{"id":29071,"date":"2018-02-20T10:37:07","date_gmt":"2018-02-20T10:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/?p=362"},"modified":"2023-01-27T22:42:28","modified_gmt":"2023-01-27T22:42:28","slug":"situaciones-demo-competitivas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/competitive-demo-situations\/","title":{"rendered":"Situaciones de demostraci\u00f3n competitiva: inclinarse por los puntos fuertes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Competitive Demo Situations \u2013 Biasing Towards Your Strengths<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The end of the quarter is only a few weeks away \u2013 and you are in competition for business you really need to make your numbers. The customer has organized a final round of demos from the vendors who have made it this far \u2013 a \u201cbake-off\u201d \u2013 and you are preparing for the event.\u00a0\u00a0As far as the customer is concerned, all remaining vendors are perceived as equivalent with respect to their offerings.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

What can you do to differentiate from your competition and increase your chances for success?<\/p>\n

Too Much\u2026 Is a Recipe For Disaster<\/h4>\n

Clearly, you want to alert your customer to your particular strengths.\u00a0\u00a0But how do you accomplish this without flogging your customer with capabilities they don\u2019t want, services they aren\u2019t interested in, and information that is not relevant for their situation?\u00a0\u00a0Introducing these will only hurt your cause:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Customer Management:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m not interested in all of those features \u2013 and I don\u2019t want to have to pay for them\u2026\u201d<\/li>\n
  • Customer End-user:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cOuch \u2013 all those different tools and functions make their software look really hard to use.\u00a0\u00a0It is far too complicated, for me\u2026\u201d<\/li>\n
  • Customer IT:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cOh-oh \u2013 they list a pile of training and support services, so their software much be really hard to implement and keep running.\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019ll bet I\u2019m going to end up with a huge support problem on my hands\u2026!\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Not a good situation\u2026!\u00a0\u00a0So how\u00a0do<\/em>\u00a0you introduce capabilities that can help your cause?<\/p>\n

    Whole Product Analysis<\/h4>\n

    The first step is to understand your strengths in relation to your customer\u2019s specific situation.\u00a0\u00a0A terrific tool to accomplish this is called Whole Product Analysis \u2013 a method of outlining\u00a0all<\/em>\u00a0possible areas of strength (and weakness).\u00a0\u00a0This goes far beyond lists of features and functions, embracing other areas of potential importance for your customer.<\/p>\n

    Is implementation a concern?\u00a0\u00a0What about referencable existing customers?\u00a0\u00a0How about a Users\u2019 Group in their geography?\u00a0\u00a0Response times and resolution effectiveness from your Customer Support Team?\u00a0\u00a0Product Roadmap and plans for future releases?\u00a0\u00a0Professional Services resources and experience with custom implementations?\u00a0\u00a0Many of these may be important, even critical, to your customer, and could tip the business in your favor.<\/p>\n

    How can you assemble this list?\u00a0\u00a0One effective mechanism is to gather a small team into a conference room and invest an hour brainstorming your potential strengths (this is a\u00a0great<\/em>\u00a0task for marketing \u2013 product managers, in particular).\u00a0\u00a0List everything that might be relevant \u2013 go\u00a0far<\/em>\u00a0beyond what\u2019s in the code\u2026:<\/p>\n

    \u2713\u00a0\u00a0Company years in business
    \n\u2713\u00a0 Company size
    \n\u2713\u00a0\u00a0Number of customers
    \n\u2713\u00a0\u00a0Number of users
    \n\u2713\u00a0\u00a0Geographic location of offices
    \n\u2713\u00a0\u00a0Reference customers
    \n\u2713\u00a0\u00a0Users\u2019 Groups
    \n\u2713\u00a0\u00a0Advisory Forums
    \n\u2713\u00a0\u00a0Product maturity (releases)
    \n\u2713\u00a0\u00a0Product key capabilities
    \n\u2713\u00a0\u00a0Additional modules
    \n\u2713\u00a0\u00a0Complementary products
    \n\u2713\u00a0\u00a0Product roadmaps
    \n\u2713\u00a0\u00a03rd\u00a0party complementary offerings
    \n\u2713\u00a0\u00a0Partners and resellers
    \n\u2713\u00a0\u00a0Customer Support team
    \n\u2713\u00a0\u00a0Professional Services
    \n\u200b \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0o \u00a0Training
    \n\u200b \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0o \u00a0Consulting
    \n\u200b \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0o \u00a0Implementation experience
    \n\u2713\u00a0\u00a0Implementation roadmaps and timelines
    \n\u2713\u00a0\u00a0Implementation tips and guidelines
    \n\u200b \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0o \u00a0Example \u201cEarly Wins\u201d
    \n\u2713\u00a0\u00a0Typical time to production use
    \n\u2713\u00a0\u00a0Typical \u201cfootprint and growth\u201d information
    \n\u2713\u00a0\u00a0Formal Success Stories and Case Studies
    \n\u2713\u00a0\u00a0Informal Success Stories
    \n\u2713\u00a0\u00a0Staff experience and longevity:
    \n\u200b \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0o\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Sales
    \n\u200b \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0o\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Presales
    \no\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Marketing
    \no\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Professional Services
    \no\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Customer Support
    \no\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Development
    \n\u200b\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0o\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Management
    \n\u2713 \u00a0Corporate \u201cGreen\u201d position and implementation status
    \n\u200b\u2713 \u00a0Etc. Etc. Etc.<\/p>\n

