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Is “Super” the new “Awesome”?
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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A New “Touch” in the New Normal
I was recently asked the following question in an interview: “While business travel appears to be opening up, it looks like working from home is going to stay with us for the foreseeable future. How…
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Seven Skills Levels for Stunningly Successful Discovery – Webinar Recording
Many sales and presales practitioners say they are skilled at doing Discovery – but are they? Where are you on this progression?
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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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“Let Me Close My Door” – A Discovery Story of…
What percent of your team thinks they do a good job with Discovery, but you know they don’t?”
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Demo Data – Another Angle
I’ve blogged about the need for demo data to reflect real-life problems and situations, including the ability to find and surface problems, identify opportunities, and explore exceptions. I can add one more to the list:…
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The Ignition Demo: A Conversation with Peter Cohan – Podcast
I joined Randy Frank of Navattic to explore the “Ignition Demo”, the spark needed to engage early stage prospects in the buying journey.
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“Customer Fill-in” – A Terrific Demo Tip
Here’s a truly terrific tip: Invite your prospect to be the end-customer and fill-in the form by proxy, through you.
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How Do You Determine the Technical Win?
The goal for many presales teams is to secure the Technical Win or Technical Close. I’m curious, what criteria or measurement do you use to determine whether the Technical Win has taken place?
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What is the significance of 33334?
That’s how many copies of Great Demo! have been purchased (not including those that have been resold or passed around). This means that at least 33,334 people have been exposed to the Great Demo! methodology…
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Should There Be Both Sales AND Presales Motions?
Sadly, there is no definition for Presales Motions… Perhaps there should be! Here’s a draft, based on the HubSpot wording above: “A Presales Motion is the combination of the actionable steps and general presales philosophy…
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Demo Data: The Importance of Problems, Gaps, and Exceptions
I was working with a vendor on an example demo and we identified a dashboard to serve as an Illustration (a “Wow!” screen for that use case) – but while the dashboard had all the…
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Uniqueness – A Terrific Discovery Question for Highly Transactional Sales
In transactional sales processes, where orders are relatively small and cycle time is rapid, doing Discovery can be challenging – but is still critical!
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Discovery Questioning Skills – Doctors vs. Lawyers
When doing Discovery, consider using both types of questions – “Diagnostic”, simply seeking to understand the prospect’s situation, and “Biased”, seeking to move or change the prospect’s thinking.
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What If Your Demo Meeting Ends Early? Give That Time…
A number of Great Demo! practitioners note that many of their demos no longer consume the time previously allocated for their demos – they ask, “What should we do with the remaining time?”
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What Level of Vendor Dress Is Appropriate Over the Web?…
I was watching a demo recently and noted that both vendor participants (sales and presales) were wearing T-shirts – what are your thoughts on this
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“Chunking” in Demos
In Great Demo! Workshops we teach how turn to a firehose demo into a series of consumable “chunks”. Each chunk needs an introduction, body, and summary.
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Webinar Recording: Demos as a Team Sport – The Roles…
Preparing and delivering demos should be perceived as a “team sport” when two or more people are involved on the vendor’s side. The days of “…and heeeeere’s my Demo Monkey…!” should thankfully be over (we…
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The Reverse Demo: Before I demo to you – why…
If you are looking to displace an existing system (competitor or customer-built), a wonderful approach is to ask for a “Reverse Demo”.
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Doing Discovery – The Importance of “Why” Questions
Prospect asks, “Can your software do xxx?” Vendor replies, “Yes, absolutely.” I can’t tell you how many things that brief conversation has occurred – without any follow-up questions from the vendor…! What’s missing? Asking, “Why?”
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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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SKOs and “Swipes” – Making Remembering Memorable!
Want a terrific way to ensure that your SKO participants remember the key take-aways?
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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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Refract/Gong/Chorus/etc. Studies of Teams Doing Demos?
Has anyone conducted studies of best practices for vendor teams when presenting demos, using Refract or Gong or similar tools? It would be very interesting to collect data on the following scenarios:
