Vision Generation Demos - The Crisp Cure for Stunningly Awful Harbor Tours

What is a Vision Generation demo?  It is just enough demo to generate a vision in the customer’s mind that a solution to a business challenge is possible – and to enable a Discovery conversation to take place. 

A Vision Generation demo should only take a few minutes – and may consist entirely of one or two well-chosen screens or screen-shots (“Illustrations” for you Great Demo! practitioners…).  Let’s explore…

Many software vendors have two types of demos:  

1.  Overview

2.  Deep Dive

Both types, when delivered in the absence of sufficient Discovery information, can lead to stunningly awful results.  Generally speaking, “Deep Dive” demos are delivered after a reasonable amount of Discovery has been completed.  Most overview demos, however, are inflicted with little or no Discovery information in place (and qualification questions alone are not sufficient!).

As a result, overview demos have a range of (customer-generated) names, including:

- Show-up and throw-up

- Spray and pray

- Tech splatter

- The IKEA demo

- Living in the Land of Hope

- Whisky-Tango-Foxtrot, and, of course,

- The Harbor Tour

These painful demos often last 30, 45, or 60 minutes – or even longer.  I’ve heard vendors say, “We couldn’t possibly do an overview of the system in less than 2 hours…”

Customer recipients during and after these demos are often heard to mutter phrases such as:

“Where is this going?”

“OMG-when-will-this-end?”

“Kill me now…”

 “That’s an hour I’ll never get back…”

“What was the point?”

 “Who invited those guys in here?”

Equally bad, vendors know that they are wasting time delivering overview demos that go nowhere…  (Not to mention potentially huge travel and opportunity costs, so I won’t).  What if you could reduce your traditional overview demos from 1 hour down to a few crisp minutes?   What could you use that time for, instead?

Clearly, the best solution is to complete sufficient Discovery prior to any substantive demo.  However, many customers are either unwilling or unable to provide Discovery information in the absence of a demo.  They may even say, “Just show me an overview and I’ll let you know if anything looks interesting…”

How do we solve this conundrum? 

One Guideline and Two Ideas

First, consider the following "rule":  no demo shall last longer than 4 minutes without receiving sufficient Discovery information.  Note that "receiving sufficient Discovery information" can take place during or immediately after those 4 minutes of demo...  Think in terms of quid pro quo – if I show you something (a brief demo), I expect something in return (some Discovery information). 

Second, contemplate the idea of Vision Generation demos:  JUST ENOUGH demo to enable a Discovery conversation to take place.  In Great Demo! methodology, a Vision Generation demo might include an example Situation Slide ("Here's how we helped other ______ [job title] in _____ [industry]...") followed by a compelling Illustration or two.  Total time?  About 4 minutes or less...

This highly successful approach is based on reference selling, gently borrowed from a range of sales methodologies (including Challenger, Solution Selling, CustomerCentric Selling, Sandler, SPIN, Miller Heiman, Value, TAS, etc.), and applied specifically when you’ve been asked to present an overview demo.  It goes like this:

A customer arranged a demo meeting with you, but has not (yet) agreed to a Discovery conversation.  His expectation is that you’ll deliver some kind of “overview” demo…  What you know so far is that he is the VP of Sales of a mid-size software company (and you sell sales automation software tools). 

You say, “I’m glad we are able to invest this time together today.  Before we get into a demo, let me share how we’ve helped other VP’s of Sales at similar-sized software organizations address some of their business challenges…”  You then present the following slide in PowerPoint:

SITUATION

Job Title/Industry:             VP Sales, Mid-size Software

Critical Business Issue:    Achieving/exceeding quarterly and annual quota

Problems/Reasons:          Poor insight into pipeline/forecast

Specific Capabilities:        Rapid view of actuals, status, problems

Delta:                                $2M incremental revenue

You note that “VP’s of Sales at other, similar software companies shared their concerns about making their quarterly and annual numbers.  They said what was holding them back is that they had little or no visibility into their current forecast and pipeline going forward.  They said it took way too much time and effort to determine which sales projects were solid, which were at risk, and where there were holes or gaps in their pipelines.  They often had to go back and forth with IT, who would run searches on their behalf, but the results were often not what they needed, requiring several iterations of the process – and errors and miscommunication often took place.  The result was that it was very difficult to coach the sales team properly and they were often at risk of missing their quarterly numbers.”

