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A Terrible Tabs Demo Death March
I was watching a demo recently where the presenter executed one of the longest Terrible Tabs Demo Death Marches I’ve seen. No fewer than 11 (eleven!) tabs were explored, one after another after another after…
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Stunningly Awful Discovery and Demos Viewed as an Appalling Dining…
As you read this story, contemplate how it maps to traditional ineffective and inadequate discovery and demos. Imagine that you and four colleagues are a bit hungry and decide to have a bite...
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A Demo Horror Story – Snatching Defeat from the Jaws…
“This story could be called, ‘The Sales Prevention Team’!” he commented ruefully. The Workshop participants and I all leaned forward to listen…
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Discovery on the Fly? Some Plane Thinking
The temptation can be strong to try Discovery on the Fly, particularly when the prospect initiates an inbound lead by clicking the “Book a Demo” button. After all, they want to see a demo, right?…
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What is Lead Churn?
Have you ever reached out to a vendor to learn about an offering – and been refused? Have you ever clicked the “Book a Demo” button on a vendor’s website – and never saw a…
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The Content-Free Buzzword-Compliant Vocabulary List
“Our powerful software is flexible, intuitive, easy-to-use and integrates seamlessly with your other tools. Robust and scalable, your organization can enjoy the benefits of our best-of-breed world-class offering.” How many […]
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The Significant Failure of Selling in Modern Demos
The Tell, Show, Tell approach has served the industry well for years and has helped many presales consultants improve their ability to tell stories and connect with buyers. However, when we consider new research from…
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Rescue – From the Tyranny of Traditional Demos
Throw off the shackles of the old traditional approach. Embrace this new, delightfully effective approach to creating and delivering demos.
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Presales Tools Summary – April 2022
Here is a listing of presales tools that we’ve explored, including a paragraph from the vendor and our comments for many of these offerings.
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Stunningly Awful Demos – Buying It Back
Have you ever been in a situation where your prospect said, “In your demo, you showed us a bunch of stuff that we’ll never use – and we don’t want to pay for capabilities that…
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Assessing Demonstration Skill Levels – How Does Your Team Rate?
Many presales and sales practitioners say they are skilled at doing demos – but are they? Here’s a simple method to assess where you and your team stand, based on twelve levels of increasing proficiency…
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Stunningly Awful Demos: Insufficient Customization
Are your current demos sufficiently customized, from your prospects’ perspective? What more customization could you do to improve your demo effectiveness?
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A Dinner Party as an Analogy for Discovery
You’ve invited a large number of friends and colleagues over for a dinner party – how do you prepare? The process the Party Planner follows and questions asked provide a surprisingly good example for doing…
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How to Rake Your Way into the Future of Presales
Keeping up with the rollercoaster of changes, or ‘new normals’ if you will, is something we’re all facing in the middle of this COVID-19 commotion. But for presales in the IT and software industry it…
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Presales Metrics – What to Measure and Why
Presales has entered a renaissance, enjoying increased visibility, emerging tools and communities, and cataloging of know-how and best practices. This is the perfect time to rethink your vision for your organization (or your personal vision),…
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People Buy From People They Trust
B2B buyers expect sales reps to understand their business, but the reality is that buyers perceive that less than 50% of reps actually do. They expect the sales rep to provide a solution, but the…
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Hybrid Demo Meetings – The Challenges of Mixed Face-to-Face and…
What is the strategy for handling situations where you are face-to-face with one group of prospects and other participants are connecting remotely?
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Automated Demo Content – Getting It Right
You’ve been asked to put together the content for an automated or recorded demo – where do you start? What should be included?
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Assessing Discovery Skill Levels – How Does Your Team Rate?…
Many sales and presales practitioners say they are skilled at doing Discovery – but are they? Here’s a simple method to assess, based on seven levels of increasing proficiency:
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Discovery and Demos for Transactional Sales Cycles – When More…
Is it possible to complete an introduction, engage with a Vision Generation Demo, segue into a Discovery conversation, deliver a brief Technical Proof Demo, and execute a soft close in a 45- or 60-minute call?…
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Expansion Questions – An Essential Discovery Skill
Expansion Questions are a series of interrelated questions designed to span five of the Discovery skills levels, from uncovering pain to reengineering vision. They are a simple, yet essential skill to master in doing Discovery…
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Your Persona Demo is Failing!
The breakdown with persona-based demos is the lack of ability to fully connect the challenges your audience is having with the value your solution provides.
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Success-Ready Leads: A Provocative Definition of “Qualified Lead” Based on…
Here’s a novel idea: Front-load your pipeline with prospects that are most likely to succeed!
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‘Twas the Night Before the Big Demo
‘Twas the night ‘fore the demo and all through the house Not a creature was stirring, ‘cept my SE and his mouse;
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The Great Demo! 2020 Articles Index
There are currently well over 75 articles in our articles page – here’s a handy index to help you find specific topics and explore others. Enjoy!
