News organizations have been presenting information for several hundreds of years, in print and now via the web, and they have learned some highly effective practices that we can employ in demonstrating software.
What makes customers say, “Remember the time that vendor did that really amazing demo?” What is the difference between a good demo and a Truly Great Demo!?
What is the strategy for handling situations where you are face-to-face with one group of customers and other participants are connecting remotely?
Here is a compendium of debilitating demo diseases that commonly afflict sales, presales and marketing teams when preparing for and presenting demos. We identify the major symptoms for each disorder, provide one or more examples to aid in diagnosis, and suggest steps to a cure for each.
We continue the compendium of debilitating demo diseases that commonly afflict sales, presales and marketing teams when preparing for and presenting demos.
We’ve all experienced some sort of software demo hell, either as a member of the audience, or, more painfully, as the presenter. But the days of live demo hell are slowly beginning to disappear. Presenters are more savvy and strategic in how and what they present, and as a result audiences are being spared the torture. But unfortunately, we are now entering the era of auto-demo hell.
Should or could a recorded or canned demo be “customized”? Interesting and tough challenge…!
Have you ever delivered a demo to a prospect that doesn’t seem to understand what you are offering them? Have you ever had a prospect say, at the end of a demo, “Um, hmmm, looks interesting; we’ll get back to you later…” (and you never hear from them again)?
Vendors who can successfully create a vision of how customers can transition from their current situation to their desired Solution will enjoy significant advantages over vendors who do not. In competitive situations, if everything else is equal, a strong Transition Vision can make the difference between winning and losing the business.
When does your audience pay the most attention in your demos? At the beginning? In the middle? At the end? When do they pay the least attention…? And what do they really remember from your demos?