You continue, “They said they were looking for some way to access the full forecast and pipeline information, see exactly which deals were in good shape and which needed assistance, and understand exactly where the forward-looking pipeline was strong and where there were gaps.  They said they wanted to get this information in a dashboard or similar vehicle that they themselves could query and drill down for details, without any need for IT.”

You explain, “We provided those capabilities – and our customers report that they’ve been able to generate 1-3 million dollars in incremental revenue and redeploy several full-time-equivalents in sales and sales operations to other, more productive tasks.”

You then ask, “How does this compare with your situation?”

There are three possible answers from your customer [Quiz – before reading on:  what are they?]:

1.  “I have that same situation…”

2.  “I have a similar situation…”

3.  “My situation is different…”

After your customer’s response, you ask, “Tell me about your specific situation…”

Customer says (for example), “Oh, well, I am under pressure to make my numbers – that’s consistent.  However, we have pretty good pipeline management capabilities today, but I do have a number of sales people who either sandbag [under-forecast] or who have Happy Ears [over-forecast] and both of these groups need coaching.  Right now I don’t have good insight into their projects – our current system doesn’t support this…”

You ask (as you begin to take notes), “What are you using today…?”

What has just taken place?  You and your customer have just entered into a Discovery conversation – which is exactly what you want.  Delightful!

Discovery, Then Demo, Then Discovery…

In the scenario above, it is likely that you continue the Discovery conversation for some time – and you may get to the point where you’ve now learned enough to provide a more substantive, focused demo. 

In the spirit of quid pro quo it may be your turn to provide information – and a short, focused demo segment based on what you’ve learned so far may be very reasonable.  After that, back to Discovery…

Here’s a quick road-map of the process so far:

-  Vision Generation Demo (≤4 minutes)

-  “How does this compare with your situation?”

-  Discovery questions and conversation – 10, 20 or 30 minutes – as long as is comfortable

-  Brief focused demo (brief Technical Proof demo, in Great Demo! methodology vocabulary)

-  More Discovery questions and conversation

-  Another brief focused demo segment, if appropriate

-  Repeat as needed…

Your objective is to gain a clear and complete understanding of your customer’s situation – partly so that you can put together and deliver a more substantive focused (Technical Proof) demo, if needed – and partly so that your customer is comfortable that you have a sufficient understanding of their situation.

Discovery is done partly for you, the vendor – and partly (largely!) for the sake of the customer.  Customers are typically unwilling to accept a solution if they feel the vendor has an insufficient understanding of what they believe is their unique, specific situation.

One Guideline and Two Ideas?

For those of you who were paying attention and counting, you’ll note that I promised one guideline and two ideas – it looks like I owe you one more idea, so…

The Vision Generation demo described above assumes that you have a reasonable understanding of your customer’s top challenges before the meeting.  However, what if you don’t have a good idea of your customer’s main problem areas?

Consider using the Menu Approach to identify customer challenges and topics of main interest.  (The Menu Approach article on my website at www.SecondDerivative.com/Articles.html describes how to put this into practice in detail – you can browse for it or simply send me an email and I’ll send you the article.)

The Menu Approach presents the customer with a list of high-probability topics of interest – and invites the customer to choose which topic(s) are of most interest to them.  You can then transition to a corresponding Situation Slide and use an appropriate Illustration or two for each topic – delightful!

Note that the Menu Approach can be applied on-the-fly during the meeting – or you can send a Menu of topics (with brief textual description of each topic) to your customer ahead of time and ask them to rank the topics in terms of importance to them: “High”, “Medium”, or “Low” – and send the list back to you. 

This “self-Discovery” exercise enables you to target the “High” importance topics for crisp Vision Generation demos and to drive the Discovery conversation in accord with what is perceived as most important by the customer. 

But Wait:  There’s More

Finally, here are a few additional ideas you may find useful – or at least amusing!

A colleague of mine, when asked to “just show us an overview demo” by his customers, responds, “I’d be happy to – our overview demo takes about 2 hours for each product – and we have a pile of products.  When would you like to schedule this?”

When receiving the same request (“just show me an overview”), another colleague tells the customer, “Oh, do you really want me to show-up-and-throw-up?  Spray-and-pray?  Take you on a tour of an Ikea?  You really want a Harbor Tour demo?”  After the laughter dies away, he says, “I can either torture you for a few hours of overview demo – or we can invest a few minutes of discussion to focus in on what you want.  Your choice…!”

Another Great Demo! practitioner described the “Serial Serving” analogy.  He told the customer, “Well, asking me to do an overview demo is like asking me as a waiter in a nice restaurant to just start bringing dishes of food to your table – and let me know when you get something you like…  Or, I can show you a menu of what we offer, so that you can see what is possible for your meal and then choose what is most interesting to you!”

Vision Generation – An Encrispened Demo

A Vision Generation demo is designed to provide the customer with just enough demo for the customer to be willing to invest more time with you.  Four minutes of Vision Generation may be all that is needed to start a substantive conversation.

Just think:  if you are able to reduce your traditional overview demos from 1 hour down to 4 minutes, what delightful (and more productive) activities could you use that time for?

Copyright © 2016 The Second Derivative – All Rights Reserved.

Traditional “Overview” Demos – Similar to Serial Serving…?

A recent Great Demo! Workshop participant noted that traditional “overview” demos are similar to what he called, “Serial Serving”.  Intrigued, I asked, “What is Serial Serving?” 

He replied, “It is like being presented with dish after dish of food in a restaurant, none of which you requested, but you sample them as they appear – with the result that you are full before they finally bring something you really like…!  Each dish is carefully prepared by the chef and served by the waiter, but without any input from the customer – an onslaught of offerings…”

I raised a questioning eyebrow…  Obligingly, he elucidated:

“Imagine you walk into a nice restaurant and are seated at a table.  The waiter doesn’t bring you a menu, however, he brings a plate of sautéed shrimp straight from the kitchen, saying ‘This is one of our most popular dishes…!’  Unfortunately, you don’t really like shrimp and ask the waiter to take the plate away. 

The waiter returns and places a large bowl of cooked green-leaf vegetables in front of you, saying, ‘This is another popular specialty of ours:  soy-seasoned spinach, collard greens, and kale.’  You try a few bites and it is acceptable, but not really what you had in mind.  You push the plate aside…

The waiter reappears, this time with a plate of polenta, covered with a confit of red peppers and onions; he presents the dish, noting, ‘Nearly everyone likes this…!’  However, you are not really a polenta fan – you try a few bites and again push the plate away…

Now the waiter presents, in quick order:  potato soup, a grilled beef steak (with special Spanish spices), stewed tomatoes, rabbit stew, cheese fondue, and pot-au-feu, commenting that ‘We just added these dishes recently and we are very excited about them…!’  You try small portions of each – and begin to feel a bit overwhelmed.

Without respite (and no entremets or intermezzo), our waiter delivers a platter of petit-fours, a carafe of cabernet, an urn of sea urchin roe, a bowl of braised Brussels sprouts (in a bold Bordeaux), a seared sliver of salmon (slightly seasoned with sesame), a mug of mugwort, a ramekin of rutabaga ratatouille (with a rhubarb reduction), and shots of soju, sherry, Sambuca, sangria, sauterne, schnapps, and scotch (several with peated barley, several with plain barley).  Obligingly, you sample what you can (with a special emphasis on the selection of shots, most likely, at this point).  You are now full, definitely overwhelmed – a bit concerned about the likely size of the bill…!

Sadly, you were never served what you really wanted (rack of lamb). 

As you leave, the waiter asks, ‘What did you think?  What did you like?’

You respond, not wishing to offend him, ‘Oh, it was all pretty good…’

He asks, ‘Will we see you back again?’

You reply, again trying to be courteous, ‘Oh yes…’ – but you have absolutely no plan to be back – ever…!

That’s Serial Serving – and it is exactly synonymous with what vendors do when they present traditional overview demos!”

Great Demo! and Stunningly Awful Demos Articles – What Have You Missed?

In response to a number of requests, here’s a quick update on the articles published over the past year (plus a few months):

-          Stunningly Awful Demos:  Waaay Out of Alignment

-          Stunningly Awful Demo Phrases

-          Stunningly Awful On-Boarding Demos – The Trouble Begins

-          Stunningly Awful Sales Tactics – The Future-Sales Prevention Team

-          Stunningly Awful Demo Communication

-          Let’s Talk About Value

-          Stunningly Awful Sales Kickoff Demos

They are all available at www.SecondDerivative.com/Articles.html.  You are welcome to download the PDF versions and forward them on to others, as well!

The Great Demo! blog delivers these articles fresh off of the virtual press, along with a range of other tips, tools and ideas – you can find the blog at www.SecondDerivative.com/Blog.html.  

