What Does 76 Seconds Have to Do with Better Demos?

It’s your target average Speaker Switch time!

 

“One good conversation can shift the direction of the change forever.”

 – Linda Lam

 

Speaker Switches (the change of the speaker from the vendor to the prospect and vice versa) is a terrific metric to analyze your demos in terms of monologue vs conversation. Monologue demos suffer periods where the vendor presenter talks for six, eight, ten minutes or longer! Doing so basically removes any chance for a conversation to take place.

 

Think of 76 seconds as the typical amount of time it takes to heat something like a cup of coffee in a microwave. What happens if you leave it on for six, eight, or ten minutes? 

 

“Microwaving coffee for 10 minutes will ruin it, causing it to boil over, create a terrible burning smell, and potentially crack the mug. The intense heat evaporates water, destroys delicate flavor oils, and creates a severely bitter, acidic, or rubbery taste. The coffee will likely turn into a thick, concentrated sludge.”

 

Similarly, monologuing for ten minutes will likely leave your audience with an equally bitter taste!

 

Note that Speaker Switches aren’t limited to prospect questions. You are listening for any feedback or comments in addition to questions. “Oh, I get it,” “That’s cool,” “Uh-huh,” “Looks good,” and other brief prospect responses are just as valuable. These indicate that your prospect is engaged and paying attention.

 

Study your own Speaker Switch numbers and see how you do!

 

Would you like more?

(See Chapter 8 in Great Demo!

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