I’ve watched a number of vendors struggle with trying to connect to their network/software applications when at customer sites. Typically, they are trying to run through both the customer’s network/firewall as well as their own.

I’ve seen specific cases (many!) where the first 20 minutes of an on-site demo meeting was consumed by the vendor technical person (e.g., SC) working with the customer’s IT staff to figure out how to connect – and fail to connect!

Often, running with virtual machines adds to the challenge. “OK, just reboot now and try it again…” – and it takes 20 minutes to reboot, only to find that you still can’t connect…

Here are current best practices for on-site demos where you need access to your own network:

- Best: Broadband (modem) connection (fastest, most modern version you can find…). This keeps things under your control, with the exception of the possibility of poor phone coverage. This most likely will be the best solution about 95% of the time. You can always ask to move conference rooms, if possible/necessary.
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I’ve noted that the best practice for Remote Demos is to have a representative at the customer site to be your active conduit of information back to you delivering the demo remotely – to be your “eyes” on location. This person (the “Meeting Manager”) can be a representative from your company (best) or your champion/sponsor (next best) or designee (next next best).

For Remote Demos done via Microsoft Live meeting, there are often problems with screen resolution that result in the audience computer having scrolls bars present, that must often be moved to be able to see the important parts of the screen. In this case, assign your “Meeting Manager” the task to adjust the scroll bars on the customer side of the meeting, to make sure that the customer is seeing what you want them to see…! Read more »

Here’s a terrific idea for training new presales staff: Teach them your discovery/qualification process before teaching how to demo your software… Why consider this approach?

- It models the principle of doing discovery/qualification before presenting your solutions.
- It teaches new hires how to put together summaries of customer-specific situations (“Situation Slides”).
- It breaks the tradition of “Here’s our standard demo script… Learn it!”

This method also helps put your software in context:
- What specific customer problems does it solve?
- What specific capabilities are needed to solve these problems?
- What customer job titles are involved, and in what specific way?

If anyone (else) is already doing this, please let me know how it has been working for you… Read more »

Sometime during the last few months Great Demo! passed the 10,000 copies purchased mark (wow!) – this doesn’t include copies resold on eBay and elsewhere, and copies that get passed around within teams…

Many thanks to all of you!

[Shameless self-promotion time: if you don’t already have a copy of your own, it is available on Amazon.com (US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Japan), BarnesandNoble.com, or directly from me at The Second Derivative (www.SecondDerivative.com). I can also provide discounts on volume purchases and can ship right away.]

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After answering a question, in the midst of a demo, most presenters simply turn back to their flow and pick up where they left off. This makes sense to the presenter (who knows the demo and the product), but it is very likely that the audience has lost track…

Instead, after answering a question, do a quick recap of the steps you’d just completed (before the question) to re-set and re-engage your audience. Works wonderfully!

For more tips and articles on demonstration effectiveness skills and methods, email me at PCohan@SecondDerivative.com or visit our website at www.SecondDerivative.com. For demo tips, best practices, tools and techniques, join the DemoGurus Community Website at www.DemoGurus.com, or the Great Demo! LinkedIn Group, or explore our blog at http://greatdemo.blogspot.com/.

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Indeed we are – and consider the impact this has on traditional software demos!

Imagine you are driving home from work or on an errand… What do you remember about the cars and signs you see, the road-side debris, people, buildings and the roads you pass? How much of that information is retained?

Very little is actually remembered about what you saw along your way. Our brains are continuously evaluating what we see and hear as we move through our day – and continuously discarding anything that is not considered important, threatening, or particularly interesting.

What don’t we remember? Everything that is typical, expected, or normal.

What do we remember? Remarkable events, problems, danger and close calls, humor (things that made us laugh), anger (things that made us mad) and other emotional experiences (things that caused a strong emotional reaction).

What’s Forgotten?

How does this impact our demos and what audiences remember? In an hour-long traditional demo, we shouldn’t expect our audiences to remember very much:

- They won’t remember long sequences of features, functions and options…

- They won’t remember complex workflows, loops and multiple “if” cases…

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Here’s a terrific idea for training new presales staff: Teach them your discovery/qualification process before teaching how to demo your software… Why consider this approach?

- It models the principle of doing discovery/qualification before presenting your solutions.
- It teaches new hires how to put together summaries of customer-specific situations (“Situation Slides”).
- It breaks the tradition of “Here’s our standard demo script… Learn it!”

This method also helps put your software in context:
- What specific customer problems does it solve?
- What specific capabilities are needed to solve these problems?
- What customer job titles are involved, and in what specific way?

If anyone (else) is already doing this, please let me know how it has been working for you…

Read more »

Years ago, a colleague introduced me to the concept of “Controlled” vs. “Uncontrolled Vocabulary”. Watching a series of demos recently reminded me of the importance of this concept. Very simply, with Controlled Vocabulary, everyone in the meeting has a mutual understanding of all words and phrases used in a presentation or demo. Uncontrolled Vocabulary are words and phrases that are introduced by the vendor that are NOT understood by the customer.

Uncontrolled Vocabulary includes (but is not limited to!) words and phrases such as:
- Company-specific acronyms
- Company-specific terms
- Product feature names

Don’t use these in demos and presentations if you want to be most effective in your communications!

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While this is certainly obvious, I’m occasionally amused – and sometimes astonished – by vendors who forget to close their Remote Demo meetings (e.g., via WebEx, GoToMeeting, Adobe Connect, etc.) and corresponding phone connections.

Amused – when a vendor forgets to close the session(s) and the collaboration tool window remains open/active.

Astonished – when a vendor forgets and, still sharing his desktop, starts to write email messages about the results of the web meeting! As a customer, it can be very interesting to see how the sales rep describes what a “great” meeting it was and how the “business is in the bag…!” I’ve heard the same with conference calls that remain open and active after the meeting has completed.

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We all know that we need to gain a sufficient understanding of our customers’ needs and specific situations before proposing solutions – and before presenting most demos. Here’s an additional reason to do this:

Miller Heiman, Inc. reports in their Executive Summary of their 2009 Sales Best Practice Study that 93% of “World Class” vendors vs. 50% of “All” vendors do “Clearly understand our customers’ issues before we propose a solution”. “World Class” organizations achieved stronger results in five areas measured:

- Average account billing
- Sales force quota attainment
- Number of qualified opportunities/leads
- Customer retention
- Forecast accuracy

Not surprising…!

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