Beyond BANT - Great Discovery Questions

When doing Discovery, “BANT” is simply insufficient for non-transactional software sales cycles.  (BANT = Budget, Authority, Need(s), Timeline).  It can be a good starting point, but clearly more in-depth questions and discussion is needed with our customers.  Here are a few example questions to help stretch the discussion beyond BANT:

- Tell me about the culture here:  what is the team’s willingness/ability to change? 

- How does your company perceive itself – or want to be perceived:  as an Early Adopter, a Fast Follower, more of a Majority type, or a careful Late Adopter?

- When was the last time the team had a change of process or implemented new software?

- What happened with the past few new systems you purchased and installed?  How did those implementations go?

These few questions represent just a couple of areas to explore beyond BANT – any others you’d like to add to the list?  (It should be a long list…!)

Encrispening Demos – Hard to Do But Well Worth It!

It is much harder to produce a short, crisp demo than to execute a traditional long one.  Why?  Because It requires more thought and more effort to cut something down than to leave everything in.

It doesn’t really require much thought to simply replay a traditional demo over and over (and over and over), but it takes a great deal of thought and effort to take a 90 minute traditional demo and encrispen it to 20 minutes.  What do I keep in?  What do I cut out?  What do I have ready to go, but keep behind my back until the customer asks?

The Great Demo! methodology provides the recipe for encrispening demos – to make them crisp, concise and wonderfully focused on exactly what the customer wants and needs.  The rewards for the investment in effort are tremendous:

Tangible returns reported by Great Demo! practitioners include:

-      Gains of 10% or more in improved close rates overall

-      Demo win rate increases of 25-75% have been reported

-      Reduced “No Decisions” by half

-      Reduced sales cycle length by 50%

-      Reduced of cost-of-sales by 25%

-      Reduced “wasted demos” by 50%

-      Free POC’s and evaluations transformed into paid events

-      Eliminated or reduced the need for POC’s and evaluations

-      Increased deal size and breadth by 2x – both licenses and services

Intangible Benefits are reported as well:

-      Great Demo! practitioners’ customers report a more solution-oriented, consultative, customer-centric approach from the field organization.

-      Captured and leveraged high value “Informal Success Story” information (reference stories).

-      Established positive differentiation from competitors.

-      Dramatically improved Discovery – “You really listened to us…” comments from customers.

-      And substantial improvements are often reported in communications between sales and presales, and in team practices.

Encrispening challenges aren’t limited to demos, of course, as this telegram exchange between Mark Twain and his publisher:

Publisher said:

NEED 2-PAGE SHORT STORY TWO DAYS.

Twain replied:

NO CAN DO 2 PAGES TWO DAYS.  CAN DO 30 PAGES 2 DAYS.  NEED 30 DAYS TO DO 2 PAGES.

Wishing everyone Great Demos in 2016…!

The Curse of Knowledge

The Curse of Knowledge is, indeed, a curse for presales and sales folks – and the seasoned veterans are at highest risk.  It comes in (at least) two flavors:  

1.       When doing Discovery – “I already know your problems and situation – so I don’t need to ask you…” 

2.       When anticipating questions – “Everyone always asks that – so I’ll pre-answer it before you ask…”

When doing Discovery, seasoned veterans know their customers better than those customers know themselves.  Customer problems and situations have been heard countless times before – so why bother to ask questions?  We already know their situation and we already know what solution is best for them, right?  The problem here is that customers believe their situations are unique – and aren’t comfortable to accept a proposed solution from a vendor who hasn’t asked enough questions of them.

Guidance?  A smart man knows the answers; a wise man knows what questions to ask…

When anticipating questions from customers, let them ask their questions (even – and especially – if you’ve heard that same question 100 times).  Pre-answering questions takes away the possibility of a conversation with the customer.  Further, there are always people who feel obligated to ask something, and if you’ve pre-answered the typical questions, you may force them to pose a question that is way out in the periphery… 

Guidance?  Have your answers prepared and ready to go – but keep those answers (metaphorically) behind your back…  When the customer asks the question, you are prepared.  You (metaphorically) take the answer from behind your back and respond to the question.  Your demo is going perfectly when the customer is asking the questions you hope and expect them to ask at that point!  

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

‘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 Problems and Reasons, 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 Parking Lot so

Those mean, crusty 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 © 2005-2012 The Second Derivative – All Rights Reserved.

