Stunningly Awful Demos: The Top Ten List of What NOT to Do

 

(A Collection of Demo Don’ts!)

 

A Never Stop Learning! Article

 

Here’s a collection of poor strategies, failed tactics, bad errors, and faulty steps you can take to increase the likelihood that your demo will be a failure. We recommend that you avoid doing these things!

 

If your organization’s demos are not as successful as you wish, consider using this list as an assessment tool. If these items occur frequently you may want to make some changes!

 

What “Don’ts” Are in This Article for You?

 

Bite-size or full meal learning: Your choice! You can sample each of these on their own or consume the full article. Either way, you win! Here’s the menu:

1. Be unclear on your Prospect’s Needs: “The Harbor Tour.”
2. Present a Long Linear Demo that saves the best for last: “Where is this going…?” 
3. Start with a Corporate Overview: “Death by Corporate Overview…”  
4. Don’t reconfirm the Time Constraints for the meeting: “Sorry, we’re out of time…”
5. Pack as many Features and Functions into your demo as possible: “And another thing you can do is…”
6. Show the same demo, regardless of your Prospect’s Needs or Interest: “One for all…”
7. Let Questions drive you into the weeds: “But what about…?”
8. Don’t use the Annotation and Other Tools in your online demos: “Can you see my screen…?”
9. Don’t describe your big Wow! Screens: “Doesn’t that look great…?”
10. Avoid Summarizing: “And the next really cool thing I want to show you is…”
11. Plus, a BONUS “Don’t”!

Each delightful “Don’t” also includes a solution to help you improve and avoid SAD (Stunningly Awful Demo) outcomes. Enjoy!

 

https://greatdemo.com/stunningly-awful-demos-top-ten-list-of-demo-donts/ 

Time Management Tip

 

Block 15 minutes BETWEEN calls to give you time to clean up from the previous call and prep for the next...!

Personal Learning: How Deep Do You Want to Go?

 

With respect to your discovery and demo skills: Do you want to be perceived as below average, average, slightly above average, much better than average, or truly remarkable?

 

Why?

 

And what will you do to accomplish your objectives?

 

A few recommendations:

• Tips (such as blog posts and similar shallow dives) help you to refine existing skills.
• Articles (and other deeper dives) facilitate skills development and optimization.
• Workshops and books (fabulous undersea cruises, to continue the analogy!) enable the creation of integrated sets of skills, driving major step changes in performance.

How deep do you want to go?

Demo Do: What’s the Significance of 76 Seconds?

 

That’s the average time between “speaker switches” in the most successful demos (from a Gong study of thousands of software demos a few years ago; “speaker switches” take place when the prospect and vendor engage in a conversation).

 

76 seconds: just a minute and a quarter.

 

How long is 76 seconds? It’s about the time it takes to heat a cup of water, coffee, or tea in a small microwave. It’s how long it takes to travel 1 mile at ~47 mph; or 1 km at ~47 km/h.

 

More importantly, 76 seconds is (on average) how long you should talk in a demo before you seek a response, a comment, or a question from your prospect. That’s the timing sweet spot!

 

So, if you get a verbal reaction from your prospect after a one minute of presenting, that’s terrific! Two minutes is good. Three minutes is OK. But if you are speaking for four, six, eight minutes or longer without any prospect response, you are at risk!

 

In traditional demos, speaker-switch times are 4-8 minutes or longer. The result? When vendors ask, "Any questions so far?" the result is, "Nope, we're good..." or the sound of crickets in an empty room.

 

The most successful demos are conversations!

How Many Skills Are Needed to Present a Single Screen in a Software Demo?

 

Take a guess, first…! Now consider:

 

-       Which screen(s) to choose and why?

-       When to present (e.g., beginning, middle, end)?

-       How to introduce the context?

-       How to describe the screen itself? (Hint: “Tell-Show-Tell” is insufficient!)

-       How to point or direct attention to specific screen elements (and face-to-face vs online)?

-       Which screen elements should be presented (or not presented)?

-       Who are the consumers (e.g., execs vs middle managers vs staffers vs admins)?

-       Static screen or video?

-       How to reduce or eliminate distracting tabs/toolbars/etc.?

-       How to avoid Zippy Mouse Syndrome?

