Brief, Good Article on Demos Done by John Chambers

Here is an article by Carmine Gallo about John Chambers’ demos, as prepared and supported by Jim Grubb (Cisco’s Chief Demo Officer…):

http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/feb2009/sb20090210_425196.htm?campaign_id=yhoo.

A few good ideas and an easy read.

Demos to Mixed Local and Remote Audiences – Tips to Handle Combination Situations

What is the strategy for handling situations where you are face-to-face with one group of customers and other participants are connecting remotely? Treat the entire session as if it is a Remote Demo.

Yes, this will force you, as the presenter, to remain at your laptop computer – but it also means that you’ll remember to use the mouse for all of your movements (to point, annotate, highlight, etc.), as opposed to hand motions or using a stick or laser pointer. We have to bear in mind that anything done outside of the collaboration software won’t be seen by the remote audience.

Here are some additional tactics to consider in these “mixed” situations:

- During your introduction, be sure to have everyone at each location introduce themselves (if the total audience is less than ~20 participants) – ask:
= What is your name?
= What is your job title?
= What one thing do you want to make sure we accomplish today?

- If possible, ask a remote participant to be an active “host” to serve as a conduit of information to you:
= Are there delays – latency – with the collaboration tool displaying your software or presentation?
= Can they hear your voice adequately (can you hear theirs, as well)?
= Can they see the full screen?
= Does anyone have a question or are confused, based on their expression?

- All “pointing” needs to be done via the collaboration software – so that both the face-to-face and remote audiences can see what you are pointing at…

- Don’t use physical props, unless you can use the sound the prop generates to communicate the idea effectively over the microphone/phone system.

- Repeat questions that are asked from audience members – for both groups. It will likely be difficult for every audience member to hear all of the other audience members…

- Remember to continually engage the remote audience, in addition to those who are face-to-face with you. Causatively ask the remote folks specific questions, to keep their attention.

- If you choose to engage in a mock “role-play” scenario, choose a remote audience member as the first participant. Add a local participant to the role-play, in addition, if the scenario supports it.

- Similarly, invite a remote audience member to “drive”, if appropriate – this will serve to engage both local and remote participants.

- For ad hoc work, use the collaboration tool’s whiteboard capabilities – or use a blank PowerPoint slide, if the collaboration tool lacks whiteboard functionality.

- Capture “Good Questions” in a Microsoft Word document as a “Not Now List” or “Parking Lot”, so that both face-to-face and remote audiences can see and participate in the process.

- Put more verbal dynamics into your delivery than you might normally do when operating face-to-face – and especially include more pauses of longer duration. This gives the opportunity for the remote people to ask questions, particularly if they need to un-mute their phone system(s).

- Don’t be afraid to call a break, if the session is expected to last beyond 90 minutes. It is harder to remain engaged as a remote audience than when face-to-face. Consider making the break a non-standard length – such as “13 minutes” – to help people remember to all return at the appropriate time.

- Keep in mind that different time-zones may be involved for the various sets of audiences – and respect accordingly. It may be likely to have people in the session from California, Chicago, Frankfurt, and Sydney…

- Remember to summarize at the end of each demo segment – if you see your local audience nodding their heads, it is likely that the remote people are doing so as well!

In summary, treat situations with mixes of face-to-face and remote audiences as if the entire session is being run over the web. You’ll add clarity to the overall event and increase your demo success rates (and you may even be nodding your head now…!).

Remote Demos - Audience Computer Mouse

Here's a simple, but important tip, when delivering Remote Demos to an audience of mulitple people in one location: Ask your host or Champion to move the mouse on the "participant's" (audience) computer out of the way!

I recently watched a number of Remote Demos presented where the mouse on the "participant" machine was left in the middle of the screen. A number audience members were confused by this, since they weren't sure which mouse cursor to watch. Solution? Have a team member (if present) or a Champion (or someone else at the customer site) move their mouse out of the way - for example, to the bottom-right corner of the screen - once the remote session has started.

Crossing the Chasm Neatly Summarized

I recently saw a crisp explanation of Geoffrey Moore’s “Crossing the Chasm” key groups, with each group’s perspective summarized in a few words:


Techies – Try it!

Visionaries – Get ahead of the herd…

[The Chasm follows this group…]

Pragmatists – Stick with the herd…

Conservatives – Hold on…!

Skeptics – No way!


Nicely stated – the book itself is still highly relevant and makes an excellent read, although the company examples are dated. It is available on Amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/Crossing-Chasm-Geoffrey-Moore/dp/0060517123/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233248095&sr=1-1.

Technology, Entertainment, Design – Terrific Talks and Presentations

The team at TED (www.ted.com) has been providing a platform to showcase some of the most stimulating, interesting and entertaining presentations for years. Exploring the publically-available presentations (as videos) on their website offers a wonderful opportunity to see some of the best presenters in action. Check it out!

International Cultural Differences and Guidelines - Website

I just ran across an excellent website (http://www.executiveplanet.com/index.php?title=Main_Page) that lists information on a range of countries and cultural norms for each, including (using Australia as an example):

Australia: About Australia About Australia
Australia: Appointment Alert! Making appointments
Australia: Business Dress Guidelines for business dress
Australia: Conversation Welcome topics of conversation
Australia: First Name or Title? Addressing others with respect
Australia: Gift Giving Selecting and presenting an appropriate business gift
Australia: Let's Make a Deal! What you should know before negotiating
Australia: Prosperous Entertaining Entertaining for business success
Australia: Public Behaviour Acceptable public conduct

Well worth exploring before your next international trip…

Debilitating Demo Diseases – Deadendedness

Deadendedness – Death by Cul-de-Sac

Symptoms: Presenter pursues non-productive pathways, perusing pointless possibilities and dead-ends. Elongates a demo segment from what could have been accomplished in 5 mouse-clicks to 24 minutes of detailed explanation, covering all possible options and settings. Presenter may also suffer delusions that the audience is earnestly interested in seeing all of this.

Examples: “And another way to do this is to ....”

“…But for this example we won’t do that and instead we’ll go back to where we were a moment ago…”

[Customer] “Oh my friggin’ God! – Will he never stop?”

Cure: Guide the afflicted presenter to choose the highest probability pathway for the customer at hand and execute that pathway with the fewest number of steps needed to complete the task. Apply Occam’s Razor, topically (“entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem”).

‘Twas the Night Before The Big Demo

‘Twas the Night Before The Big Demo
(with apologies to Clement Clarke Moore)

‘Twas the night ‘fore the demo and all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, ‘cept my SC and his mouse;
I’d proposed a big licensing deal with great care
In hopes a big order soon would be there;

Management was restless and not in their beds
As visions of bonuses danced in their heads;
And my VP with his forecast and me with my own,
Had just started a long EOQ roam,

When out from my mobile there came a great ring-tone,
I sprang from my chair to answer my phone,
What could it be? Was it good news or no?
A last-minute order? A contract? PO?

Greetings, said my assistant, who spoke on the line,
It was someone to see me, offering help at this time!
Who could it be at this late eleventh-hour,
To make the deal sweet and avoid something sour?

Away to the door I flew in a flash,
And swept it open in my quest for fast cash,
When who to my wondering eyes should appear,
The DemoGuru! And standing so near!

He came in my office and, while dusting off snow,
Said, “I have some news that you’ll want to know.”
He drew up a chair and asked for some tea,
And said to my VP, SC and to me:

“Your deal is in trouble and I’ll tell you now,
Your demo’s confusing, complex and lacks ‘Wow!’
It’s riddled with features and functions and more,
And too many cool things, mouse clicks galore,

Don’t flog them with features and other neat stuff,
Stick with the substance, stay away from the fluff,
The more that you show is not always nice,
Customers may say, ‘Please lower the price!’

The Buzzword-Compliant Vocabulary list,
Are words, I’m afraid, that are better-off missed,
Not Flexible, nor Powerful, nor Easy-to-Use,
Not Robust, nor Seamlessly Integrated abuse,

And no corporate overview, please don’t do that,
After ten minutes they’re grabbing their hats,
Present as a team, so if things get hairy,
Sales folks aren’t lost in the back with Blackberry.

Your customer’s queued and ready to go,
They love the vision you’ve built with them so
They want Technical Proof in the demo you’ve planned,
Just the key capabilities, everything else banned.”

“But how can we do this?” I heard myself cry,
“We’re victims of momentum, we’re nervous to try,
Another approach, a new way to go,
We have to admit we’re just a bit slow!”

“Do the Last Thing First!” he said with a smile,
“Then peel back the layers, and Do It with style,
Peel it back in accord with their interest,
Stay focused and execute, and you’ll find it best,

Your customer’s Situation is a great way to intro,
Their Reasons and needs, from CBI flow,
Review these and check – is this still the case?
Are we aligned or are we off-base?

Start with the end, that big pay-off piece,
Illustrate and describe, those are the keys!
Capture their interest, compel their attention,
Make sure it aligns with their mode of consumption.

When it clicks and they’re hooked, they’ll then ask for more,
There’s absolutely no way that they’ll head for the door,
They’ll say, “Please show us, prove that it’s so,
Show us the rest, please do demo.”

Then Do It, just Do It, with no extra clicks,
To return to that Illustrative image that sticks,
Make it simple, make it fast, make it easy and clear,
Then they will realize they’ve nothing to fear,

Encourage their questions, most are not new,
Good ones and Great ones and Stupid ones too,
Treat Hostiles with courtesy, use your Not Now List so
Those mean, nasty folks can’t damage your flow,

Peel back the layers, Do It Again,
Show only what’s needed, put nothing else in,
Let them drive the demo, let them think they’re in charge,
While their Vision Solution you work to enlarge!

Summarize, summarize, tell them again,
‘Cause adults do learn by repetition,
And when you show a key take-away screen,
Leave it up, let it linger, so they’ll know what they’ve seen!

“I get it – I’ll do it!” exclaimed my SC,
“This is all so obvious, it’s way clear to me!”
And he sprang into action, his mouse flew like lightening,
(Frankly, his speed was a little bit frightening!)

And with that the DemoGuru smiled and he said,
“Your way is now clear, put that baby to bed,
Your deal’s now on track, your order secure,
You’ll make your numbers at the end of the year,
Then he strode from my office in a blink of a pun,
Turned ‘round and he said, “My job here is done,”
Ere he drove out of sight, I did hear him say,
“Great Demo! to all and to all a Great Day!”


Copyright © 2005-2007 The Second Derivative – All Rights Reserved.

Debilitating Demo Diseases – Acronymophilia

Acronymophilia

Symptoms: Fits of sentences filled with vendor-specific acronyms, used both as nouns and verbs. Assumption that audience has already been exposed to these dozens of acronyms and has a comfortable, working understanding of them. Looks of confusion in the audience, followed by doodling and furtive glances at wristwatches.

Examples: “So, the ABT triggers each PTD, resulting in as many SHRP’s as needed.”

“Next, every SHRP will be JY’ed in accordance with the specific WVM settings, which is then picked-up by the TMT module and FRP’ed. Questions?”

Cure: A prescription of Acro-rid™ is recommended for mild and moderate cases; have the afflicted take two pills before presenting to help loosen and remove acronyms. Encourage patient to either verbalize the full word-sets or replace with customer-meaningful phrases. In severe cases, a radical acronectomy may be necessary to remove all untreated acronyms.

Great Demo! Example: Digital Camera Packaging and Instructions

We recently purchased a “point-and-shoot” digital camera – and I was struck by how well the camera packaging and instructions map to Great Demo! ideas…

- The box and instructions had multiple images as examples of what kinds of photos could be taken using the camera. These are wonderful (and effective!) Illustrations, as they included “normal” views, a “telephoto” example, a “macro” view, and even a “smile-finding” sample.

- Next, I was struck by how my better-half proceeded to learn how to use the camera. She didn’t dive into the detailed instructions but, instead, found the “Quick Guide” to follow the direct pathway to get the camera set up and to take her first few pictures. This is a wonderful example of a “Do It” pathway.

- Later on, after she had experimented with the camera at a family event, she was curious about how to access and operate certain features (low lighting; flash “on”/flash “off”, “Movie Mode”, etc.). She looked these items up in the detailed instruction book, going directly to the pages of interest (and not looking for other features…). This is a terrific example of “Peeling Back the Layers” – exploring only those capabilities of interest. Later on, I expect she may revisit the instruction book as she wants to learn about other camera modes and functions.

What a wonderful, real-life example of method mimicking life…!

Website Menu Approach Example

Here’s another example of a website following the “Menu Approach” – simple but effective: http://www.marketboomer.com.au/index.php.

Debilitating Demo Diseases – Architecturitis

Architecturitis – Death by Rectangles

Symptoms: Presentation of architectural slides and diagrams early in the demo, well before any discussion of business solutions (or needs). Far too many rectangles with lines and arrows, often presented via one or more elaborate, highly colored PowerPoint slides. May cause severe drowsiness when delivered after lunch.

Examples: “We have a three-tier architecture, allowing us to use several different modules and components. I’ll describe each of these in turn…”

Cure: Ascertain audience interest prior to presenting architecture information. Ensure that all high-ranking customer representatives, other than IT, have been given the opportunity to leave the room. When presenting, contemplate developing the diagram(s) using a whiteboard rather than via PowerPoint, so that the audience has the opportunity to participate.

“Boiling the Frog”

A laboratory experiment was purported to have been carried out in which a frog was boiled to death – semi-voluntarily.

In the experiment, a frog was placed in water, initially at room temperature. The temperature was raised, very slowly, until finally the temperature was high enough to kill the frog (poor froggy..!).

The conclusion was that if very small, incremental changes are made to one’s environment, we may not notice these changes – even if the aggregate sum of the changes is large, overall.

This same concept can be applied to demos… We may create a demo for version 1.0 of a new product – a demo that is crisp and focused – but the addition of new capabilities, multiple new versions, modules, add-ons, etc., may yield a demo that incrementally becomes complex, confusing, and too detailed. We have effectively boiled ourselves…!

The right word may be effective...

"The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause."- Mark Twain

SMART Board Displays for Trade-show and Office Demos

I’ve recently had seen SMART Boards used very effectively to deliver demos at trade-shows and in vendor site “demo rooms”. A key advantage is that they encourage “going to the screen” and a highly interactive delivery style, as opposed to simply presenting sitting down at a laptop connected to an LCD projector.

SMART Boards enable you to use your fingers as you would a mouse, directly from the screen of a flat panel display or white board. [The SMART Board is an overlay device for a flat panel display and an integrated device in the case of a white board]. Annotations can be made using SMART Board pens (similar to white board markers), along with other capabilities.

Nice tool – nice way to present!

For information on SMART Boards as for existing flat panel displays, explore www.smarttech.com/overlay/panels.

For information on SMART Boards as “intelligent” white board devices, navigate to http://www2.smarttech.com/st/en-US/Products/SMART+Boards/.

Debilitating Demo Diseases – Content-Free Pestilence

Content-Free Pestilence – Buzzword Plague

Symptoms: Constant use of meaningless buzzwords and phrases. Lack of substance.

Examples: “Our powerful software is flexible, intuitive, easy-to-use and integrates seamlessly with your other tools. Robust and scalable, your organization can enjoy the benefits of our best-of-breed world-class offering.”

[Customer] “Bingo! I win – I’ve got five buzzwords in a row…!”

Cure: Rapid, repeated applications of Buzzword-Be-Gone®. Replace with substantive, fact-rich statements that communicate the desired concept, with metrics. In extreme cases, buzzword exorcism may be necessary (contact your local behavioral presentation skills witchdoctor).

Debilitating Demo Diseases – Pointer Palsy

Pointer Palsy

Symptoms: Presenter waves pointer vaguely at screen; pointer moves around constantly; use of broad sweeping movements with a laser pointer. In severe cases, the victim circles mouse or pointer constantly around and around and around. When compounded with aggressive tendencies, presenter may use stick or telescoping pointer like a sword, causing audience members nearby to shrink back in fear.

Examples: “As you can see…” wave – wave – swish – swish…

“If you look over here” swish – wave – swish – wave…

Cure: Guide presenter to move right up to the screen and point carefully and deliberately at the item or area of specific interest. Presenter needs to remember that while presenter has seen that part of the software hundreds of times, it is mostly likely the first time the audience has seen it. In severe cases, presenter may need to be tackled, pinned-down, and pointer carefully removed from his/her grasp.

Debilitating Demo Diseases – Stunted Pain Development

Stunted Pain Development – Solution Abruption

Symptoms: Precipitous presentation of product-oriented solutions to problems prior to plumbing customer pain adequately; victim jumps directly to presenting a solution the moment “pain” is uncovered.

Examples: “Ah ha – so you are having a hard time doing your forecasting? We’ve got a great solution for you…!”

Cure: Discipline. Hold back on the solution, for the present. Ask more questions – perform Workflow Analysis to uncover the depth and value of solving the customer’s problem:

1. What is the customer doing today – what is their current process or workflow?
2. What is the output, the deliverable, for which the workflow is executed? [Hint: this is a prime candidate for a terrific Illustration!]
3. What parts of the process are problematic – what needs to change?
4. What is the value of making the change, in specific terms of Time, People of Money? [This is the “Delta”]

Debilitating Demo Diseases – Logorrhea

Logorrhea – Excessive Talkativeness

Symptoms: Customer is unable to break-in to ask a question; presenter feels obligated to keep on talking if he/she hears nothing from customer. Condition is often exacerbated when working over certain conference room speaker phone systems. Audience often lapses into disgruntled silence for the balance of the demo. Demo fails; sales person does not get order; customer goes with the competition.

Examples: “But, what if…”

“Um, excuse me but…”

“Can I ask…?”

“Never mind.”

Cure: Remove Starbucks coffee cups from victim’s immediate area. Have victim slow down delivery and put pauses in place. Encourage victim to summarize at the end of each section. Ask questions more often and give audience time to respond. Check telephone connection and speakerphone for bisynchronicity before launching into demo.

Debilitating Demo Diseases - Staff Infection

Infection – Group Blindness

Symptoms: Doing the same demo(s) over and over, regardless of customer needs or desires.

Examples: “We’ve always done it this way…”

“New hire, are you? Great – here’s the script for our demo. Memorize it by next Monday…”

Cure: Rapid, deep application of Great Demo! methodology. Reframe and customize demos for each key audience members’ situation. Turn traditional demos upside down and start with the pay-off, the “Wow!” factor:

1. Review customer’s Situation
2. Present the Illustration of the end result
3. Do It – show how to get there in the fewest number of steps
4. Peel Back the Layers in accord with customer interest
5. Manage Questions along the way
6. Summarize so customer retains the key points

Debilitating Demo Diseases - Harbor Tour Delusion

Harbor Tour Delusion – Living in the Land of Hope

Symptoms: Presenting a long, tortured demo that attempts to cover all of the possible customer needs and problems before any reasonable discussion of the customer’s situation.