Amusing Presales Videos

Here are a handful of amusing and/or cynical presales-related videos for your viewing pleasure:

Rockwell Turbo Encabulator:  Wonderfully produced demo spoof - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXJKdh1KZ0w 

The Expert:  Less about demos, but fun in any case - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg&app=desktop

Pre-sales Life 1.0 – sadly funny… - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYJU-SKBaqE

A conference Call in Real Life – WebEx etc. horrors we’ve all lived through - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYu_bGbZiiQ

Subterranean Presales Blues – a bit older but fun also - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6G9knOLdQzo&feature=related

Any others to add?

Corporate Overview Presentations – Start-ups vs. Traditional Companies

[Here’s your SNOD:  Snarky Observation of the Day]

What is the difference between corporate overview presentations delivered by traditional vs. start-up companies?

Traditional Company:  It is the low-energy delivery of an unnecessary onslaught of narcissistic and tedious company and product information…

Start-up:  It is the high-energy delivery of an unnecessary onslaught of narcissistic and tedious company and product information.

Note:  As an audience member, run for the hills if you see a salesperson open a Corporate Overview Presentation that shows (in PowerPoint) “Slide 1 of 45”…!

Double Note:  For those who are inclined to comment, “But Peter, they may not know about us…” consider the following:

1.  As a customer, I wouldn’t invite you to consume an hour (or more) for a demo meeting if I didn’t already have a good understanding of your company (for example, from your website).

2.  Shouldn’t your marketing department have already broadcast this information?

Fabulous Phrase From Recent Great Demo! Workshop: < = >

< = >

What does this mean?  Less is More. 

It was very effectively communicated earlier this week at a Great Demo! Workshop by one of the customer’s principals who kicked-off the session by moving to a white board and writing, “< = >”.  He then asked, “So, what does this mean?”

A few tentative responses came from the audience, such as, “Less-than is equal to greater-than…?” and “I don’t get it…”  He responded by saying, “It means ‘Less is More’ – this is one of the key guiding principles of the Great Demo! methodology.”  

What a delightful way to kick-off a Kick-off – truly terrific!

Simple Best Practice for Ending Web Demos and Webinars

Here’s a simple best practice for ending web demos and webinars:  Hit “Pause” at the end of your session. 

(Using tools such as WebEx and GoToMeeting) This freezes the screen that the audience sees.  Doing this reduces the risk of forgetting to stop sharing your screen – and therefore the risk of your audience watching you work on your email, or browse some non-business-like websites (*ahem*) or update your forecast or other potentially embarrassing activity… 

I recommend hitting Pause first, then stopping sharing and doing other session-related clean-up next.

Note:  Bonus points will be awarded to presenters who, at the end of their demo, return to the best, most compelling screen (an “Illustration”) before hitting Pause.  I can’t tell you how many presenters finish a demo and then show a PowerPoint slide that says, “Questions?” or “Thank You!” – that’s a serious waste of an opportunity.  The last thing the audience sees will likely be remembered moderately well – take advantage of that!

Stunningly Awful Demos: Waaay Out of Alignment

I’m often surprised at how traditional demos are organized – they seem to focus on the least important items for the target audience.  Contemplate the following scenario:

You are presenting a demonstration of your fabulous business intelligence tool to a mixed audience that includes:

- Executives

- Middle Managers

- Business Analysts/Staffers

- “Super-User”/”Power-User” Business Analysts

- IT

Traditional BI demos often start with a blank screen and show how to build a wonderfully rich dashboard or visualization, followed by building another again from scratch, followed by drilling down, slicing, dicing and generally messing around with the visualization and the underlying data – but without much purpose towards solving any business problems. 

Who does this appeal to?  Likely only the Super-Users/Power-Users, who are interested in seeing how easy or hard it is to build visualizations¹. 

Meanwhile…

- The Executives are thinking, “This is going nowhere; I’ve got another meeting I need to attend – I’m outta here…!”

- The Middle Managers are thinking, “This is going nowhere; furthermore it looks like this is a very complicated tool that only an expert could use – we’ll only need a few seats at maximum if we license this stuff…”

- The Business Analysts/Staffers are thinking, “Oh my God, this looks waaay too complicated for me to use…”

- And IT is thinking, “How much bandwidth is this going to consume on our network – it looks like a real hog with all that data moving around…”

The result?  Fail.

The impact?  More demos, extended sales cycles, smaller initial licenses, increased difficulty in achieving “Expansion” after an initial “Landing”; general whining, moaning, and gnashing of teeth.

