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Stunningly Awful Demos – Two Words to Avoid
A Never Stop Learning! Article
“Our lives are frittered away by details; simplify, simplify.”
– Henry David Thoreau
What’s in This Article for You
- A sad story
- An annoying GPS
- The dreaded “if”
- The horror of “or”
- Solutions!
Name two words that strike fear and terror into the hearts of prospects watching a software demonstration: Two words that lengthen demos and turn short, crisp pathways into journeys worthy of Norse sagas. These are, of course:
“If” and “Or”
A Sad Story
I was watching a demo of a tool that was organized like a wizard, stepping the user through the various workflow steps. It was a rather wonderful wizard. Rich with features. Ripe with options. The depth and breadth of the capabilities it offered were legion!
How do I know this?
The rep delivering the demo introduced his plan, noting that he would execute one specific task. He then began clicking and talking, clicking and talking, finally finishing the process fifty-five minutes later. Truly breathtaking, but not in a positive way!
I said, “Could you please start again and run your software the way that someone would use it to complete that same task on a day-to-day basis?”
He said, “Sure” and launched into the process a second time. How long do you think it took for this run? Three and a half minutes.
Wait, what?
That’s right: Using the tool to complete this same task as it would be done by a real user took only 3.5 minutes vs the 55 minutes consumed in his demo. What was the difference?
It was the frequent use of the words “if” and “or” in his first effort.
Each time he used these words it opened a branch, an additional pathway to show more features and options. Each extra path extended the demo making the software appear bloated, confusing, and complex.
What would this be like if it occurred in our lives, as opposed to simply suffering through a long demo?
A Parable
Imagine you need to drive to the store to pick up a few things for dinner, a trip that normally takes ten minutes each way. You get into your car, enter the store address into the car’s GPS and press “Go.” Your self-driving car is equipped with a surprisingly intelligent voice-controlled generative-AI GPS, named Georgie. It is so intelligent, in fact, that it decides there are other options you should see on the way!
Georgie takes control and turns off the direct route to show you an interesting restaurant it thinks you might want to try in the future. You thank Georgie and ask it to return to the original course. It does so, quietly grumbling, “Boring…!”
A few blocks later, Georgie again changes direction and drives five minutes to show you a nice park. “Terrific, but I’m not in the mood for a picnic,” you say. “Please return to the original course.” Georgie sighs audibly but obediently returns to the original route once again.
Moments later, Georgie makes a left turn and proceeds to a new home-products store. Georgie proudly announces that the store has just opened and is a great option for everything from paint to plumbing. “Thanks,” you comment, getting irritated, “but I don’t need any hardware – please return to the original route.”
Moments later, Georgie displays five options for traveling an upcoming segment of the route: An expressway, a toll road, and three separate local “short-cuts”. Unbidden, Georgie takes you down each of these, observing, “I want to show you the variety of options to get to your destination.”
Now very annoyed, you tell Georgie, “Please drive directly to the store!” Georgie does so, after grumbling “You really should see all of the cool options I know about…”
Fed up, you disable Georgie for the return trip. And because of the many detours, dinner will be seriously late!
What if demos were delivered this way? Oh wait, they are!
The Dreaded “If”
It starts innocuously enough, with a single “if” such as, “Now, if you want to submit this, then you click ‘OK’…” But “if” appears to need company and will clone itself repeatedly! Here’s an example:
“Now, if you want to submit this, then you click ‘OK’… But if you want to change the color, then you go to our color palette which I’ll show you now…, and if you need a different size, then you click here where we have our special sizing tool which operates like this…, and if you want to share it with other colleagues then let me show you our collaboration tool and…”
“Ifs” breed like proverbial rabbits!
That’s one way to change a 3.5-minute pathway into a 55-minute torture tour.
Solution? When you find you are about to say “If” in a demo, consider asking whether your prospect is interested in seeing the capabilities you have in mind before proceeding! You can also use a Biased Question (richly developed in the Great Demo! and Doing Discovery books) when you feel the feature is important.
I noted that using if is one way to turn a simple demo into a lengthy odyssey. What is another?
“Or” Horror
There are several ways I could use to introduce this:
I could describe the sins of “Or” via a simple example,
Or by using a medium-length process,
Or with a longer task example,
Or via a story,
Or by a combination,
Or by using the software to show seven different ways to accomplish the same task!