Aka: Harbor Tour Demo, Show-up-and-Throw-up, Spray and Pray, the Spaghetti Demo, Doin’ the Demo Dash.

Examples: “To give you an idea of what we do, let me show you a demo…”

“Stop me if anything looks interesting…”

[Trade show booth] “Hi – would you like a demo?”

Cure: Collect a handful of Informal Success Stories. Distill and carefully extract the key Situation information, based on:

· Job Title and Industry
· Critical Business Issue
· Reason
· Specific Capabilities
· Delta

Match customer Job Title/Industry, present appropriate Success Stories to generate interest, follow with questions… Apply the Menu Approach for crusty customers or larger groups. Hold back from delivering demo until customer situation is well understood.

Debilitating Demo Diseases - Atrophied Communication

Atrophied Communication (aka CRM Refusal) – Pre-Call Inadequacy

Symptoms: Sales rep communicates key pre-call information in the car on the way to the customer, in the customer’s parking lot, or in the customer’s lobby.

Examples: Sales rep: “Oh, by the way, you need to show them the new biframulator tool – I promised them that we’d show it today.”

Presales Person: “Oh – that’s too bad; I don’t have it on my machine. Why didn’t you ever answer my email messages asking what we know about the account and what we need to show?!!”

Cure: Take two cell phones (or Blackberries) daily. Use to communicate pre-call information as needed – well before the demo is scheduled.

Debilitating Demo Diseases - Rampaging Pronouns

Rampaging Pronouns – Too Many Fictional Characters

Symptoms: Demo begins by introducing Mike the Manager, Eunice the End-User, Veronica the VP, Andrew in Accounting, Sally the Sales Director, and Ike from IT. Presenter immediately loses track of which pronoun to use: I, you, he, she, them, they, um, hmmm. Audience immediately loses patience. Sales rep loses deal, misses quota, and suffers Terminus Abruptus.

Examples: “Next, I’ll show you how Eunice enters the account information, which you can use to calculate the total so she can add the new lines which I need for the next section.”

Cure: Apply restraints; purge excess pronouns (may be painful – Pro-No™ and Pronoun-Be-Gone® are two products often recommended and can be purchased over-the-counter). Replace with “you”, exclusively.

Debilitating Demo Diseases - Auto-Demo Hell

Auto-Demo Hell – Cluelessness in Recorded Demos

Symptoms: See Vacuuosititis, below. Additionally, victim assumes that all prospects have the same problem, the same challenges, and the same objectives. Victim attempts to create a “one-size-fits-all” demo in spite of serving multiple markets and job titles. Viewers habitually drop-out of the 20 minute recording after only 2 minutes. Victim delusion and hallucinations may occur, signified by calling this a “highly qualified, hot lead”.

Examples: “Click here to watch our product demo.”

Cure: Create a cocktail of Informal Success Stories; then distill carefully to recover the High-Probability Sales Situations. Craft focused, specific demos for each targeted Sales Situation and provide a Menu to prospects browsing to guide them to the relevant Sales Situation by Job Title and/or Industry. Note: symptoms may reappear with each new software release.

Debilitating Demo Diseases - Vacuuosititis

Vacuuosititis – Cluelessness in Marketing Roll-out Demos (aka Feature Rash)

Symptoms: A rash of features and non-specific, buzzword-compliant benefit statements. Atrophied, disconnected, narcoleptic audience reaction. Snoring.

Examples: “Now I’ll show you our new biframulator tool, designed to save time and money.

“Next I’ll present all of the new capabilities we’ve put into the new release – shouldn’t take more than two hours…”

Cure: Apply Get-A-Clue™ topically. Gather Informal Success Stories from existing customers, pre-release and beta sites, and apply liberally to the affected presentation. Replace feature-orientation with Critical Business Issue/Solution scenarios. Repeat as necessary until feature rash disappears.