Use Modes

Contemplate the following use modes:

1.  Set-up Mode – stuff you do once

2.  Daily Use Mode – stuff you do often (daily, for example)

Now contemplate the following for a typical dashboard or visualization:

- How often does one set up a dashboard or visualization?  Once, typically.

- How often does one consume the information in a dashboard or visualization?  It might be daily, weekly, monthly, etc. – many times a year, in any case.

Traditional demos tend to spend an enormous amount of time showing Set-up Mode – and surprisingly little time showing Daily Use Mode.  When we contemplate each of our audience job titles again, with respect to their modes of use, we’ll see that these traditional demos are generally waaaay out of alignment with their audiences’ interests:

- Executives:  Are always in Daily Use Mode – never in Set-up Mode

- Middle Managers:  Are nearly always in Daily Use Mode – rarely in Set-up Mode

- Business Analysts/Staffers:  Are largely in Daily Use Mode – and only occasionally in Set-up Mode

- Super-User/Power-User Business Analysts:  Live mostly in Set-up Mode

- IT:  Are still wondering about bandwidth issues (pre-Set-up Mode)

If the decision-makers are Executives or Middle-Managers, you can see why the end result of these demos are “fails”.

Alignment

So, if we want to be in good alignment with these folks, here’s a recommended strategy for this demo:

- Executives:  Start with the Executives, show a few terrific visualizations/dashboards, explaining what business problems they help address – Daily-Use Mode.  Summarize.

- Middle Managers:  Next in line, again show a few relevant visualizations, again explaining the business problems they help solve – and a bit about how to drill-down to find more detail.  Summarize.

- Business Analysts/Staffers:  Next up, show how they can answer the questions coming from their managers – specifically how to drill-down to find root-causes, anomalies, specific patterns and relationships, etc. – use the fewest number of steps to address each scenario.  Ask if they are interested in seeing how to modify an existing visualization.  Summarize.

- Super-User/Power-User Business Analysts:  Now it is their turn, start with a completed visualization, then show how to modify it; then show how to build it from scratch.  Summarize.

- IT:  Address any unanswered questions on implementation, access rights, single-sign-on and, of course, bandwidth.  Summarize.

A Subtlety…

There’s another, more subtle mode to consider, as well:  Collaboration Mode.

It is comparatively rare that people work alone, in a vacuum.  A Middle Manager might want a new visualization to track a particular process and its KPI’s – but she isn’t likely to create it herself.  She’ll contact a Power-User and ask him to generate the visualization – which she’ll likely need to have edited and tuned before she puts it into day-to-day use. 

The old way of doing this was a slow, serial approach.  The Middle Manager described what she wanted and the Power-User went away and built something; they then came together a few days later to discuss.  After some questions and comments back and forth, the Power-User went back to his cube to make some changes (sometimes major changes) and ran version 2.0 by the Manager – and this process was repeated as necessary until done.

Now, both parties can come together (either face-to-face or over the web, using tools like WebEx and GoToMeeting).  The Manager describes what she needs; the Power-User then shows a few completed example visualizations and describes what is possible – he may show how a few changes can be made – to give the Manager a vision of what her visualization might look like.  [Note:  the astute will realize that this is, in effect, a Vision Generation demo…]

They then work together to create the visualization desired.  You might expect portions of the conversation to sound like:

MM:  “OK, can I get a view of the U.S. and map the sales data to each state?”

PU:  “Sure, let me drag that out…  Do you want the data as numbers or in mini-charts for each state?”

MM:  “Wow, show me a few mini-charts – and could you have the total revenue as a single bigger number for each state as well?”

PM:  “Yes – here, I just added it.  Now, what level of detail would you like for the sales figures and pipelines for each state and region – we can place another graphic on your dashboard and break that information out separately…”

MM:  “Cool – can you show me an example?”

Collaboration Mode is a wonderful thing – it is the confluence of Daily-Use and Set-up Modes.

A Further Subtlety…

Most managers today operate in two (additional) modes:

1.  Things are going just fine…

2.  There’s a problem or anomaly I need to address.

These modes map to Standard Reports vs. Alerts and Exceptions.

A Standard Report is something that generally is received on a regular basis and is used to track progress.  A simple example is a weekly forecast – e.g., delivered automatically each Monday to the VP of sales and the Regional Sales Managers – so that they can assess their progress towards achieving their quotas.

These reports are rapidly consumed and reviewed – and if everything looks fine they are filed or deleted.  If there is a problem – “looks like forecast revenues for the Southeast are way below expectations…” – then additional (and often separate) action may be taken.  “Let’s look at the detail for the Southeast deals this quarter and the current pipeline – what are the bigger deals and which ones are at risk?”

Most managers implicitly assign higher value to Alerts and Exceptions – this is where they need to step in and take action.  Standard Reports are good; reports and vehicles that show Alerts and Exceptions are better!

But Wait There’s More…

Most demos remain entirely within the vendor’s software.  This is simply not real-life – nearly no-one spends their day working our software (unless your software is Outlook or Google Mail…).

The sad truth is that most users do not live in our software, in spite of our fervent desires.  Where do they spend their time?  That’s right,

1.  In their email tool and

2.  In a browser.

So, with that in mind, why not map Daily-use Mode to the tools people are most likely using? 

Contemplate showing Daily Use Mode by starting in email and showing an unopened message – you double-click on that message to open it, showing a link to the desired weekly report.  Clicking the link, the report opens in a browser window…   Daily Use Mode for a Standard Report.

Similarly, start in your email tool and again show an unopened message – double-clicking shows an alert, “Pipeline Exception – Low Lead Generation for Southeast” – clicking on the link brings up a Pipeline Detail View visualization in a browser window…  Daily Use Mode for an Alert/Exception!

Ahhhh – Alignment

Aligning the likely mode of use with the corresponding job title yields surprisingly compelling and successful demos.  It’s not rocket science; it’s just common sense!

¹ If these folks are the decision-makers, then you are OK for an initial, small implementation…  On the other hand, if they are not the decision-makers, then the trouble has just begun!

Copyright © 2015 The Second Derivative – All Rights Reserved.

Unconsciously Incompetent Managers - The Impact of the 4 Stages on Coaching

How many newly-minted managers are promoted into their managerial roles from individual contributor positions?  And how many of these new managers are provided with training on how to be a manager?

Far too often, managers are promoted and, because they are now managers, it is assumed that they now know how to manage and coach their teams.  Baaaad assumption!  While this clearly impacts all portions of a business, newly-appointed sales and presales managers are often at the greatest risk. 

It seems to be a rarity for new managers to receive training on how to coach their sales and presales teams.  They were often promoted to manager level because they were great sales people or presented the most compelling demos.  However, when asked to characterize the key elements of a great sales person or the key elements of a great demo, they are unable to do so – “I just do it this way and it seems to work…”  They were Unconsciously Competent in their disciplines.

Regarding presales managers and coaching, there are four stages to consider…

Stage 1:  Unconsciously Incompetent:  Managers who are unaware that they should be coaching their teams and are therefore failing to do so.

    Result?  Un-coached teams; coaching for the wrong results.

    Example:  “Do more demos, damn it…!”  [More bad demos is not an improvement…]

Stage 2:  Consciously Incompetent:  Managers who realize they should be coaching their teams, but have no idea how to go about it.

    Result?  Un-coached teams; coaching for the wrong results; apologetic non-coaching; apologetic coaching for the wrong results.

    Example:  “Can you please do better demos?  Try putting more passion into it…”  [Passionate, yet still bad demos are not an improvement…]

Once managers are taught how to coach – what to look for and how to implement change in their teams – then some real improvements can occur:

Stage 3:  Consciously Competent:  Managers who have learned how to coach their teams and are actively practicing what they have learned (and, hopefully, are constantly working to do even better).

    Result?  Good to excellent coaching; results are clear and measurable.

    Example:  “Do you have all six elements for your Situation Slide?  What happens if you are missing one or more of these?  Here are a few questions you can ask the next time you are doing Discovery to uncover the missing elements…”

Stage 4:  Unconsciously Competent:  Managers who have been coaching long enough that they no longer consciously think about what to look for and how to provide guidance.  Occasionally, there are some “naturals” who were never trained on how to coach but have an innate ability to do so.

    Result?  Typically good to excellent coaching; results can be variable, particularly when no measurements are in place to track progress and tune.

    Example:  “This demo preparation looks a little thin; you can get the information you need by asking more questions in Discovery…”  [Results can be improved and variability reduced when the “naturals” include metrics in their tracking and coaching guidance – but it is often hard for these managers to remember to do…]

Some observations:

- Managers who attend and participate in skills and methodology training sessions with their teams are much more likely to be successful coaches for those skills and methodology elements.

