“Learn the demo…” the group of
newly hired presales folks are told, “and when you think you’re ready, we’ll
have you present the demo back to us. If
you do well, you’ll be certified and ready to start presenting to customers.” What’s wrong with this picture?
It’s a terrific approach if all
customers are exactly the same – otherwise, it forces the tyranny of a
one-size-fits-all demo upon a broad range of customers, ignoring the specifics
of their situations.
Would one size and style of shoe
fit all feet? (“Gentlemen, I invite you
to contemplate your shoe: a women’s faux
suede leopard skin 6 inch heel size 6 pump…”) 1
Would one dining choice fulfill
all appetites? (“Folks, our offering
tonight is lightly larded lima beans in a spinach puree…”) 2
Clearly not! But wait, there’s more…
Nine Months Pass…
And now our team, having delivered
dozens of demos, becomes very comfortable with presenting – so much so, in
fact, that they begin to ignore the customer.
True story: I didn’t need to be at my laptop for this
demo…
It was delivered to me over the
web, via WebEx. The presenter talked, pointed
and clicked for 1.25 hours without ever
checking in with me! I truly didn’t need
to be at my laptop – he was just fine going through his talk-track by
himself.
In fact, during the session his
voice cut out – twice –and both times after several
long minutes I finally had to use
“Chat” to let him know I could no longer hear him…! He never checked in to get my response, he
never engaged me in a conversation; he didn’t even ask if I had caught up on my
email (I did).
We are victims of momentum – we
do the same things the same way unless someone gives us a shove in a new
direction. [~97.5% of us resists change –
Evert Rogers.]
1 Actually exists – Amazon.com “Ollio Women's Shoe High Heel Platform Faux
Suede Multi Color Pump”.
2 Made
this one up…
Deconstruct – And Reconstruct
Is it OK to learn the standard
demo? Certainly, but be prepared to use
it as a starting point – one example of what could be many demos…
So does that mean that you have
to learn dozens of demos, one for each customer situation? Possibly, but that’s a rather tough course to
take.
Here’s an alternative: think in terms of deconstructing your standard, end-to-end, day-in-the-life demo into
component pieces – “chunks” – and then reassemble these component chunks as needed to fit each specific customer
situation you face.
[Many software vendors present
this same idea as configuration vs. customization, where configuration is
the process of assembling a solution from pre-built components that then appear to be customized for specific
customer requirements, rather than coding each specific solution individually
(and potentially painfully for all parties involved!).]
For example, contemplate a
standard CRM system demo, which might consist of the following (which I am NOT
advocating as a good sales process or a plan for a demo!):
1 - System
admin and set-up options
2 - Enter
a new record as a lead
3 - Include
in marketing campaign
4 - Track
responses to campaigns
5 - First
call with inside sales
6 - Promote
to qualified lead, pass to field sales
7 - Call
with field sales person
8 - Schedule
demo
9 - Send
proposal
10 - In
negotiation
11 - Close
sale
12 - Include
in upsell/cross-sell marketing campaigns
13 - Roll
up quarterly forecast and 6-month pipeline
14 - Dashboard
and report creation and editing
15 - Dashboards
and reporting (forecast, pipeline, key opportunities, campaigns)
A traditional demo would walk the
customer through each of these steps, generally consuming the full amount of
time allocated for the demo. The example
above could easily take an hour of more – and presenters often run out of time before
being able to present the reporting capabilities.
This means that the most
important people (e.g., the Head of Sales), won’t see what is most important to
him/her until the very end of the demo (if he/she is still present in the
room!).
Very Scary – And Liberating
Now consider the following job
titles and select the chunks relevant to each:
System Administrator:
Inside Sales Person:
Field Sales Person:
Marketing Manager:
Head of Sales:
Here’s one set of slice-n-dice
reconstructions of the chunks that map to the specific interests for each job
title (how did yours compare?):
System Administrator: 1-15
Inside Sales Person: 2, 4-6
Field Sales Person: 6-11
Marketing Manager: 3, 4, 12, 14, 15
Head of Sales: 15 and maybe 14
There is likely only one person
who is really interested in all 15 steps – which one? The System Administrator, who also likely has
the least impact in the
decision-making process.
If you are presenting to the Head
of Sales, your demo (chunk 15 and perhaps 14) might only take a few minutes. Does he/she want or need to see the other
chunks? Nope, not necessarily.
[You can always ask, of course, but be prepared for the
Head of Sales to say something delightful such as, “No, I’m good – I’ve seen
what I wanted to see and this looks like what we need. I have another meeting to go to; the rest of
you can stay and torture the vendor as long as you wish…!”]
Why is this both very scary and
liberating? Because it requires us to think!
It’s liberating because it frees us from the tyranny (and boredom) of
presenting the same one-size-fits-all demo over and over and over. It’s scary because, yes, it requires us to think and reconstruct our demos in
accord with the specific interests of our audiences.
