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Debilitating Demo Diseases
A Never Stop Learning! Article
Here is a compendium of debilitating demo diseases that commonly afflict sales, presales, and other customer-facing teams. I’ll identify the major symptoms for each malady, provide one or more examples to aid in diagnosis, and suggest steps towards a cure for each.
Here is the list of disorders:
- Conjunctionitis
- Zippy Mouse Syndrome
- Whooping If
- Rambleitis
- Insinceretitis
- Morsover (Death by Corporate Overview)
- Breathlessness (Demo Asphyxiation)
- Phonic Consumption
- Feature Pox
- Tabbed-out (The Terrible Tabs Death March)
- Momentus Morbi
- Crickets
- Clairvoyance Annoyance (Premature Elaboration)
- Scriptosis Anoesis (Hardening of the Demo)
- Vacuuosititis Rash (Cluelessness in Marketing Roll-out Demos at SKOs)
- Autodemo Hell (Cluelessness in Recorded Demos)
- Rampaging Pronouns
- Atrophied Communication and Pre-Call Inadequacy
Do you suffer from any of these? Perhaps it is time for a checkup!
Conjunctionitis
Symptoms: Chronic overuse of “and” and “or” during demos.
Examples: “…and the next thing I want to show you is…”
“…and another really cool thing in our software is…”
“You can do it from this menu, or this other menu, or you can do the same thing using keyboard shortcuts, or you can write a macro, or…”
Cure: Breathe… Pause… Execute all pathways using the shortest, most logical path and the fewest number of clicks or steps. Summarize after each demo segment. Hold back from showing everything; ask first before presenting additional capabilities. Present pathways as if it is Monday morning, and you, as the user, need to execute them as rapidly and successfully as possible.
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 the screen and reach for Dramamine, Bonine, or other motion-sickness remedies.
Examples: The mouse circles and circles and circles around an element of the screen.
Mouse flies back and forth wildly as the presenter searches for a command or location.
Record and watch your own demos or watch other presenters’ demos and time how long it takes before you get dizzy or sick trying to follow the mouse zipping around the screen:
- Uncomfortable after three to five minutes: mild, but needs treatment
- Painful after two minutes: moderate, treat right away
- Really sick within a minute: severe, emergency measures required
Cure: Consciously slow your mouse down.
Sloooowwwww
Yourrrrr
Mouuuuuse
doooooownnnnnnnn…!
Move your mouse smoothly and deliberately to the location you want, then take your hand OFF your mouse while you talk. This is called “Move and stop; move and stop.” Repeat as necessary until affliction disappears.
In severe cases, change the mouse speed setting in your Control Panel or Preferences from “Normal” to “Painfully Slow.” This will compensate and appear more comfortable to your audience. Apply treatment right away.
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 complex, confusing, and hard to use. May also precipitate detailed, pointless questions (“Stupid Questions”) on topics of little interest and low value.
Examples: “So, if you want to open an existing one, you click here and…”
“Then, if you want to create a new one, then you choose ‘New’ and…”
“Next, if …”
Whooping If is often compounded by Conjunctionitis, where each if is immediately preceded by an or. For example:
“You can start here, or if you want to work from a template, you can click here, or if you want you can import one, or if you need to export one you can…”
Cure: Inhale deeply. Exhale slowly. Consciously stifle your ifs. When the urge to if increases, use a Biased Question instead (e.g., “Many of our other customers have found that the ability to ____ saved them hours every week. Is this something that might also be of interest to you?”).
Rambleitis
Symptoms: No pauses, no breaks, no interaction with the audience, an unceasing talk track. Often compounded by Conjunctionitis, fits of Whooping If and Zippy Mouse Syndrome. In moderate cases, Speaker Switch times take place after five or six minutes; in more severe cases, Speaker Switches may exceed eight to ten minutes or not take place at all.
Examples: “I’ll start by showing navigation, then go through all the workflows, then show you how to set up the system, and finally I’ll go through the configuration options and, if we have any time remaining, we can look at building some reports…”
“OK, now let’s look at how to…”
Cure: Break your demo into discrete consumable chunks. Introduce each segment, execute it, and close each chunk with a crisp summary, then pause. Causatively interact with your audience using phrases like “What do you think so far?” and “Questions, comments, observations?” at least once per segment, at the end, and repeat as frequently as needed.
An older cure, still applicable in extreme cases, is to place the patient in an ice bath until talk-track subsides.
Insinceretitis
Symptoms: Presenter starts a demo with the phrase, “I’d like this to be interactive, so please stop me if you have questions along the way.” However, the presenter does not really want questions because they are concerned that they will run out of time to show everything they want to show!
Examples: Says, “I’d like this to be interactive, so please stop me if you have questions along the way” but doesn’t mean it.
Cure: Organize your demo applying inverted pyramid principles so that the most important topics are addressed first and explored only as deep as your prospect has interest.
