Product Names in Demos?

 

I just watched a demo recording – about 45 minutes overall – where ~15 product names were mentioned, including both products and modules. Some had numbers associated with them, such as “Mobius-12”. By the end of the demo, I was overwhelmed…

As an interesting test, I asked 5 colleagues to watch the same demo. Once each had completed viewing it, I asked two questions:

1. What do you remember from the demo?
2. What specific product names do you remember from the demo?

The answers were illuminating and a bit frightening:

1. What did you remember from the demo?
• “Confusing…”
• “Complicated…”
• “I got lost…”
• “Seemed like a lot of functionality…”
• “It was a firehose of features…”

2. What specific product names did you remember from the demo?

• “Um…”
• “There were a lot, I’m not sure…”
• “Moby-one or something…”
• “Zero…”
• “Chirp chirp chirp chirp…” (modeling the sound of crickets in an empty room)

What do you want people to remember in a demo: your product names or the problems your products address, along with the outcomes and business value?

Consider: if your prospect will only take away 3 ideas from your demo, what do you want them to remember?

Webinar: Create Deal Velocity with Vision Generation Demos!

I’ll be joining the fine folks at Saleo:

“On November 17th, Saleo is hosting a webinar with Peter Cohan of Great Demo!, and our CEO Justin McDonald on how to Create Deal Velocity with Vision Generation Demos!

https://lnkd.in/g6DtZFej

An underutilized and remarkably effective technique, Vision Generation Demos have proven to be the crisp cure for stunningly awful Harbor Tours, cutting to the chase and saving tremendous time for both vendors and prospects. When should they be used? How are they delivered? How are they constructed? We’ll share these truly best practices and show how tools like Saleo enable you to align with prospect markets, job titles, and specific interests with just a few mouse clicks.”

Looking forward to seeing you there – and please let us know If you have questions or topics you’d like us to explore!

Presales – Please Complete Consensus’ Survey (You’ll Be Glad You Did)

 

The fine folks at Consensus are executing their seminal annual survey for the fourth time, providing the presales community with an extremely valuable series of benchmarks, comparisons, and data.

What’s included? Explorations of:

• Salaries and compensation
• Workload and activities breakdown
• AE:SE ratios
• Presales onboarding time
• Performance and quota measurements
• Presales metrics
• Detailed data on demos

And a lot more!

Participating in this survey is a terrific investment in yourself and your team since you'll receive the results. It should take ~15-20 minutes to complete. You can find the survey here. Thanks!

Great Demo! Newsletter?

Published every two weeks: tips, updates on Great Demo! webinars, podcasts and other events, access to recordings, info on new cool tools, Public Workshops, links to our most recent articles and more. What an easy way to stay up to date with everything Great Demo!

Sign up here!

How Are Sales Demos Different from Training?

 

Only with respect to the exchange of money…!

In both cases, you are asking people to change. Accordingly, you can apply many of the key Great Demo! concepts to both sales demos and training.

5 Key Ideas:

1. Describe WIIFT – What’s In It For Them
2. Show WIIFT
3. Make it look easy
4. Map to importance
5. Stay focused

5 Key Habits

1. Start with the WIIFT (Situation Slides)
2. Show the payoff (Illustrations: “Do the Last Thing First”)
3. Use the fewest number of clicks (“Do It”)
4. Apply Inverted Pyramid (“Peel Back the Layers”)
5. Park questions as appropriate (Manage questions and time)

Upcoming Great Demo! Public Workshops

 

Sharpen your saw for the Fall, Winter, and beyond! Public Workshops are perfect for individuals or small teams:

Our next EMEA Great Demo! Public Workshop is scheduled for November 8-9. This will be a face-to-face event, taking place in Amsterdam. You can find registration information here. Please contact Natasja Bax for additional details.

Our next North America Great Demo! Virtual Public Workshop is scheduled for November 21-23. This will be a virtual event, facilitated over the web. You can find registration information here. Please contact Paul Pearce for additional details. 

An EMEA "Level 2" (advanced) Great Demo! Virtual Public Workshop will take place December 4-6. This is planned to be a virtual event, facilitated over the web. Please contact Natasja Bax for more information.

Doing Discovery Book Now Fully Available - Paperback, Audiobook, and Kindle

 

f“This book is the book I never knew I needed to read!”

- Adam Freeman, The Access Group

I am delighted to announce the full launch of my new book Doing Discovery, providing a methodology for a structured approach to doing discovery for B-to-B software. Doing Discovery is available in paperback, Audiobook, and Kindle versions. 

For those interested in purchasing multiple copies for SKOs, QBRs or other events, please contact me for more information.

The book represents a significant departure from traditional methods and offers an opportunity to establish sustainable competitive advantages for those who implement the methodology.

Looking forward to hearing your experiences applying the ideas in practice!

Upcoming Webinar – How Buyer Enablement is Changing Discovery

Thursday September 29 at 8:00 AM Pacific, 11:00 AM Eastern, 5:00 PM Central European – Register here!

How many of us have actually purchased enterprise software? What did we dislike about the process – what did we appreciate? How can we, as vendors, enable both novice and experienced buyers to make their buying and value realization processes as frictionless and successful as possible? 

What is the role of discovery in supporting these efforts? We’ll examine these topics and more, including the horrors of Lead Churn, in this session…!

Contact us if you have topics you’d like to explore.

Gondola.ai Discovery Video Interview

 

From the fine folks at Gondola (previously Demoflow):

“How do you uncover true business pain when on a Discovery call with a prospect? More importantly, how do you quantify that pain and dig deeply for the impact of solving that pain? These are all critical elements of running a great Discovery call with a prospect.