Have I made my point, (or) do you need further “Or” examples to illustrate? (Interestingly, “horror” actually includes two “or” instances!)
Consider: Is there any workplace task that you’d want to take longer than necessary? Nope! You want the fastest, most direct path to complete your work. (OK, yes, I can see situations where you might linger with one task because you really don’t want to embrace the next one!)
When there are several possible ways to accomplish a task, which should you show in a demo? Choose the fastest, most direct route: the Do It pathway, executed with the fewest number of clicks. Let me emphasize this by repeating:
The Fewest Number of Clicks!
Execute demo pathways without showing any additional options or choices: No “if”, no “or”. When you drive to most destinations you choose the fastest route and GPS programming is based on this concept. (Apparently Georgie didn’t receive that message!)
Doing this successfully in demos takes some serious personal discipline: It can be difficult to stay on course and avoid the temptations of the scenic route.
Each demo segment should be a straight line showing the fewest number of steps to proceed from a logical starting point to completing that task. Your objective is to make your software look crisp, logical, and easy to use.
Cohan’s Razor: “Given the choice of multiple paths in a demo, choose the shortest.” (Thanks to William of Occam for inspiration!)
Later, you can ask if your prospect might be interested in other possibilities, particularly if the other capabilities are competitively important or otherwise differentiate your offering. Again, the use of Biased Questions is an effective, elegant way to introduce these capabilities without the risk of Buying It Back.
And, of course, the worst phrase of all is “Or if”! Example? “Or, if you want save this in other formats let me show you all of the file formats we support…” Aaaaaaagh!
Could these uses of “If” and “Or” get worse? You betcha!
Death By Dead-End
What is a “Dead-end”? It is the natural outcome of launching down an “If” or “Or” pathway, getting close to the end, but not completing the function, leaving your prospect unfulfilled and unsatisfied.
Example?
Have you ever seen someone navigate to a “Reports” tab, comment that “There are 600 pre-built reports available in the system,” then move to another menu option, build a custom report and, after a pile of clicks, scrolls, drag, and drops, produce a completed report template, but never run an actual report? Aaaaaaagh again!
Even worse, in some cases the demonstrator needs to backtrack to return to the main story. Each additional click lengthens the demo, generating a negative perception of being confusing and complicated. What’s the opposite of “User friendly”? It’s “User hostile”!
Hmmm, sounds a lot like the Georgie GPS story above!
The best, most successful demos mimic the perspective of a real user who wants to complete their tasks successfully, as crisply and effectively as possible. That is always the fewest number of clicks!
In Case “If” and “Or” Aren’t Painful Enough
There are a handful of phrases that put fear and loathing into prospects’ hearts when on the receiving end of demos. Here are a few of my personal favorites:
“Let me start by orienting you to our screen layout and navigation…”
Sigh. I don’t want to learn how to use your software yet; I don’t yet know if it does anything that will help me in my business. The last thing I want at this point is product training!
Solution? Do the Last Thing First.
“Now I’ll show you our context-relevant help system…”
Double sigh. This suggests that I’ll need the help system because your software is likely complex, complicated, and painfully user-hostile.
Solution? Don’t.
“And another really cool thing about our software is…”
This phrase is used, often frequently, in what is known as “run-on demos” (part of the overarching category of Stunningly Awful Harbor Tours). These are demos without a break, without a pause, and typically no introduction or summary for any segment. These demos are painful fire-hose deliveries of features and functions flung in a steady stream from presenter to prospect. The result leaves you wet, cold, and torpid!
Solution? Break your demo into consumable components or chunks that can be introduced, presented crisply, and summarized before moving on.
“Now this next part is really important…”
You can say this once, and I’ll believe it. Twice, I’m still with you. Three times, I might remember all three.
But what happens beyond the third use of “really important”? Confusion, then boredom. Tedium. Numbness. Idle doodling and lengthening glances at phones. When too many items are labeled “important” they all become unimportant!
Solution? Don’t.
Demo Don’t, Demo Do
Don’t join the ranks of the Sales Prevention Team by packing as much demo as you can into the allocated time.
Do record and listen to your demos carefully and critically. When you hear yourself using “If”, “Or”, and any of the phrases above, take appropriate action to change! Your audience will be grateful, and your reward will be higher success rates with your demos yielding more closed business.
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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 books, 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.