-       And more…

 

That’s a starter list of skills required to show a single screen in a demo!

 

Each skill on its own is just a small piece of the overall picture. Who? What? When? How? Why? Where? Which? All of these questions need to be addressed to complete the picture.

 

It is the full combination of this broad range of skills that represents true learning!

Demo Don’t: “What We Call…”

 

 

I was watching a demo yesterday and heard the presenter use the phrase, “What we call a ___” multiple times. Was it important that the prospect know and remember that vendor jargon? Nope!

 

We humans can only keep track of a very limited number of new pieces of information, so keep your demos focused on what is truly important. Feature names and even product names are largely irrelevant. It’s what they do, the solution and value they provide, that should be communicated.

What Does “We Eat with Our Eyes First” Have to Do with Demos?

 

"We eat with our eyes first": Apicius (a 1^st century Roman gourmand) purportedly make this statement – and it’s also true for demos!

 

Don’t assume that your prospects understand what they are seeing in your software demo screens. While you may have seen those screens hundreds of times, it is the first time for your prospects. Don’t assume they “get it.”

 

Compare: 

 

A.    The waiter who simply plops a plate on the table without any explanation.

 

vs

 

B.    The waiter who gently places the plate in front of a patron, rotates it carefully to present the dish optimally, and explains, “Viola! Your salad de maison! The lettuces and vegetables were grown right here in our organic garden and harvested just minutes ago: they are so fresh, so crisp! Those cheese morsels nestled amongst the greens are hand-made and were carefully rotated each week during aging. And these croutons were made from yesterday’s freshly baked crusty sourdough, then sauteed gently in our own extra-virgin olive oil made from the trees right outside, seasoned with fragrant cloves of fresh garlic and gently snipped herbs from the same garden. Enjoy!”

 

Which approach is more appetizing?

 

As vendors, we need to make each key software screen appear as appealing as possible. We do this by describing:

 

1.     What our audience is seeing.

2.     How it helps solve our prospect’s problems.

3.     The value associated with consuming the screen.

 

(You’ll learn how to execute this in the Third Edition of Great Demo!)

 

Bon appétit!

Demo Do: Post-Demo Reviews

How many of you do regular post-demo reviews (aka “curbside reviews”)? What do you assess? For example:

 

-       What went well?

-       What could have been done better or differently?

-       What resonated and what did not?

-       Was discovery done sufficiently and was it accurate?

-       What were the action items for both parties?

-       Were there any surprises?

-       Did you achieve your objectives? Did your prospect achieve theirs?

 

How often are your post-demo reviews done?

 

-       Always

-       Most of the time

-       Occasionally

-       Never

 

Who participates?

 

-       Sales

-       Presales

-       Sales management/frontline management

-       Presales management/frontline management

-       Others (who?)

 

In my experience, those who complete regular thoughtful, structured post-demo reviews enjoy increased rates of improvement in their demos and discovery processes yielding higher win rates and faster sales cycles. How about you?

Demo Don’t: “I like sausage, but I don’t necessarily want to know how it’s made…!”

 

In demos, present the “What” but only show the “How” if the prospect asks!

 

(See Great Demo! Third Edition for the delicious recipe for successful demos!)

Best Approaches for the Presales-Customer Success Continuum

 

A Never Stop Learning! Article

 

“After working as presales prior to the sale, then assisting with implementation, and then continuing in a CSM role, the customer said it was the most successful major project ROI they’d ever seen – and extended an offer to hire me!”

 – Presales Practitioner

 

“Our objective is to maximize CLV (Customer Lifetime Value) for every customer.”

 – Member, Board of Directors, SaaS Company

 

What’s in This Article for You?

 

-       A customer’s perspective

-       High-fidelity handoffs

-       The enormous value of relationships

-       What happens as companies grow?

-       How about a hybrid approach?

-       Another intriguing hybrid!

 

Nearly all vendors struggle to find the best approach to align staff for each of the various customer-facing roles from presales, through implementation, to customer success. Some organizations have an account-based approach, with one or more individuals assigned to handle the entire continuum. Others prefer a more specialized structure, where one set of players focuses entirely on presales, another on implementation, and yet another on customer success. And some organizations employ a hybrid approach, mixing and matching individuals’ skills and strengths to the various roles and combinations of roles.

