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The Reverse Demo: A Fabulous Discovery Method!
If you are looking to displace an existing system (either a competitor or customer-built), a wonderful approach is to ask for a “Reverse Demo.” ...
Ready, Fire, Aim! What’s the Difference Between Skills and Methodology?
We frequently see posts like: “42 Killer Discovery Questions!” “Crush Your Quota with These 17 Discovery Questions” “Top 20 Discovery Tips” Are these helpful? ...
How Do You Create Truly Great Automated Demos?
Not by automating a Harbor Tour… Not by pounding “Tell Show Tell” over and over… And definitely not without: Setting Context Identifying Specific Challenges ...
What Did You Learn in the Past Year That You Didn’t Know Before?
How about the last two years? Five years? Ten years? Fifteen, twenty, or more? Imagine tapping into that learning, that knowledge, that wisdom, saving ...
Great Demo! Before and After Illustrations: A Visual Story!
A very effective method of presenting Great Demo! Illustrations is a “Before and After.” The “Before” is an image that represents your prospect’s sad, ...
Heading to DemoFESTx East? Stop By and Say Hi!
I’ll be presenting “Essential Elements of Discovery” in which you’ll get to choose from TWO sets of topics! (An application of the Menu Approach!) ...
“Remember When I…?”
In your demos when you find yourself saying, “Remember when I…” it means your demo is too complicated! And here’s your GPS for ...
The Power of “You” in Demos
It’s You Not We Who can solve your customers’ problems? Is it you, your customers, or both? It may seem like it should be ...
Some Great Quotations for Your Weekend!
“It ain’t what you don’t know that can hurt you. It’s what you think you know that just ain’t so.” – Mark Twain ...
Heading to DemoFESTx East? Stop By and Say Hi!
I’ll be presenting “Essential Elements of Discovery (Dimensions of Discovery).” And in between sessions I’ll hanging out in the Partners area – please drop ...
Demos and the Principle of Parsimony
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” – Leonardo da Vinci “Simplification is one mark of real genius” – Dan Ariely “Everything should be ...
Demo and Presentation Guidance from 1903
“Be terse in style, vigorous of phrase, apt, concretely apt, in similitude. Avoid platitudes and commonplaces. Exercise selection. Seize upon things salient, eliminate the ...
A True Story of Stunningly Awful Harbor Tour Demos!
“What’s he doing?” whispered my colleague in my ear… I was a third party joining a demo presented by a partner vendor to a large ...
Harbor Tour? Sigh…
Today I heard a DemoFest presenter say, “you can always use a Harbor Tour demo for those situations where you’ve been given short notice ...
Beware Presales Hubris: An Open Letter to Presales
[Read this BEFORE DemoFest…!] “Clueless” “Technically inept” “Lying” “Manipulative” “Untrustworthy” “Annoying” “Greedy” “Verbose” “Pushy” “Self-centered” “Unethical” “ADD” These are just some of the descriptions ...
Learning: Random vs Structured Approaches
“Ooooo – that’s a great tip!” “Interesting!” “Love this!” These are the kinds of comments we see on posts that offer an interesting demo ...
Debilitating Demo Diseases – Autodemo Hell (Cluelessness in Automated Demos)
Symptoms: Automated demos lack context, relevance, and rationale. Patient assumes that all prospects have the same problem, the same challenges, and the same objectives. ...
“You Changed My Life…!”
Every now and then I receive a message like “Your Great Demo! changed my life…!” or “Doing Discovery has dramatically reshaped my process for ...
Debilitating Demo Diseases – Rampaging Pronouns
Symptoms: Demo begins by introducing Mike the Manager, Eunice the End-User, Veronica the VP, Andrew in Accounting, Sally the Sales Director, and Ike from ...
Curiosity: an Evolutionarily Advantageous Trait
This is a mulberry tree (thanks, Vincent), what could you use it for? There are (at least) two applications that resulted in hugely significant ...
Debilitating Demo Diseases – Scriptosis Anoesis (Hardening of the Demo)
Symptoms: Presenter follows the approved but rigid demo script, regardless of the needs or interest of the prospect. Can be difficult to determine if ...
Debilitating Demo Diseases – Clairvoyance Annoyance (Premature Elaboration)
Symptoms: Prescience. Answering questions before your prospect can get their full question out of their month because you’ve heard them all hundreds of times ...
Debilitating Demo Diseases – Crickets (Mors per Silentium)
Symptoms: The sound (or lack of sound) in the room after the presenter asks, “So, are there any questions so far?” Examples: Chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp…. Cure: ...
Debilitating Demo Diseases – Momentus Morbi
Symptoms: Doing things the same way, over and over, without exploring new options or making improvements. Also referred to as being “a victim of ...
Debilitating Demo Diseases – Tabbed-out (The Terrible Tabs Death March)
Symptoms: Presenter exhaustively (and exhaustingly) presents the contents of each tab in a row of tabs, one after another after another after another… Audience ...
Demologue Podcast – Discovery, Menus, Automated Demos and More!
I joined the fine folks at Demoboost for this 30-minute informative discussion: “This one’s special! ✨ Peter Cohan has been an inspiration to us ...
Debilitating Demo Diseases – Feature Pox, Vomitus Munera
Symptoms: Presentation of waaaaaaaay too many features and functions. Severe boredom, ennui, and sleeping may ensue in your prospects’ ranks. Other symptoms include prospects’ ...