In which we explore stories of the horrors of “Lead Churn” (and some solutions).
From the Legumes:
“Peter Cohan and Rob Dean live on Two PreSales in a Pod - Podcast!!!
We're back with another of your favourite topics: How buyers are treated at the start of their journey with you (which is NOT, the start of their journey).
Peter Cohan and Rob Dean join hosts Adam Freeman, Mark Green and Tom Edwards to discuss this hot topic. Now presales have the tools to scale further up the funnel - what's wrong with providing what these buyers need at that point rather than scaring them away with BANT?
Massive value. Thanks both for joining myself [Mark Green], Adam Freeman and Thomas Edwards”
You can find this 33-minute recording here and remember to always finish your vegetables… Enjoy!
Here’s an email I received recently (slightly redacted to protect identities) – what do you think about this approach to offering a demo?
Hi Peter,
As a company, YY believes transparency is the best way forward in reducing the number of ZZ incidents in the future and minimizing their impact when they do happen. That’s why YY is committed to building a network where the XX of every company is available on-demand to reduce the time and complexity of completing ZZ.
Do you have 15 minutes to talk about how YY can help your company be more transparent? My previous offer still stands. If you complete a demo, I’ll send you a pair of AirPod 3s.*
Schedule Demo [Button with link to landing page]
Best,
AA Account Manager
*Offer valid for any decision-maker/influencer in relation to your company's ZZ management strategy. Company size should exceed 100 employees. Valid in countries where order and delivery can be fulfilled via apple.com. Exclusions apply. Limit 1 per company. Personalized demos take place after the initial discovery call.
Sharpen your saw for the Fall! Great Demo! Public Workshops are perfect for individuals or small teams:
EMEA September 6-8 (Virtual)
North America September 7-9 (Virtual)
Our next EMEA Great Demo! Virtual Public Workshop is scheduled to take place September 6-8 for folks in Europe and the UK time-zones. You can find registration information here.
Our next North America Great Demo! Virtual Public Workshop will take place September 7-9. You can find registration information here.
Explore the wealth of tips, ideas, articles, blog posts, webinar and podcast recordings on the Resources Pages at https://GreatDemo.com.
You’ll find quick tips on demos, doing discovery, buyer enablement, POCs, personal development and more.
Grab an insightful article for deeper exploration – there are dozens on a wide range of presales, sales, and customer success topics.
Or sit back and watch/listen to a webinar or podcast recording while you eat lunch.
Use the Search dialogs on the Resources pages to find exactly what you want. This free library is currently available to all – enjoy!
Ask yourself:
You are likely suffering from the tyranny, the terror, and the trap of traditional demos.
Watch the recording as we explored these challenges and presented intriguing, effective, and validated approaches as solutions!
Most people, as prospects, don’t want to say “no” to salespeople. We are typically more comfortable to say “yes” to small commitments than to stop the process – even if we never intend to purchase.
This is a serious time-sink for both prospects and vendors!
Consider the following engagement:
This opportunity never closed and is probably listed as a “No Decision” outcome. That’s a big investment for no change. We might call this a “No-No” – there was no definite “No”!
Even worse, sales teams are taught to “handle objections” in an effort to convince a prospect to continue this unproductive process. This opportunity was not going to close for this vendor since the prospect didn’t see the product as a good fit, but was uncomfortable telling the vendor, “No”.
So, what if the prospect had responded, “No, this doesn’t look like a good fit” after the first demo and the vendor elegantly responded, “I understand. I’m glad we were able to invest the time together. Perhaps we can revisit this as our product evolves and your situation changes…”
That would have spared everyone the time and other resources consumed in a mutually non-productive process.
Here’s a thought: before pursuing “next steps” in a sales process, particularly if the prospect doesn’t seem compelled by your offering, consider saying, “If you’d like to continue this process, great. However, it’s also OK if you tell me ‘No, this isn’t a good fit at this time.’ That will help both of us…!”
I am sad to report that I have terminated my partnership with the Presales Academy and the Presales Collective. I do not agree with their program, their directions, or their principles.
- Peter Cohan
“How do you qualify good prospects and deal with people 'just browsing'?”
Peter Cohan once again joined Consensus’ Aaron Janmohamed in this 12-minute conversation. We covered:
Browse this podcast for yourself here!
