Demo Storylines: Journey, Destination, or Both?

A Never Stop Learning! Article

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” – Attributed to Lao Tzu

“The best software journeys begin and end with a single mouse click!” – Me

There’s a lot of discussion today about storytelling in demos and related sales activities. Many software vendors talk about “The Journey” or “The Customer’s Journey” as a storyline. We need to ask ourselves, however, what is important for your prospect or your customer?

Is it really the Journey, or is it the Destination, or possibly Both?

What’s in This Article for You?

What’s the Difference between the Journey and the Destination?
It’s All About Value
When It’s Not the Journey
When It Is the Journey
When It Is the Destination
When It Is Both
A Matter of Perspective

What’s the Difference between the Journey and the Destination?

Most software is designed to support one or more workflows. For example, one accounting workflow processes and pays invoices (at the last possible minute!). Another accounting workflow generates and sends out invoices to their customers.

In these cases, the Journeys are the steps involved with executing these workflows, and the Destinations are the payment of those invoices in the first case and the issuing of invoices in the second example.

Choosing to focus on Journeys vs Destinations is highly dependent on job title. For some people, simplifying the Journey may be the objective; for others, it may be enhancing or improving the Destination.

In the two scenarios above, individual contributor staff members are the people who execute these workflows. While getting the invoices processed is certainly the goal, and hence a Destination, these people are generally more concerned with improving and simplifying their Journey through their workflows. They want workflows that are shorter, easier, and suffer fewer errors.

Accounting managers, on the other hand, use other workflows to track invoice payment and processing status and associated KPIs. They want to maximize the delay of payment for incoming invoices and minimize days outstanding for outbound invoices. And while improving these workflows might be of interest, the Destinations for these managers are the reports or dashboards that show the status of the KPIs and areas to target for improvement. In these cases, the Destinations are generally more important than the Journey.

Accordingly, the higher the job title, the shorter the workflow (in most cases!). Not surprisingly, the shortest workflows are performed by executives and may consist of a single mouse click to bring up a report or dashboard. These reports and dashboards represent important high-level Destinations, while the Journey itself is of little interest.

Answering the question of “Is it the Journey or the Destination?” can draw upon an analogy: If I want to travel to New York City from my home in Trinidad, California, I experience several smaller Journeys and Destinations in my trip to reach my final Destination, a hotel in New York City. Here’s the full workflow:

Drive from Trinidad to our local airport (ACV): a short, easy Journey to an interim Destination
Fly from ACV to San Francisco Airport (SFO): a short, sometimes cramped Journey to another interim Destination
Fly from SFO to Newark (EWR): A long, hopefully upgraded (but otherwise cramped) Journey to yet another interim Destination
Travel from EWR to my New York City hotel (by train or Uber/Lyft): A moderately short Journey to my final Destination

Note, also, that there are many more small Journeys and interim Destinations embedded in this workflow, including walking through terminals, going through security, waiting at gates, etc. The nature of these experiences impacts one’s overall perception of the Journey: Were these many small portions pleasant or painful, and should they be included in a description of the Journey? Too many details may make the story boring!

The question to answer is, “What’s most important for this specific prospect, this specific person?”

If my objective is to get to my hotel in New York City as comfortably, cheaply, and rapidly as possible, there are several possible storylines to choose from, depending heavily on the specifics of my situation and the travel products and services that I consume!

It’s All About Value

Here’s a very simple formula to determine if the Journey, Destination, or Both should be your focus: Where will your prospect gain value from using your software?

If your prospect only gains value along the Journey or if there are sufficient waypoints of value realization along the way, then the Journey is your storyline.
If your prospect only gains value from the Destination, then promote the Destination for your storyline.
And if both, then Both!

But, be cautious about making assumptions. For example, a “Journey to the Cloud” could entail both, but you need to assess this carefully. For example:

If the Journey is just a series of tasks and steps to migrate your customer’s existing environment to the cloud and there is no value returned to the customer at each of the steps, then the Destination is the correct positioning.
Contrariwise, if your customer enjoys value realization at several (or all) of the steps, then you should promote both the Journey and the Destination.

Now, let’s look at four sets of storyline scenarios:

When It’s Not the Journey
When It Is the Journey
When It Is the Destination
When it’s Both

When It’s Not the Journey

Many vendors try to glorify the workflow(s) enabled by their software as “Journeys,” but they may be misunderstanding their prospects’ perspective. We vendors, after all, are often in love with our own software. What does our prospect think? What are our customers’ perceptions?

After all, a workflow is still work: A series of steps or tasks that need to be completed. Most software products automate and streamline traditional workflows, often embracing a broader range of functions while making them faster and with fewer possibilities for errors. But is a workflow Journey a good storyline for a demo?

Here are a few examples where the Journey is likely not the desired experience, from your prospects’ perspective:

Anything to do with Setup Mode: The work required to implement a system is generally not a good Journey storyline for a demo, particularly if there is no value associated with the Setup steps.

For example, entering information into a database or CRM system delivers no value to the user; it is only when the database is large enough to provide useful search results and analyses that value is gained.

For an executive or senior manager, most workflows are not particularly interesting and don’t make for a compelling Journey storyline.

Workflows are simply sets of tasks that need to be executed by staff members. Senior management does want to make sure that their staff will be comfortable using the software, but that is (potentially) their staff members’ Journey, not management’s.

For staff members, workflows are the tasks they do repeatedly. And, like the details of my trip to New York City, it may not be a Journey they want to reexperience!