The Standard Demo Revisited
One simple (and rapid) way to put
this deconstruct/reconstruct principle into practice is to teach new-hires to apply
it to the standard demo for their certification sessions.
When preparing for the
certification, have your new folks break the standard demo into chunks and
organize those chunks in accord with the job titles the certification team is
modeling. They get bonus points, of
course, for “Doing the Last Thing First” for each chunk. Each chunk should likely be about 3-4 minutes
in length, for most software.
A colleague pointed out to me
that habits are established very early in an on-boarding process, so the
earlier we teach new team members to deconstruct/reconstruct the standard demo,
the sooner they will apply these new habits with customers!
New Directions – Boldly Exploring
Overall, one objective of
on-boarding demo training should include collecting and learning to deploy a
set of demo chunks – stand-alone portions of demos that represent
high-probability use-cases, workflows, and deliverables.
Here are a few ideas to help
broaden perspective and begin to collect these chunks…
[A colleague of mine phrased this
as, “Your five-year mission: to explore strange
new demos, to seek out new demo chunks and deliverables, to boldly demo where
no man has demoed before!”].
Go sit with a few of your current (happy) customers and see how
they use your offerings today. You might
consider a structured approach to meeting with these customers and use a format
such as:
- Job Title/Industry: For each individual you interview…
- Critical Business Issue: What top level goal or objective was at risk?
- Problems/Reasons: What did they have in place before; what were
the "pain" points, what was taking too long, too many people, was too
hard, etc.?
- Specific Capabilities: What capabilities, in particular, was this
person looking for as a solution? What
workflows, what reports, what deliverables?
These represent likely demo chunks for this job title.
- Delta:
What was the value of making the change (best expressed as a tangible
number)?
- Critical Date: Was there a date or event that drove a need
to have a solution place?
Collect these for a series of
individual job titles – and very rapidly you'll have a set of chunks you can
draw from – chunks that will likely resonate with prospects that have similar
job titles and situations.
Let Your Customer Do the Demo
Here’s a wonderful approach: ask your existing customers to demo to
you! Ask them how they are using your software
today:
- What workflows?
- What outputs and deliverables?
- What do they really find
terrific?
You’ll typically learn two sets
of scenarios when you apply the approach:
- Set 1:
Your customer shows you workflows and deliverables that you expected them to use. That’s good – and each piece that you see represents
a chunk that you can add to your collection.
- Set 2:
Your customer shows you workflows and deliverables that you had no idea customers might use. That’s truly terrific! Now you have some new, never-before-seen
chunks to reuse. You can harvest these
success stories and share them with your team and, as appropriate, with other
customers.
Along similar lines, attend
and/or watch recordings of customers’ User Group Meeting presentations and
demos – fabulous!
Learn From (Some of) the Best
There are likely a number of
seasoned, well-respected – and most important – high-in-demand presales folks
in your organization. They may offer a
rich resource for demo chunks proven to be successful. Contemplate doing “ride-alongs” with these
people, either in person and/or over the web.
Other Vendors' Demos
Watching demos from other vendors
is a terrific way to regain a customer’s perspective. I suggest that you watch demos from vendors
where you actually have an interest in their products – this helps to make the
interaction as real as possible – be
a customer.
Sign up for a demo from the
vendor’s website and see how you are treated as a customer: Did they just schedule a demo without asking
any questions or doing Discovery? Was
“Discovery” simply a set of 3-4 quick questions – and the presenter couldn’t wait to dive into the demo?
How about the demo itself:
- Was
it engaging?
- Did
it address your interests? Did they
present just the chunks you were interested in or an entire, standard,
end-to-end, day-in-the-life, kill-me-now demo?
- Was
it interactive – or was it a furious fire-hose delivery of flying features and functions
flung frantically? Frankly frightening,
- Did
you find your attention wandering – did you “check out”? (And if so, how long did it take? Were you able to catch up on your email
during the demo?)
- What
could have made the experience for valuable for you, as the customer?
You may wish to apply what you
learned to your own demos and processes!
[I’m occasionally surprised to find
presales and sales staff who have never
seen another vendor’s demo – not even demos from a competitor… So, if you haven’t seen demos from other
vendors, it is time to do so!]
Configure and Customize
Habits are often established during
the on-boarding process – and can become the norm for years following after. The earlier that new hires are taught to
deconstruct standard demos into component pieces – chunks – and to learn how to
reconstruct and reassemble those chunks to meet specific customer situations,
the better.
There is nothing inherently wrong
with the standard demo or certification process. But use it as a starting point – collect and
create a library of demo chunks that you can draw from and assemble demos for
specific job titles and situations.
Having a library of demo chunks enables you to configure your demos from
pre-built pieces, while giving your customers the impression that you have
painstakingly customized the demo just for them!
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