Switching up the Demo
The 7 minute long kick off was all sales speak. It was the first time the rep was able to talk with this recommender so he gave him the intro pitch at the expense of me forming an image of what to demo. He ended with, "...this is meant to be interactive".
No hook at all, no segue, no recon, i was going in cold. As luck would have it, home run on the first question. The exact answer wasn't or isn't important, it's what could be read into the answer. He wasn't buying it for him. I wasn't going to impress him, rather id focus on how much of a hero he could be when he hands over the purchased product over to his security team. The entire demo caned on the fly. A canned demo would have crashed and burned, focus on how great our company is, blah, he didn't are, architecture, didn't matter.
It ended up being a great demo, his words.
Co-Demonstration
I'm about to lead a co-demonstration. My partner in crime, a SharePoint admin. The audience, his lead IT architect. He's about to get overloaded with more organizational specific business value then any one person should be exposed to in one afternoon. When done right, it's magical. I wish you could join us. Wait you can... http://info.axceler.com/controlpoint-demonstration-request/
The Opening Conversation
The demo is handed off to the tech, the conversation goes on forever before getting to the formal product part. No deal is solidified here, but it is where all the foundation is laid for the SE, without it, the demo is rudderless. The sales rep can learn a lot from this exchange. My advice, stay on and listen.
Demo Energy
There was an article on Demo Energy written by Steve Noel that was passed around here at work today. I figured it was worth a response.
His recommendation to breaking the monotony of repetitive demos is to take the start, middle and end of the demo and change them up to break the chain and drive up energy.
The key is having different entry points. Think of your demo as a story and those of us that remember English class remember stories have three parts. A beginning, a middle, and an end. You can start your demo in any of these parts.
This is a solid recommendation but stops short. Change up the start, middle and end. That’s it?
How about having a new story every demo? What if we take everything we’re given to us by sales and everything we learn on the demo introduction and for that matter every nook and cranny we learn during the demo and turn it into a customized story that maps perfectly to what the prospect needs?
That’s energy.
As SE's we are authors, not storytellers nor are we reciters of scripts.
In the end, I like his thinking and just subscribed to his blog for future reading.
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