    Your objective is to be as broad as possible in this exercise to create a list that can be used for multiple customer situations.<\/p>\n

    Next, select those items that are relevant and potentially important for the\u00a0specific<\/em>\u00a0customer at hand.\u00a0\u00a0Now you are almost ready\u2026<\/p>\n

    The Biased Question<\/h4>\n

    You now have a list of product capabilities and broader items that\u00a0may<\/em>\u00a0be interesting, important, or even vitally critical for your customer.\u00a0\u00a0How do you test \u2013 how do you introduce these\u00a0without<\/em>\u00a0incurring the risk of presenting too much?<\/p>\n

    The use of the Biased Question is a delightful and highly effective method.\u00a0\u00a0Here\u2019s an example:<\/p>\n

    Let\u2019s assume that you can provide a SaaS (Software as a Service) version of your offering, in addition to your standard offering, and your competition can only provide a \u201cbehind the firewall\u201d installation.\u00a0\u00a0Up until this point there had only been discussion of the traditional \u201cbehind the firewall\u201d version.\u00a0\u00a0During your demo, you introduce the SaaS possibility using a Biased Question.<\/p>\n

    You say,<\/p>\n

    \u201cMany of our\u00a0other<\/em>\u00a0customers, in very similar situations to yours, have found significant advantages in using a SaaS version of our software.\u00a0\u00a0They were able to reduce the consumption of their internal IT support resources significantly, enable an earlier implementation and initial roll-out, gain significant \u201cearly wins\u201d and enjoy a faster return on their investment.<\/p>\n

    In addition to our \u2018behind your firewall\u2019 offering, we also offer a SaaS version.\u00a0\u00a0Is this something that might also be useful for you?\u201d<\/p>\n

    There are two possible answers \u2013 \u201cyes\u201d or \u201cno\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0If your customer says, \u201cYes\u201d, then you respond,<\/p>\n

    \u201cWe have that capability \u2013 would you like to see it\u2026?\u201d<\/p>\n

    This is terrific!\u00a0\u00a0You\u2019ve now established a key competitive advantage over your competition and confirmed that this is interesting or important for your customer.\u00a0\u00a0You\u2019ve effectively added a \u201crow\u201d to the customer\u2019s evaluation table that is biased in your favor.<\/p>\n

    A key to the success of this method is the use of an Informal Success Story to help introduce the capability.\u00a0\u00a0In the example above, one or more Informal Success Stories were used to provide the customer with examples of the rewards\u00a0other<\/em>\u00a0customers enjoyed as a result of consuming the capability in question.\u00a0\u00a0This is the strong\u00a0bias<\/em>\u00a0that makes the introduction of the capability so compelling.<\/p>\n

    What If They Say No?<\/h4>\n

    If the customer says, \u201cNo\u2026\u201d then you simply drop it and move on.\u00a0\u00a0No need to show the capability or discuss it further.<\/p>\n

    The key here is that you are introducing a capability in the form of a question first \u2013 as opposed to blindly demonstrating it or discussing it on a PowerPoint slide.\u00a0\u00a0Your Biased Question enables a customer to respond, \u201cNo, I\u2019m not interested in that\u2026\u201d without\u00a0you<\/em>\u00a0incurring the risk of demonstrating or presenting too many features or non-relevant corporate capabilities.<\/p>\n

    If your customer says \u201cNo\u201d then don\u2019t show it or talk about it further!\u00a0\u00a0It is clearly not important to them.<\/p>\n

    It\u2019s as Simple as ABC<\/h4>\n

    The moral here is to Ask Before (presenting the) Capability \u2013 simple ABC.\u00a0\u00a0[OK, I know that acronym is a stretch, but go with me on this\u2026!]<\/p>\n

    The use of the Biased Question is a wonderfully effective way to introduce capabilities that you hope or believe may be competitively advantageous for you.\u00a0\u00a0Give it a try and look forward to securing a few more orders this year!<\/p>\n

    Copyright \u00a9 2008 The Great Demo \u2013 All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \u00bfQu\u00e9 puede hacer para diferenciarse de la competencia y aumentar sus posibilidades de \u00e9xito?<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26727,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,14,11,8,9,16,17,12,10,13],"tags":[6,7],"class_list":["post-29071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aweful_demos","category-advanced_topics","category-beyond_demos","category-great-demo-blog","category-growth_development","category-humor","category-justifying_training","category-marketing_topics","category-methodology_basics","category-mostly_for_managers","tag-articles","tag-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}