So, if you, as the vendor, can’t offer any improvements to your prospects’ workflows, don’t use those workflows as Journey storylines!

When It Is the Journey

Our accounting examples where the product improves the invoice processing workflows (without any real change to the output payments or invoices) represent good cases where the Journey is the best storyline. So, the Journey storyline may be your best choice when your offering improves the workflow without impacting the output or deliverables.

Again, we can apply the simple test: Where will your prospect gain value? If there is no value change or improvement in the Destination, then the best storyline positioning is the Journey.

Are there other situations where the Journey is the best option?

When It Is the Destination

After a moment’s thought, you exclaim triumphantly, “What about situations where you are simply exploring?”

You elaborate, “What if we are doing an ad hoc exploration of large masses of data, looking for novel trends or unanticipated relationships? Isn’t that another example of a Journey alone?”

After a moment’s thought, you answer your own question. “Oh!” you say, a bit crestfallen, “I guess finding trends or new relationships are actually desired Destinations.” (I agree!)

Frankly, it is likely that most software solutions focus on Destinations. For example:

Finding and addressing problems.
Identifying root causes.
Delivering reports.
Providing alerts.
Exposing opportunities.
Surfacing exceptions.
Achieving governance.
Enabling a process.
Facilitating continuity.
Establishing and confirming compliance.
Optimizing systems, processes and workflows.
Improving performance.

Even avoiding loss can be a Destination (think about it…!).

If your prospect expects to receive all the value based on arriving at one or more Destinations, then position your storyline accordingly.

Is it possible for a demo storyline to be both the Journey and the Destination? Yes, and this is the best possible situation!

When It Is Both

Contemplate software that supports employee onboarding. Here, it is likely that you have elements of both involved.

This is a Journey, leading from recruiting to hiring, through initial HR onboarding forms and documents, to receiving hardware, to identifying and executing training, ongoing development, career advancement, etc. As with life, one’s career is (hopefully) a Journey, with waypoints of accomplishments along the route.

These waypoints are Destinations (or at least interim Destinations). From the perspective of an applicant, receiving an offer letter is definitely a Destination (often received with a vocal, “Whew!”). Getting hired is the starting point for a Journey with that organization that might span years, including advancement, certifications, promotions, and other achievements as Destinations.

This new employee’s hiring manager has also enjoyed a complementary series of Journeys and Destinations. Making the decision to bring this person aboard is a major Destination; completing onboarding is another, and ongoing growth and development consists of multiple Journeys and Destinations.

This all offers some rather fascinating possibilities for storylines for your demos and discovery conversations!

A Matter of Perspective

Another point of view on the Journey vs Destination vs Both is exactly that: It may depend on the point of view of your prospect. Let’s revisit the trip to New York City, but in this case, you are heading out on a well-deserved holiday (congratulations!):

You are flying overseas for a vacation at a beautiful resort… Is it the Journey, the Destination, or Both that matter?

If you are flying in a cramped middle seat in coach in the back of the plane for eleven hours, sitting in front of the couple with the teething child, struggling for the armrest with your neighbor, and getting up every hour for that same neighbor to go to the lavatory, it is probably not the Journey that is of interest! It may be an experience, but perhaps one that you wouldn’t like to repeat. (Are you getting value from the experience?)

On the other hand, if you are in first class, enjoying the sumptuous airport lounge, fine dining, comfortable seats, unlimited drinks, a lie-flat bed, and noise-cancelling earphones, then the Journey might be worthwhile as well! (Are you getting value from the experience?)

In both cases, the Destination is definitely important: That gorgeous resort with your spacious, well-equipped room, outstanding views, activities, etc. (Are you getting value from the experience?)

Many years ago, I flew from San Francisco to Spain to attend my first European Users’ Group meeting. I was in the cattle-car portion of coach on a 747; my vice president of sales and CFO were in business class. I can share with you that the Journey was not a pleasant experience for me, but senior management had a great trip!

A Few Additional Ideas

Many software products enable the same end result or deliverable to be achieved but faster, better, or cheaper. This is a case of the same Destination, different Journeys (different methods of getting to the Destination). Want an analogy? Compare driving for hours to purchase a simple household product vs ordering it online. I’d suggest that the Journey is the important storyline in these cases!

Finally, first-hand experiences can be extremely valuable in your evaluation of demo storylines. If you have ever been the customer and used the product that you now represent, you are in a terrific position to leverage your knowledge. Ask yourself, “Did I enjoy the Journey or was it the Destination that was desired, or Both?”

Alternatively, ask your current customers the same question, taking careful note to correlate their job titles with their responses. What you learn should provide you with terrific storyline positioning for your demo and discovery conversations with your prospects.

It’s All About Value (Again)

When you are determining the best positioning and storyline for your demos, discovery conversations, and other customer-facing interactions, consider where your prospect will get value:

If your prospect will gain value along the Journey or if there are sufficient waypoints of value along the way, then sell the Journey.
If your prospect will only get value from the Destination, then sell the Destination.
And if your prospect enjoys value gains from both, then sell Both!

And so ends this article’s Journey… Did you get value along the way?

To learn more ideas, tips, and skills, consider enrolling in a Doing Discovery or Great Demo! Workshop or explore our books, blog and articles on the Resources pages of our website at https://GreatDemo.com. Join the Great Demo! & Doing Discovery LinkedIn Group to learn from others and share your experiences.