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, and furtively use their phones, and, in one documented case, a prospect got up from the table to physically bang his head on the wall!
Examples: “Oh my God, no more slides…”
“No, I’m not interested in their founding fathers, their revenues-to-date, the geographic locations of their offices, and I’m really not interested in their mission statement.”
“Please let this be over…!”
Cure: Perform an immediate Radical Overectomy. Replace with two or three crisp, focused sentences, e.g., “Good afternoon. We’re ABC software, we’ve been in business twelve years, providing forecasting solutions to customers in manufacturing, high tech and other industries with over two thousand customers in eighteen countries around the world. Now, let’s talk about your situation.”
In extreme cases where there is clear and extensive Marketing Metastasis, a deep cut may need to be made into MarCom to help address the root cause.
Breathlessness (Demo Asphyxiation)
Symptoms: No pauses or breaks in the delivery, followed by shortness of breath, flushed face, and, finally, passing out. (Fainting is often an outcome of Rambleitis when compounded by Whooping If and Conjunctionitis.)
Examples: “And another really cool thing about our software is the ability to ____, or ____, and if you want to ____ then you can click here, or if you have to ____ then choose this, and the next thing I want to show you is our new import wizard, which has seven different options, the first of which is ____, which is really great if you need to ____, or ____ or ____, and if you need to… need to… need… uhhhhhhhhh…” *Thunk*!
Cure: Breathe, fer cryin’ out loud! Put some pauses in your delivery; put some theatre and passion in your delivery. Put some dynamics (louds and softs) into your delivery.
Reciting Shakespeare without pauses and dynamics makes for a very boring experience, and the same is true for demos. Imagine the following scene:
But-soft-what-light-through-yonder-window-breaks-it-is-the-east-and-Juliet-is-the-sun-arise-fair-sun-and-kill-the-envious-moon-who-is-already-sick-and-pale-with-grief-that-thou-her-maid-art-far-more-fair-than-than-tha… *THUNK*!
These lines from Romeo and Juliet are, of course, to be expressed with deep, fervent passion:
But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief
That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she.
Phonic Consumption
Symptoms: [Generally experienced in face-to-face demos] Sales rep sitting in the back of the room completely focused on their phone during the demo; severely swollen thumbs; impaired ability to communicate in complete, grammatically correct sentences.
Examples: Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap… “Huh?”
Cure: Actively engage in the demo presentation; choreograph your team’s roles before the demo begins. As the sales rep, it is your role to:
- Perform the introductions, review the meeting objectives, and confirm time constraints.
- Present and review relevant Situation Slides and accompanying Illustrations.
- Help to manage and capture “Good” (and “Stupid”) questions on a whiteboard, chat window, or similar vehicle.
- Redirect audience attention away from the scene of the disaster after a software crash or severe bug.
- Summarize when appropriate and/or inject pauses in the delivery.
- Identify the next steps and summarize the overall meeting.
Feature Pox
Symptoms: Presentation of waaaaaaaay too many features and functions. Severe boredom, ennui, and sleeping may ensue in your prospects’ ranks. Other symptoms include prospects’ stifled yawns, glances at phones, texting, and online shopping. Causes other complications, including Buying it Back and losses to more competent competition.
Examples: “We’ve got over two hundred canned reports – let’s take a look…”
“And next I’ll show you our context-sensitive help system…”
“Here are the seventeen file export options: I’ll go through each of them one by one…”
Cure: A prescription of Discovery Reality pills, taken as needed, then present only the Specific Capabilities needed by your prospect to address their problem(s). Hold everything else back.
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 counts the tabs and calculates the time it will take to work through all of them, then gasps in horror when they realize how much time this will consume. Audience begins the group text game, with the winner of each round guessing the closest time when the presenter begins to present the next tab.
Examples: “I’ll go through each of the tabs across the top here in order…”
“Now in this first tab…”
“Now in this second tab…”
“Now in this next tab…”
Cure: A supplemental prescription of Discovery Reality pills, taken BID (twice daily); focus sharply on the Specific Capabilities uncovered in discovery and needed by your prospect to address their problem(s).
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 momentum.” Often suffers from the Dunning Kruger effect as well.
Examples: “I’ll just present our standard overview demo…”
“I’ve mastered delivering our ‘gold’ demo…”
“I could present our demo in my sleep!”
Cure: Try some new ideas. Talk with colleagues and explore their practices. Record yourself and look for opportunities to improve. Take a class, watch a webinar, listen to a podcast, or read a book. Never stop learning!
Crickets
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: Encourage, drive, and generate interactivity. Turn your demo from a one-way monologue into a two-way conversation. Involve your prospect. Ask questions. Confirm interest. Invite your prospect to “drive.” Pause occasionally and summarize at the end of each section. Fumigate as needed to remove crickets.
