What is the significance of 33334? - Great Demo

What is the significance of 33334?

That’s how many copies of Great Demo! have been purchased (not including those that have been resold or passed around).  This means that at least 33,334 people have been exposed to the Great Demo! methodology – but how many folks have actually changed their habits as a result of reading a book?

People and companies make claims about numbers all the time – for example, I’ve heard vendors claim:

  • “We have 2500 customers…”  (But how many of these are actually happy, referenceable customers?)
  • “We’ve trained 100,000 people…”  (But how many of these are actually applying the training?)
  • “Our customers report 50% more productivity and 25% less waste…” (But is this most or many customers – or just one?)

Accordingly, I am curious:

  1. If you’ve read Great Demo!, what kinds of improvements have you seen with your demos?
  2. What ideas from the book have had the most impact for you?
  3. And finally, what parts of the book would you like to understand more clearly – e.g., specific ideas or implementation with your software and sales practices?

0 thoughts on “What is the significance of 33334?”

  1. By far I would say that the Last Thing First has been the most impactful concept I have employed. This has made an enormous difference in the level of engagement and alignment that seems to last the rest of the demo/conversation. Everything that comes after a LTF styled demo seems to be improved by this approach.

    Starting out with the intention of eventually giving a LTF demo, automatically generates better discovery and makes the importance of quality discovery obvious. It also makes it easier to have a mental checklist with little effort. I find myself asking “Do I know enough yet to do a good LTF demo?”, if not, keep digging.

    As far as parts of the book I’d like to understand more clearly, I’d say the book is well written with good examples, and easy to understand. The challenge is building some good habits that employ this knowledge. So many little things are important, I find the biggest challenge is keeping those concepts fresh, and top of mind. Re-enforcement is enormously valuable. We recently had another refresher on Great Demo at our Sales Kick-off in Feb. My discovery and demos immediately improved, even though much of the content I’d heard before. I was reminded that I need to focus on transitioning knowledge to habits.
    Examples of some of these are: Fewest number of clicks, pointing/circling etc, a menu of choices, the newspaper analogy with headlines, and 76 seconds.
    Perhaps you already have some great blog posts on this, or it’s in the book and I need to read it again. Or perhaps, just have the list of chapters handy as a reference. Just reading these 3 questions today gave me some good ideas.
    I’d love to collect some good phrases and technique reminders for those pauses every 76 seconds (or less) and driving the engagement up even further. I find myself repeating the same phrase “does that make sense” a lot. I want to build a bigger song list. 🙂
    I know there were some good examples in last year’s session on presenting via Zoom. I’ll have to go back and watch that recording. 🙂

    Keep up the great work Peter. I’m very grateful that I started my career in pre-sales with such great guidance. At least I have fewer bad habits to unlearn.

    – Rob

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top