Assessing Demonstration Skills – Level 3

Wait, what? You want discovery information before presenting the demo?

 

Yes, please!

 

Level 3: Customizes Based on Discovery Information Uncovered

 

This requires three steps to complete:

 

1.     Discovery must be done.

2.     Discovery information must be communicated (if it isn’t the same person doing discovery and the demo).

3.     Discovery information must be incorporated in the demo.

 

Sound obvious? Sadly, I’ve seen countless demos where:

 

-       Discovery was never done or was insufficient to impact what was shown in the demo.

-       Discovery was done (by someone else) but was never communicated to the demo presenter.

-       Discovery was done but was ignored in the resulting demo.

 

Very simply, sufficient discovery provides guidance on which capabilities to include in the demo and which capabilities to leave out. If your team’s demos follow the same path regardless of what was learned in discovery, then they haven’t achieved Level 3.

 

An observation: It is incredibly insulting to prospects who have invested time in a discovery conversation with a vendor to have that vendor ignore the discovery information provided!

 

Measurement(s) for Achieving Level 3:

 

A)    Sufficient discovery is done, as measured by a completed Great Demo! Situation Slide.

B)    Discovery information is communicated throughout the selling team.

C)    Demonstrator presents or doesn’t present capabilities in alignment with the discovery information collected.

Pros:

 

-       Represents a tipping point between unsuccessful and successful demos.

-       May be sufficient to achieve Technical Proof.

 

Cons:

 

-       Still unsuitable for Vision Generation.

-       Still largely a monologue.

-       No communication of business value.

 

Grade: C

 

And see sections 2 and 3 in this article for more tips!

https://greatdemo.com/situation-slides-sales-and-presales-swiss-army-knife/ 

Assessing Demonstration Skills Levels – Level 2

What’s important about +1, +49, +44, +33, +91, etc.?

 

Customizes Based on Prospect’s Geo/Market/Industry 

 

The first small step towards customizing demos to meet prospects’ specific situations is often reflected in the use of market- or industry-specific data sets and vocabulary. This can be as simple as using an adaptive or pre-built demo environment for each industry: manufacturing, finance, pharma, etc. In the absence of adaptive or pre-built environments, practitioners can modify data themselves and apply appropriate terminology in their verbal delivery during demos.

 

Another dimension at this level of customization is adapting the demo to meet the specifics of a geographic region, which might range from including regional addresses or phone syntax, job titles and local terminology, to verbal delivery using the prospect’s local language (e.g., like Californian, dude!).

 

Measurement(s) for Achieving Level 2:

 

-       Makes appropriate changes to demo data and verbal delivery.

 

Pros:

 

-       Shows some sensitivity to regionality and/or markets.

 

Cons:

 

-       A nominally improved Harbor Tour (preferred seating section)!

-       Still unsuitable for Vision Generation.

-       Still unsuitable for achieving Technical Proof.

-       Demos are still a monologue.

-       Still suffers from severe Buying It Back.

 

Grade: D-

 

And see “A Perfect Demo Environment” for more tips!

https://greatdemo.com/a-perfect-demo-environment-never-stop-learning/  

Assessing Demonstration Skills Levels – Level 1: Stunningly Awful Harbor Tour Demos!

Level 1: Follows the Standard Demo Script

 

Most presales, sales, and customer success new hires go through basic training on their company’s products and systems, along with introductions to their go-to-market and sales process steps. For presales, customer success, and some salespeople, this includes learning the basic “standard” demo for each product they will represent.

 

Many organizations then test whether the new team member has mastered these standard demos through certification roleplays. That’s Level 1, which is often focused on ensuring that the employee understands the various capabilities in their software and relevant positioning.

 

These standard demos are generally structured in a linear flow that includes presenting navigation, setup and customization options, various workflows, and reporting (if time allows!). They are not optimized for any specific prospect or demo scenario, and they are definitely not focused on the interests of specific job titles or adjusted for any markets or verticals. Disturbingly, any relevant discovery information is ignored, as well! 