Clairvoyance Annoyance (Premature Elaboration)
Symptoms: Prescience. Answering questions before your prospect can get their full question out of their mouth because you’ve heard them all hundreds of times before. Causes severe annoyance in customers. May cause embarrassment and apologies. The appearance of jackass ears on the presenter may also occur.
Examples: Prospect: “Does it run on…”
Presenter: “Yes! We support all four versions of Windows 11, as well as Windows 10, Windows 8 and 7, Vista, Windows XP and some even older versions of Windows, and we also support the MS Office and Office 365 products on each of these platforms, including all the current and ‘compatibility’ file types.”
Prospect: “…Macintosh?”
Presenter: “Oh. No.”
Cure: Zip it, and let your prospect ask their full question. Listen actively and intently. Ask for clarification as needed. Parse as to whether the question is a Great Question (answer it right away), a Good Question (queue it up for later), or a Stupid Question (also queue it up for later). Manage Q&A professionally using a Parking Lot.
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 the demo is live or recorded, even with the presenter’s mouth moving.
Examples: “Let me check my script for the next thing I need to show you…”
“Hang on a moment, I need to find my place in the script…”
Cure: Inject Reality intravenously. Invest in sufficient discovery with the prospect to determine the desired Specific Capabilities. Show these following the Great Demo! methodology:
- Review your prospect’s Situation
- Present an Illustration of the end result
- Do It (prove it in the fewest number of steps)
- Peel Back the Layers in accord with your prospect’s level of interest
- Manage questions
- Summarize
Vacuuosititis Rash (Cluelessness in Marketing Roll-out Demos at SKOs)
Symptoms: A rash of features and non-specific, buzzword-compliant feature statements. Atrophied, disconnected, narcoleptic audience reaction. Snoring.
Examples: “Now I’ll show you our new powerful, world-class, best-of-breed biframulator tool, designed to seamlessly save time and money.
“Next, I’ll present all the new capabilities and options we’ve put into the new release. Shouldn’t take more than two hours…”
Cure: Apply Get-A-Clue™ topically. Gather Informal Success Stories from existing customers and apply them liberally to the affected presentation. Replace feature-orientation with use cases shared as Situation Slides. Repeat as necessary until the rash disappears.
Autodemo Hell (Cluelessness in Recorded Demos)
Symptoms: See Vacuuosititis, above. Additionally, victim assumes that all prospects have the same problem, the same challenges, and the same objectives. Victim attempts to create a “one-size-fits-all” demo despite serving multiple markets and job titles. Viewers habitually drop out of the recording early. Victim delusion and hallucinations may occur, signified by calling this a “highly qualified, hot lead.”
Examples: “Click here to watch our product demo.”
Cure: Create a cocktail of use cases organized by market vertical and job title, then distill carefully to concentrated Situation Slides and corresponding Illustrations. Craft focused, specific demos for each situation and provide a Menu to guide prospects to the relevant use cases. Make sure to address the key characteristics of successful automated demos, including Setting Context, Problem Identification, Solution Presentation, Advantage and Value Communication, Length, Call to Action, Simplicity, Clarity, and Engagement.
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 IT. Presenter immediately loses track of which pronoun to use: I, you, he, she, them, they, um, hmmm. Audience immediately loses patience. Sales rep loses deal, misses quota, and suffers Terminus Abruptus.
Examples: “Next, I’ll show you how Eunice enters the account information, which you can use to calculate the total so she can add the new lines which I need for the next section.”
Cure: Apply restraints; purge excess pronouns (Pro-No™ and Pronoun-Be-Gone® are two products often recommended and can be purchased over the counter). Replace with “you” exclusively.
Atrophied Communication and Pre-Call Inadequacy
Symptoms: Sales rep communicates key pre-call information during the two minutes in the Zoom or Teams meeting just before the prospect joins the call or in the prospect’s lobby for face-to-face demos.
Examples: Sales rep: “Oh, by the way, you need to show them the new biframulator tool. I promised them that we’d show it today.”
Presales Person: “Aaargh! That’s too bad; I don’t have it on my machine. Why didn’t you answer my messages asking what we know about the account and what we need to show?”
Cure: Eat a balanced diet of pre-call planning, demo execution, and follow-up. Use Situation Slides to communicate pre-call information.
We hope this compendium helps you to diagnose and treat your own team. To ward off these afflictions, I recommend vaccinating with Great Demo! and Doing Discovery.
If this is an emergency or you feel you need a specialist, please contact us right away!
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To learn the methods introduced above, consider enrolling in a Great Demo! Doing Discovery or Demonstration Skills Workshop. For more demo and discovery tips, best practices, tools, and techniques, explore our blog and articles on the Resources pages of our website at https://GreatDemo.com and join the Great Demo! & Doing Discovery LinkedIn Group to learn from others and share your experiences.