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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’ ...
Debilitating Demo Diseases – Phonic Consumption
Symptoms: [Generally experienced in face-to-face demos, but virtual demos are not immune] Sales rep sitting in the back of the room completely focused on ...
In the Spotlight Podcast – Doing Discovery
I joined Roi Carmel of Spotlight.ai for this delightful discussion: “Join us for a masterclass in modern sales methodology in this pivotal episode of ...
Debilitating Demo Diseases – Demo Dyspnea
Symptoms: No pauses or breaks in the delivery, followed by shortness of breath, flushed face and, finally, passing out. (Fainting is often an outcome ...
Debilitating Demo Diseases – Morsover (Death by Corporate Overview)
Symptoms: Palpitation of the audience, sleeping audience and, eventually, severe audience loss. Audience members doodle aimlessly, glance at watches or phones repeatedly, furtively use ...
CBI Plus CEBI – A Powerful Pair Driving Purchases
Many folks have commented that “people buy based on emotion and justify with logical reasons.” This is certainly true in some cases. But I think the strongest purchasing ...
Debilitating Demo Diseases – Rambleitis
Symptoms: No pauses, no breaks, no interaction with audience; an unceasing talk track. Often compounded by Conjunctionitis, fits of Whooping If, and Zippy Mouse ...
Investing Time in Discovery vs Spending Time in Demos
I find it fascinating that most discovery is far too limited, and most demos go on far too long. The opposite is what yields ...
Debilitating Demo Diseases – Zippy Mouse Syndrome
Symptoms: Mouse movements are erratic, haphazard, and may never stop. Mouse may circle constantly around certain portions of the screen. Prospects turn away from ...
Debilitating Demo Diseases – Whooping If
Symptoms: Presenter offers an ever-growing list of options linked together by “if…” Ifs often multiply rapidly, boring your audience and making your software appear ...
Cool New Tool!
From the vendor: “Spotlight.ai is an Autonomous Deal Execution platform revolutionizing enterprise sales. We help sales teams win more deals by transforming how opportunities are autonomously ...
Debilitating Demo Diseases – Conjunctionitis
Symptoms: Chronic overuse of “and” and “or” in demos. Examples: “…and the next thing I want to show you is…” “…and another really cool ...
Which of These Discovery Skills DON’T You Know?
Starting Discovery Summarizing and Summaries The Curse of Knowledge Executives Enabling Your Champion Groups Versus Individuals Communication Within Your Team Overactive Listening Burn Victims ...