 

These demos are commonly known as stunningly awful Harbor Tours.

 

They are woefully ineffective. They fail to inspire vision; they fail to achieve technical proof; they suffer deeply from Buying It Back; and they are the recipients of countless painful jokes from prospects, customers, and more experienced vendor teams. 

 

Amusingly, they are celebrated by the competitors of the vendors who present these Harbor Tours!

 

Generally, (hopefully!) there is an expectation that vendor practitioners will only use these standard demos as a starting point. Unfortunately, many team members continue to follow these same unproductive demo pathways for years…! (Visualize a mass of lemmings marching unconcernedly towards a cliff.)

 

Measurement(s) for Achieving Level 1:

 

-       “Certification” by a manager, certification team, mentor, or colleague.

 

Pros:

 

-       Provides practitioners with an understanding of their software’s capabilities.

 

Cons:

 

-       Joins the population of stunningly awful Harbor Tours!

-       Unsuitable for Vision Generation.

-       Unsuitable for achieving Technical Proof.

-       Demos are generally a monologue.

-       Unbelievingly boring!

-       Suffers from severe Buying It Back.

 

Grade (for demos to most prospects): F

 

Want to improve? Choose the mechanism that works best for you!

 

Workshops, Seminars, and Webinars: 

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

 

Books:

 

Great Demo! Third Edition:

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

 

And see “Origins of the Harbor Tour” in Suspending Disbelief for actual story!

https://tinyurl.com/yc7rsrmy 

Assessing Demonstration Skills Levels – How Do You Rate?

“They don’t know what they don’t know…!” commented a head of presales. “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? 

 

Most people and teams, when they are honest with themselves, are operating at Levels 1-3 (and Level 3 is often debatable…). That leaves a lot of room for improvement! 

 

The average vendor suffers from a ~45% No Decision rate and finds that ~35% of their demos are wasted. If those numbers are similar to your experiences, then perhaps a change is in order! And even if your metrics are better, we should all constantly seek to advance our skills.

 

What are some pathways to improvement? Books are a terrific starting point, providing self-paced learning. However, you cannot have a conversation with a book (or a video), so answers to your questions or clarification of ideas have to come from somewhere else. Book clubs can be a mechanism to address this, but you are still at risk of the blind leading the blind!

 

Seminars and webinars provide the means to introduce new ideas and catalyze the process of change. These sessions are wonderful ways to kick off new programs and embrace large populations at once.

 

Workshops provide the strongest tactic to achieve substantive change. Workshops include multiple rounds of roleplay, where participants prepare and deliver new demos applying the methodology. Each round builds upon the previous and includes personal feedback, tuning, and guidance.

 

Choose the mechanism that works best for you!

 

Workshops, Seminars, and Webinars: 

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

 

Books:

 

Great Demo! Third Edition:

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

 

Doing Discovery:

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

 

Suspending Disbelief:

https://tinyurl.com/yc7rsrmy 

 

Demos: The Elegant Art of Managing Questions and Time

(And Avoid Getting Lost in the Weeds)

 

 

“Demos should be perceived as structured conversations…!”

 

 

You are in the midst of delivering a demo and things appear to be going well when…

 

Somebody asks a question and you answer it, then start to return to your planned demo but they ask a follow-up question. You answer that, providing more detail. Again, you think they are satisfied, but they ask a further follow-up question, which you proceed to answer in depth, showing detailed examples of your software and covering extensive whiteboard space with drawings and text.

 

After several minutes you realize you are waaaay off track and “in the weeds.” Except for the low-ranking person who asked the questions, everyone else looks bored or confused.

 

Even worse, you notice that the high-ranking members of the audience somehow left the room while you were in your explanation. To add insult to injury, you are now short on time as well!

 

Have you ever had this happen to yourself or someone else? The answer in many cases is, “far too frequently!”

 

How do we simultaneously encourage questions in demos, yet make sure they don’t take us off track? And why do we want to encourage questions in the first place?

 

You’ll find the answers here!

https://greatdemo.com/the-elegant-art-of-managing-questions-and-time/