In this episode of The Art of Discovery, Peter Cohan of Great Demo! and I talk about exactly that. How to uncover and quantify business pain and investigate the impact of the desired state.

We'll review a 3-step formula to help you do this:

- What is it today?: Identify and quantify the pain

- What would you like it to be? Identify and quantity the desired future state

- We have a great delta of value. Now what?”

You’ll note that the conversation includes many of the key discovery elements introduced in Doing Discovery. You can find this 27-minute interview here!

Bits About Books – Doing Discovery Interview

 

From the podcaster:

 

“Bits about books episode #54 featuring Peter Cohan. We speak with him about his new book Doing Discovery – The Single Most Important Element of Software Sales and Buyer Enablement Processes. The episode is now #LIVE!”

 

In this 59-minute podcast, Subhanjan Sarkar interviewed me about the recently published Doing Discovery book, exploring the rationale behind writing the book and many of the key ideas. Some fascinating stories were shared as well!

 

You can listen to the podcast here – enjoy!

Only 16% of You…

 

As early adopters and innovators, only 16% of you realize that reading, adopting, and implementing the ideas in Doing Discovery provides you with a sustainable strategic competitive advantage. Shhhhh…..!

 

You can find the book here…

Upcoming Webinar – The Science of Doing Discovery

September 14 at 10:00 AM Pacific Time. You can register here!

Great Demo!'s Peter Cohan will be joining the fine folks at Demoleap to discuss more about the Doing Discovery methodology, and how Demoleap helps to support a structured, consistent approach:

“Demoleap's Demo Master Class - Learn from the best in class how to craft, manage and deliver winning discovery and live demo calls.

We are kicking off our special sales master class live webinars with "The Science of Doing Discovery." Peter Cohan (Founder of "Great Demo!" & the "The Second Derivative") will share his best practices on how to prepare and utilize the most effective discovery playbook.”

Register here – and let us know if there are topics you’d like to see addressed! 

Upcoming Great Demo! Public Workshops - Early September

Sharpen your saw for the Fall, Winter, and beyond! 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 UK time-zones. Click here for pricing and registration – or contact Natasja Bax for more information. 

Our next North America Great Demo! Virtual Public Workshop will take place September 7-9. You can find registration and related information here. Contact Art Fromm for additional details.

Vision Generation Demo Challenge

 

If you had only 4 minutes with a prospect and had to choose only 3 screens to show from your software for a particular job title, what would they be?

Your answers – the screens, reports, or dashboards you select – are the basis for successful Vision Generation Demos.

Along similar lines, if you want your prospect to remember just 3 key ideas or benefits that these 3 screens represent or enable, what would they be?

Finally, if you want to articulate the tangible value that these 3 deliverables could provide for your prospect, what would it include?

Why only 3 screens/deliverables? Because your prospect will likely only remember 3 ideas, whether your demo runs 4 minutes, 40 minutes, or 4 hours! They will also take away impressions, however, which can range from “targeted, focused, and clear” to “complex, confusing, and way more than we need…”  Crisply presenting just 3 ideas provides prospects with a concentrated, more precise recollection. Make it count!

For Vision Generation, less is more.

Demostack Road Show 1-Minute Discovery Snapshot

 

From Demostack’s Nick Capozzi: “The most common issue that sales teams struggle with? Discovery. Peter Cohan breaks down how to best understand the other side's point of view.”

You can find this 1-minute snapshot here. Extra credit for identifying the campus!

Two Presales in a Pod

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!

What Do You Think About This Approach?

 

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.

Upcoming Great Demo! Public Workshops

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.

Great Demo! Resources Pages

 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!

Webinar Recording: Rescue from the Tyranny of Traditional Demos

Ask yourself:

• Have you ever felt like you have far too much to show in a demo – and insufficient time to show it?
• Have you ever said, “I’d like this to be interactive…” but you don’t get many questions?
• And when you ask, “Any questions so far?” you hear, “Nope, we’re good…”
• Have you even run out of time before you got to the best stuff?
• Have you ever felt like your audience just didn’t “get it”?

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! 

Tell Your Prospects “It’s OK to say no…”

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:

• Prospect reaches out to vendor asking to see a demo.
• Overview demo is delivered, and prospect doesn’t see the offering as a good fit, but doesn’t say so! 
• Vendor asks, “What did you think?” and prospect responds, “It’s OK…”
• Vendor says, “Well, let’s organize a deep dive demo for you – how is next week?”
• Prospect responds, “Um, sure…” 
• Vendor preps demo.
• Next week comes and vendor presents deep dive demo.
• Vendor asks, “What did you think?” and prospect responds, “Well…”
• Vendor says, “What you like to do a trial?” and prospect responds, “Well, OK…”
• Vendor sets up trial.
• Vendor and prospect run trial over a few weeks.
• At the end of the trial, Vendor asks, “What did you think?” Prospect responds, “Well, not really sure…”

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…!”

Great Demo! Terminates Relationship with PreSales Collective/PreSales Academy

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

Lead Limbo? – Burning Presales Podcast

 

“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:

• What is a qualified lead?
• How do you distinguish between a lead that is in an active buying process vs. those who are just browsing?
• Avoiding Lead Churn
• Vision Generation Demos – examples with Legos and cooking shows

Browse this podcast for yourself here!

Burning Presales Podcast – Discovering Discovery

 

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:

• A surprising story about discovery skill levels
• Research vs. Qualification vs. Discovery
• Discovery On-the-Fly (When and when not to use)
• Discovery elements examples
• Discovery as a methodology

You can discover this episode for yourself here.  Enjoy!

Paul’s Practical Presales Partnering Principles – Pragmatic, Practiced, and Proven!

 

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/