The Sales Distraction Team

This took place when screen sharing was still comparatively crude.

 

 

“You can always find a distraction if you're looking for one.”

– Tom Kite

 

I was a participant in a public webinar that had a very large audience, with perhaps eight or nine hundred people in the session. Everything was going well until a rather embarrassing email preview message appeared in the bottom-right corner of the presenter’s screen.

 

The message described plans for a date that evening in rather graphic and embarrassingly intriguing terms!

 

And while audience engagement suddenly shot up, it was not in the form the presenter would have desired. Chat was swiftly overflowing with comments about the impending date, and the balance of the webinar was lost in the chaos!

 

 

Moral: Be careful what you share!

 

 

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/

Another Member of the Sales Prevention Team

 

A lack of situational awareness can be costly.

 

 

"It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen."

–  John Wooden

 

 

Want another horror story? (I love sales and demo horror stories!)

 

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/

A Refreshing Example of Using Props and Visual Aids in Vision Reengineering

Prospects don’t know what they don’t know, and part of discovery is to understand and address this.

 

 

“An optimist will tell you the glass is half-full; the pessimist, half-empty; and the engineer will tell you the glass is twice the size it needs to be.”

– Oscar Wilde

 

 

A terrific use of props (or visual aids) that I once saw went as follows (in a face-to-face meeting): The vendor rep was discussing how their solution eliminated silos and enabled improved consumption of a prospect’s internal data.

 

The rep took two full water bottles, held them up and said, “So, I understand your organization has its data sitting in silos, like these water bottles…” He banged the bottles together, pointing out that “You can’t bring this data together.” Bang, bang went the water bottles.

 

He then opened each bottle and placed a cup in front of him on the table.

 

He said, “What we propose is to enable you to combine data in ways you’ve never been able to combine before…” as he poured water from both water bottles into the cup. He then picked up the cup and continued, “…and enable you to consume your data in ways you’ve never been able to do before!” and he took a sip of the pooled mix from the cup.

 

He finished with a satisfied “Ah, refreshing!” Fabulous!

 

 

Moral: Effective props can be highly memorable.

 

 

Want more fun, bitesize, engaging stories and lessons learned? See my new book “Suspending Disbelief!”

https://tinyurl.com/yc7rsrmy 

 

You’ll find details on Vision Reengineering starting on page 217 in Doing Discovery here: https://www.amazon.com/Doing-Discovery-Important-Enablement-Processes/dp/B0B8RJK4C2/

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!)

 

Clearly, this was not a Great Question or Good Question.

 

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 or 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 to stare at “How come your software sucks so bad and costs so much?” for the balance of the meeting. 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 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 (and Stupid) 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 my new book “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/

Inadvertent Question Grading

Here’s another reason to pay attention to your habits.

 

 

“I could have been a Rhodes Scholar, except for my grades.”

– Duffy Daugherty

 

I was in a demo as a prospect and my team was peppering the vendor with questions. The rep’s response to each question was “Oh, great question!” followed by answers of varying lengths:

 

“Can it do X?”

“Great Question! Yes, absolutely…!”

 

“How do you change the Y?”

“Great Question! Here, I’ll show you…!”

 

“Is there a way to do Z?”

“Great Question! Certainly, you simply click here and…”

 

This continued for a while.

 

I then asked a question about pricing and licensing.

The response was, “Oh, good question…”

 

After that long string of “Great Question!” responses, how do you think I felt after receiving what was clearly a lower grade for my question?

 

“Good question,” indeed!

 

 

Moral: Avoid grading questions, either consciously or unconsciously.

 

You’ll find 35 more stories and lessons learned like this in my new book “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/

Park It!

 

Discussions about the relative merits of technology can be endless.

 

 

“The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.”

– B. F. Skinner

 

 

I was in the midst of delivering a demo and it was going very well. My prospect was clearly interested in our product and the discussion had turned to implementation.

 

One prospect player asked, “Does it run on Oracle?” 

 

As I began to respond in the affirmative, another prospect member asked about another database engine, and then a third player asked if we supported yet another database. I told them we ran on all three.

 

Immediately, these audience members asked if there were any advantages with one platform over another and, even before I could respond, a furious debate ensued between these three folks. Each clearly had their favorite and wanted arguments to support their choice, so they solicited my opinion.

 

I said, “Well, it’s really up to you. Each platform has certain pros and cons, partly based on technology and partly business…” Before I could continue, all three interrupted me, clamoring their claims.

 

It was clear that these people would have continued their debate for the balance of the available time, which could have been disastrous, pushing the project into the next quarter! 

 

I stepped back into the discussion saying, “OK, you all have valid points and the one thing it appears we all agree on is that our product is a good fit for you. Let’s park the ‘which database should we use’ topic for later…” Everyone agreed and I was able to get back on track.

 

 

Moral: Park arguments (as well as Good and Stupid Questions)

You’ll find 35 more stories and lessons learned like this in my new book “Suspending Disbelief!”

https://tinyurl.com/yc7rsrmy 

 

And you’ll find details on when and how to park questions in Chapter 8 “Managing Time and Questions” in Great Demo! here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C9SNKC2Y/

The Golden Question

 

A clever version of a traditional approach resulted in an unanticipated outcome.

 

“Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.”

– Voltaire

 

 

We were the prospect and the audience for a typical demo some years ago. When the vendor finished, they put a huge, gold, rotating question mark gif on the screen and asked, “Any questions?”

 

Initially, there was quiet, followed by a few “Whoa…!” comments from us. We were completely absorbed watching that golden question mark slowly go around and around and around and around!

 

Sadly, I have absolutely no other memory of that demo. I can’t recall the vendor or the product at all, just that great golden gif!

 

 

Moral: Don’t squander the second most valuable part of your demo: the Summary! (Attention-Retention Curve)

 

You’ll find 35 more stories like this (and perhaps even better ones!) in the new Suspending Disbelief book here! https://tinyurl.com/yc7rsrmy  

Can Upskilling Be Fun?

 

Yes!

 

Stories make learning informative and entertaining:

 

-       Doing Discovery is spiced with stories providing an outstanding foundation for doing discovery!

 

-       Great Demo! leverages stories to communicate the validated yet constantly evolving demo methodology that lifts demos from mundane to truly exceptional!

 

-       And Suspending Disbelief entertains with thirty-five life lessons that are all stories!

 

Invest in yourself and enjoy your journey of improvement!

 

You can find these story-rich books here:

 

Doing Discovery

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

 

Great Demo! Third Edition:

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

 

Suspending Disbelief:

https://tinyurl.com/yc7rsrmy 

 

Pro Tip: Read them in parallel!