- Managers who take courses on how to coach are much more likely to be successful coaches, overall.

- Managers who establish and track meaningful metrics are much more likely to see meaningful change(s) in their teams.

A few more observations:

- Managers who do not attend and participate in skills and methodology training sessions (with or without their teams) are woefully unprepared to coach to those skills and methodology elements.

- Managers who attend skills and methodology training sessions, but who sit in the back doing email are nearly as woefully unprepared to coach for those skills and methodology elements as those above!

For managers of Great Demo! alumni, I have coaching guidelines and key coaching attributes available for your use – let me know if you are interested in receiving these. 

Webinar Recording Now Available: DemoCoach Great Demo! Self-Coaching Tool – Getting Better at What We Do

We recently delivered a 40 minute webinar for Great Demo! practitioners on using DemoCoach:  why to use DemoCoach and how to use it along with some suggestions on how best to get started. 

The webinar recording can be viewed here.

DemoCoach was created to help refresh and reinforce the ideas we cover in our Great Demo! Workshops and Seminars – a way to support you when preparing demos, working with colleagues, and post-demo to reflect on how things went so that we can improve our practices.  DemoCoach is being offered by the fine folks at FactorLab (www.FactorLab.com) to Great Demo! alumni for your use for free (a for-charge enterprise version is also available, with more capabilities). 

Pre-demo:

- Do I have a complete Situation Slide?

- Is that really a Critical Business Issue for this customer?

- What key Great Demo! element do I want to remember to focus on?

Post-demo:

- Did I practice what I had focused on – how did I do?

- Did I execute the demo the way I’d planned?

- What did I learn that I’d like to apply in the future?

Using DemoCoach takes about the same effort as sending a text message or two – and that small investment will likely pay sizeable dividends in terms of improved demos…

Get started now – and make success a habit!  http://factorlab.com/demo-coach

From Bad to Worse – Presenting the “Standard” Demo AFTER Doing Discovery

It is a Bad Thing to present a “Standard Demo” without doing any Discovery; it is even worse to ask your customer to invest time doing Discovery and then ignore what was learned by showing the same old “Standard Demo”.  It is insulting, in fact, from the perspective of many customers!

[Why do I raise this point?  Because I JUST had it happen to me!]

The Importance of “Demo” Data in Demos

One of our objectives in a demonstration is to “suspend disbelief” – we are trying to make things look as real as possible.  The more real things look in a demo, the more believable it is in the mind of the customer.  “Demo” data can have a huge impact, accordingly, on the believability of a demo. 

Data that is obviously fake will hurt our cause – and may drive the customer to request or demand a POC of similar trial.  Examples of fake data include:

- Names of famous actors, book characters, cartoon characters and clearly made-up names (e.g., “Mary Manager”, “Steven Staffer”, “Edward Executive”).

- Clearly fake addresses – street names, cities, countries, etc.

- Clearly fake company names, similarly.

I recommend investing a reasonable amount of energy to acquire and use data that really looks real.  One way to do this is to use data sources that your QA department may already use.  This data is typically realistic and may already have specific fields that map to your target industries.

Interestingly, customers at different stages of the Technology Adoption Curve will likely react very differently to demo data.  “Early Adopters” are often very forgiving of the data that is used.  “Early Majority” customers are reasonably forgiving, but the further you move to the right and into the “Late Majority” the more they need to see their own data (or what appears to be their own data) used in demos.

Any tips for good sources of realistic-looking data?

“Just Checking-in…”

Just heard a wonderful way to phrase a “just checking in…” email:

“Dear Customer,

I need to follow-up on our meeting [and demo] this week and ask if you could let me know:

- Are you comfortable to move forward?

- Have you decided to go another direction?

- Or are you still thinking…?

Please let me know…!”

Most of us hate to send (and receive) the classic “just checking-in with you…” emails.  They will often go unanswered, in many cases because your customer isn’t ready to say “yes” and/or may be uncomfortable to say “no”.  The addition of the “are you still thinking?” option gives the customer a way to respond without committing (which should tell us that there are still open, unaddressed technical, business, timing or competitive issues).  

And if they do respond, “still thinking…” you can use that to re-open the conversation (and uncover the open issues). 

[Note:  while this may be perceived as more of a sales issue, it still applies to completing the Technical Sale.]

Thoughts?