What exactly is good discovery and why is understanding it so important?
Great Demo!’s Peter Cohan joined Consensus’ Aaron Janmohamed for this 15-minute exploration of:
You can discover this episode for yourself here. Enjoy!
Great Demo!’s Paul Pearce joined Patrick Pissang for this impromptu, but extremely insightful discussion of real-life presales-sales partnering. There are some really excellent ideas here!
We suggest folks fast forward to minute 13:30, where the interview begins. Fun and very informative!
https://www.linkedin.com/video/event/urn:li:ugcPost:6940234396876603392/
Thursday June 23 at 10:00 AM Pacific – Register here:
https://primetime.bluejeans.com/a2m/register/pdaysthu
Great Demo!’s Peter Cohan will join MercuryGate International’s Karen Oxenford-Melcher and Omedym’s Greg Dickinson for this discussion of:
You’ll walk away with a concrete plan on how to save time and focus on qualified “high touch” demos that help close deals. Don’t miss out on the spark needed to engage early-stage prospects in the buying journey.
Looking forward to seeing you there!
Here are sessions from the Great Demo! Team:
Hope you find the sessions useful!
Take advantage of the typical summer business slow-down to sharpen your saw! Public Workshops are perfect for individuals or small teams:
North America June 7-9, 2022 (Virtual)
EMEA July 4-5 (Face-to-Face)
EMEA September 6-8 (Virtual)
Our next North America Great Demo! Virtual Public Workshop is scheduled for June 7-9.
Our next EMEA Great Demo Public Workshop will take place July 4-5 in Amsterdam – this will be an in-person, face-to-face session.
Additionally, an EMEA Great Demo! Virtual Public Workshop is also scheduled to take place September 6-8 for folks in Europe and the UK time-zones.
Vivun hosted this event – you can find the recording here.
“Adapting to Meet the Demands of Modern B2B Buyers
Join us at the newest Xpert Series virtual meetup where industry leaders, innovators, and coaches discuss the revolutionary methods they employee to solve complex problems in PreSales. First up, Natasja Bax.
Buyer journeys have evolved and companies must adapt to the new modern buyer if they wish to survive—making PreSales more strategic than ever. With the shift in B2B selling and escalated importance for PreSales we must ask ourselves: What will it take to excel at the next stage of PreSales?
The owner of The DemoScene, Natasja Bax, has been tracking the PreSales Evolution and will be joining us April 28 at 14:00 GMT for a fireside chat-style discussion about where PreSales has come and where it is continuing to go. This session will be live & interactive so come prepared with questions and an open mind to the future of PreSales.”
EMEA July 4-5 (Face-to-Face)
EMEA September 6-8 (Virtual)
Our next North America Great Demo! Virtual Public Workshop is scheduled for June 7-9. You can find registration and additional information here – contact Julie Hansen for additional details.
Our next EMEA Great Demo Public Workshop will take place July 4-5 in Amsterdam – this will be an in-person, face-to-face session. You can find registration and related information here. Contact Natasja Bax for additional details.
An EMEA Great Demo! Virtual Public Workshop is scheduled to take place September 6-8 for folks in Europe and the UK time-zones. Click here for more information – or contact Natasja Bax for more information.
This terrific book provides refreshing and provocative insights into ourselves and into our interactions with others. The ideas can open our minds to new and improved ways of thinking and communicating that positively impact sales and presales processes, including handling objections, negotiating, and describing and presenting our offerings. It also suggests intriguing methods of managing competition and related challenges, based on a more nuanced approach to the competitive landscape.
One of the author’s fundamental themes is that we often aren’t fully aware of our own limitations. He quotes Dunning, “The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger Club is that you don’t know you are a member of the Dunning-Kruger Club!” It is hard to “know what you don’t know…” and equally hard to even be aware of what you don’t know.
So, be curious and check it out!
Great Demo!’s Peter Cohan joined Demodesk’s VP of Revenue Lauren Wright to explore best (and worst!) practices for driving interactivity in demos delivered over the web.
Topics included:
You can find the recording here. Enjoy!
