillars!

 

Discussion: Note that if I had written down 

the question verbatim or distilled it, the audience 

would be seeing that text the balance of the demo. 

 

Instead, I identified two relevant Neutral Pillars, 

translating “software sucks so bad” to “Quality,” 

and “costs so much” to “Value.”

 

These were the words the audience saw on 

the whiteboard Parking Lot for the balance of the meeting. 

Much better!

 

Want more bitesize engaging stories and lessons learned? 

See “Suspending Disbelief” https://tinyurl.com/yc7rsrmy 

 

And you’ll find more details on when and how 

to elegantly and effectively park questions in 

Chapter 8 “Managing Time and Questions” of Great Demo! here: 

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

True Story: Even an Executive Can Run It!

 

He did indeed touch type: He just used two fingers.

 

 

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication"

– Leonardo da Vinci

 

 

I once worked for a wonderful head of sales named Tom Jones. 

No, not Tom Jones the singer. This Tom was an ex-Marine, 

ex-hardware salesperson who ascended the ladder and 

joined our software company as the Global VP of Sales.

 

He was highly skilled in sales practices, 

but woeful at actually using software.

 

For example, all his email messages were short 

and drafted in ALL CAPS. 

 

We were never sure if he had hit the Caps Lock key 

accidentally and never turned it off, 

or if he really wanted it to appear that he was yelling!

 

To set the stage, we were in the process of

evaluating new sales forecasting systems.

 

While I felt one product had what we needed and 

was far superior to the other options under consideration, 

there were concerns from the sales team 

that this offering might be too difficult to use. 

 

A demo had been scheduled to address this concern.

 

I met with the vendor salesperson and suggested 

that we ask Tom to drive a short portion of the demo 

to really prove how easy it was to use. 

 

The rep was reluctant but agreed.

 

And so, very early in the demo, the vendor rep 

invited Tom to take the mouse and execute a few tasks, 

including accessing reports for the current forecast 

and next two quarters’ pipeline. 

 

Tom managed it without error and immediately 

several of our team members exclaimed, 

“Well, if Tom can do it, we can do it!”

 

Done deal.

 

 

Moral: That’s a very effective way to prove ease of use!

 

 

This is a great example of “Let Your Prospect Drive” in demos 

– see the section starting on page 197 in Great Demo! here: 

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

 

And here’s some great winter reading: “Suspending Disbelief” 

offers 35 fun, bitesize, engaging stories and lessons learned 

like the one above. Enjoy!

https://tinyurl.com/yc7rsrmy