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Stunningly Awful Demos – Lost in the Weeds
How do we simultaneously encourage questions, yet make sure they don’t take us off track?
Stunningly Awful Demos – Insufficient Discovery
Imagine walking into a doctor’s office and, before you can open your mouth, the doctor immediately writes prescriptions for a broad range of drugs… The ...
Stunningly Awful Demo Team Practices – Where 1 + 1 = 0
Here’s a collection of torturous team tactics, awful errors and faulty communications you can follow to increase the likelihood that your team’s demos will fail. ...
Stunningly Awful Demo Situations – The Horror of Scripted Demos
What can be done to increase success rates when dealing with scripted demo situations? Here are few ideas that may yield improvements in your close ...
Stunningly Awful Demo Phrases
Here are a handful of phrases that we often hear from software vendors in demo meetings, followed by what the customer thinks in response…
Stunningly Awful Demo Outcomes – Why Objections Shouldn’t Need To Be Overcome
“Help me understand how to handle customer objections…” “My team needs to learn how to handle objections…” What’s wrong with these requests?
Stunningly Awful Demo Evolution – Have You Ever Seen Demos Get Shorter?
The result? Audiences are bored, frustrated and often leave mid-way through, causing sales teams to exclaim, “Wait – don’t leave! We haven’t gotten to the ...
Stunningly Awful Demo Communication – Unencrispening the Demo
Here are a few areas where we can likely improve our verbal delivery in demos...
Storytelling: An Intriguing Take, with a Real-Time Experiment!
“We had a great discussion with Peter Cohan talking about the ONE topic he’s hearing right now in his conversations. It’s Storytelling! Listen in ...
Storytelling Umami!
What makes a good story great? Your story might include the key storytelling elements and yet still not be compelling. Why? It lacks storytelling ...
Storytelling Umami
What makes a good story great? The story itself can have all the elements of a good story (see Chip and Dan Heath’s Make ...
Storytelling in Demos: The Hero’s Journey in 60 Seconds…!
Nearly all sales and presales folks want to improve their storytelling skills in demos and discovery conversations. Here’s one simple approach: present a hero’s journey ...
Storytelling in Demos
Stories can be one of the most effective mechanisms in demos to help your customers remember – and re-communicate – the use cases and value ...
Step-Change vs Optimization vs Refinement
I was watching an Audi advertisement that showed a new Audi owner trying to decide which of four headlight display options to choose from… ...
Start Your Demo in Email?
Oh, yes! What do most people do when they arrive at their desks each morning? They check their email. (Yes, and some browse their ...
Stand Away From The Mouse! Letting Your Champion Drive
Here’s a terrific way to prove “ease of use”: have a customer representative do the demo...
Some Thoughts About Learning and Change
You can: Not learn and not change Learn and not change Change and not learn Learn and change Change and learn Most of us ...
Some Observations – Exploring the Data in Consensus’ 2021 Sales Engineering and Workload Report
Consensus graciously provided me with access to the data in their “2021 Sales Engineering and Workload Report" – here are some interesting observations.
Some Novel Thoughts About Screening Candidates for Presales Positions
How do we typically evaluate the skills and competencies of applicants for presales positions?
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 ...
Some Great Lessons in Storytelling
“Truth Is the Arrow, Mercy Is the Bow: A DIY Manual for the Construction of Stories” by Steve Almond is an intriguing and occasionally ...
Solutioning?
Intriguingly, in spite of job titles that include Solutions Consultant, Solutions Architect, and Solutions Engineer, there is little discussion of the associated skill of solutioning ...
Software Demos by Musicians: Musicians Have an Advantage!
Why? Musicians understand dynamics (louds and softs). They know when and how to drop their voice to a whisper or deliver a forceful phrase. ...
Software Demo Considerations for Customer Success Teams – Podcast
Yes, Great Demo! practices are equally important and applicable for folks in Customer Success.
SKOs, Volume Discounts, Book Club Support?
Signed copies for your SKO? Yes! Volume discounts? Yes! Book club support? Yes! Signed copies of Great Demo!, Doing Discovery, or Suspending Disbelief books are a great ...
SKOs and “Swipes” – Making Remembering Memorable!
Want a terrific way to ensure that your SKO participants remember the key take-aways?
SKO Topic That SWINGS the Needle?
Looking for something that not only “moves the needle” but swings it into a whole new category? It is time to uplevel the team’s discovery ...