Vivun is hosting this event: April 28 at 14:00 GMT
“Adapting to Meet the Demands of Modern B2B Buyers
Join us at the newest Xpert Series virtual meetup where industry leaders, innovators, and coaches discuss the revolutionary methods they employee to solve complex problems in PreSales. First up, Natasja Bax.
Buyer journeys have evolved and companies must adapt to the new modern buyer if they wish to survive—making PreSales more strategic than ever. With the shift in B2B selling and escalated importance for PreSales we must ask ourselves: What will it take to excel at the next stage of PreSales?
The owner of The DemoScene, Natasja Bax, has been tracking the PreSales Evolution and will be joining us April 28 at 14:00 GMT for a fireside chat-style discussion about where PreSales has come and where it is continuing to go. This session will be live & interactive so come prepared with questions and an open mind to the future of PreSales.
To make this virtual event just as special as an in-person meetup, we’ll send you a voucher for dinner, drinks, or whatever else you fancy as our way of saying “thanks” for joining the conversation.”
In which we will actually perform an unrehearsed discovery call, following our discovery methodology, with “call outs” from time to time to highlight and explain key elements, skills, and principles. This won’t be your standard webinar!
In which we actually performed an unrehearsed discovery call, following our discovery methodology, with “call outs” from time to time to highlight and explain key elements, skills, and principles. This wasn’t your standard webinar!
See a real-life example of doing discovery that can serve as the basis for a template for you and your team, as well.
To set the context for this webinar, our prospect has reached out to us asking about demo skills training possibilities. We had an initial 20-minute conversation about our offerings, after which we sent information on our training options and pricing. After digesting this information, our prospect reconnected for the next step: a discovery conversation.
We interspersed the conversation with comments and observations about the anatomy of this discovery call, exploring some of the key elements of discovery, including:
Note that our prospect provided real-life complexity with regards to his situation, making the conversation more challenging than the average discovery call! Listen-in as we interviewed our prospect…
You can find the recording here. Enjoy!
North America June 7-9, 2022
Our next North America Great Demo! Virtual Public Workshop is now scheduled for June 7-9. You can find registration and additional information here – and you can also contact Julie Hansen for additional details.
This Virtual Workshop will take place over three days with 2 x 90-120-minute sessions each day, giving you time in between sessions to “get other work done” and to try the new ideas out yourself! Great Demo! Public Workshops are perfect for small teams, individuals, and new hires.
This year’s DEMOFEST lineup looks terrific – here is how to register. Looking forward to seeing you there!
Great Demo!’s Peter Cohan joined Subhanjan Sarker of Business Podcast Network and Pitchlink for this discussion about life, liberty and the pursuit of Great Demos. This 50-minute interview explores the Great Demo! founding story and origins of the book, plus descriptions and explanations of many Great Demo! concepts.
This interview can serve as an introduction for those who are new to Great Demo! and an opportunity for existing practitioners to refresh and expand their understanding of the methodology. For example, we explored key elements of doing discovery, executing Vision Generation and Technical Proof Demos, and driving interactivity in virtual demos that goes far beyond what is covered in the book.
I think you’ll find this interview very informative – you can find the podcast here. Enjoy!
“From growing revenue and headcount to capturing insights and collaborating across multiple functional areas, running a PreSales team is no easy feat. So, how do you effectively scale PreSales success to meet high growth targets across the globe? The answer is in the data.
Whether you call it a Proof of Concept (POC), a Trial, Pilot, or a Proof of Value (POV), hands-on product evaluations are often table stakes for getting important B2B deals done. In this critical stage PreSales teams are expected to deliver customer value and support the sales team in closing bigger, faster deals.”
Great Demo!'s Peter Cohan joined Brett Crane, VP of PreSales at Vivun, for a conversation on “how to execute evaluations with better outcomes while protecting your time and resources”.
You can find the recording here. Enjoy!
EMEA February 28 – March 2, 2022 – NEW!
North America March 22-24, 2022
We’ve added a new, additional EMEA Great Demo! Virtual Public Workshop as the March 8-10 was oversubscribed! The new session will take place February 28 – March 2. You can find registration and additional information here – contact Natasja Bax for additional details.
Our next North America Great Demo! Virtual Public Workshop is scheduled for March 22-24. You can find registration and additional information here – contact Paul Pearce for additional details.