 

Clearly, there are many options to explore! Let’s begin with the customer’s perspective.

 

You’ll find the balance of this article here: https://greatdemo.com/best-approaches-presales-customer-success-continuum/ 

 

Enjoy!

Demo Do: Let Your Champion Drive!

 

A Never Stop Learning! Article

 

“Stand away from the mouse and nobody will get hurt!”

 – Salesperson at a tradeshow when a prospect tried running the software themselves

“Our objective is to ‘suspend disbelief.’”

 – Me

 

Easy to Use?

 

One of prospects’ most common concerns is, “Will the software be easy to use?” Accordingly, an objective when presenting demos is to make our offerings appear as easy to use as possible.

 

Sadly, most traditional demos fail to achieve this! Why?

 

-       They fail to discover prospect needs and desires, resulting in a generic demo that is confusing and complicated.

-       They show too many features, resulting in Buying It Back.

-       They show too many options, in the form of “if” and “or” diversions.

-       They answer simple questions in depth, when a crisp “yes” may have been sufficient.

-       They show a long “day in the life” story rather than focusing on specific workflows and deliverables.

These habits result in a misalignment between vendors’ desires to generate a vision of “ease of use” and prospects’ actual perceptions. How do we solve this?

Fewest Number of Clicks!

 

The “Do It” pathway in a Great Demo! is a terrific way to prove ease of use. Just Do It: Execute all demo pathways using the Fewest Number of Clicks. That should be a mantra for everyone who presents demos!

 

Reducing the number of clicks and moving the mouse deliberately can go a long way towards creating that ease-of-use vision. But there’s another, delightfully effective approach!

 

Let Your Champion Drive

Wait, what? Won’t they make a mistake and click on the wrong thing?

 

Possibly, but likely not if you do a dry run ahead of time. And who’s the best prospect player to drive? Your champion! After all, your champion also wants the demo to go well, so they are typically willing to invest a few minutes to practice.

 

When your prospect drives the demo or part of it, three fabulous advantages are gained:

1.     The rest of the audience sees first-hand that their colleague can run the software successfully, proving ease of use.

 

2.     The audience feels that they also can run the software: “If Bob can do it, then certainly I can as well…”

 

3.     The prospect feels a stronger sense of proof of the Specific Capabilities than when the vendor drives. The sense of reality is deeper and there is less perceived “smoke and mirrors.”

 

An additional advantage is often enjoyed: The demo becomes remarkable. The prospect team talks about the demo afterwards, “You should have seen the demo today. Bob drove and it was really cool!” The result can generate a very positive word-of-mouth effect that ripples through the prospect’s organization.

A Few Pragmatic Guidelines

Work with your champion or other volunteer ahead of time. They need to be comfortable and confident that they know what to do and how to do it. A practice session is a great solution for this.

Interestingly, offering to “Let Your Champion Drive” can also serve to validate that your champion is, indeed, really a champion! They should be willing to invest time to get it right.

 

Involving your champion in delivering the demo also increases their ownership in the process. This generates a positive feedback loop: The more involved, the more ownership; the more ownership, the more involved.

Another recommendation? Simplify! Consider limiting your champion’s driving to a Do It pathway. The longer the segment, the greater the risk.

 

What About Online Demos?

 

This approach also works wonderfully with demos delivered over the web: Just make sure that the tool you use allows your prospect to have “mouse control.” And definitely practice transitioning between you and your champion (or other prospect player) doing the driving!

Two More Options

If no champion is available, you can still contemplate using an audience volunteer. You will have to give guidance on the individual steps, but the effect will still be very positive. 

 

Another approach is to ask the audience while you drive, “What would be my next step?” or “Where should I click to…?” This provides the ability to manage the process and reduces the risk of things going wrong but decreases the impact of a volunteer stepping up to the mouse.

The moral: It is good when you prove your capabilities; it is great when your prospect does it!

 

 

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To learn the methods introduced above, consider enrolling in a Great Demo! Doing Discovery or Demonstration Skills Workshop. For more demo and discovery tips, best practices, tools and techniques, explore our books, blog and articles on the Resources pages of our website at https://GreatDemo.com and join the Great Demo! & Doing Discovery LinkedIn Group to learn from others and share your experiences.