#010 | Demo the Best Part First!
Paul M. Caffrey
└? Prepare Ambitious AEs to Become Top Performers??...how?→ | SKO Keynote Speaker ?? (NSA & PSA), Team Training & 1:1 Coaching | Author ?? "The Work Before the Work" | Founder @ Ambitious Account Executives
The best demo's hook people straight away.
They show exactly how they solve a clients exact problem immediately!
Do you do this?
Or do you make the mistake I used to make all the time?
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The old way to demo...build the value.
For years my demos built towards an incredible ending.
They were like a movie.
This is the wrong way to do it.
The first software I used to demo could send emails even if the email server was disconnected (Yes all businesses used to run email on local servers).
Email is critical to business today, Imagine the importance in 2009!
CIOs were responsible for email servers that from time to time went offline.
This meant the whole business could not send or receive email!
They didn't want their CEO contacting them out of hours to fix email issues.
As you can imagine...eliminating the risk of downtime was mind-blowing in 2009!
Like all good movies, I set the scene.
Making the IT Director the hero.
Making downtime the villain.
I took them on the classic hero's journey.
Outlining how many IT Directors ignored the call to mitigate the risk.
I positioned myself as the sherpa.
I took showed them the other risks they faced.
Security that isn't up to scratch, an email archiving solution that is subpar and the risk of email downtime at any point.
Then I would show the worst case scenario.
Their email server goes down.
Its disconnected, they can't send email.
"Ding"
"Ding"
"Ding"
But the emails continue to arrive.
The emails continue to send!
The IT Director is rewarded for taking the journey.
And then they return back to their current world.
And the demo ends.
90% of people bought to eradicate downtime.
And I made them all wade through features they didn't want before they saw the one feature I knew they'd want. 20+ minutes of time wasted.
This old school approach to "build value" doesn't work today.
It causes people to think "This solution is too big for me".
I am "paying for features I don't need".
Mor Assouline came on my podcast last year and summed it up like this:
Demo's should be like movie trailers, not movies!
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The New Way to Demo...Show the Value Straight Away.
The art of conversation makes this work.
People need to understand how what you're showing them solves their biggest problem.
It starts with reminding them of this.
?? Remind them of the problem: "When we were talking earlier you shared that X is your biggest problem"
Remind them of the scale of the problem.
?? Remind them of the scale of the problem: "To what extent is that...."
Confirm what they are looking to achieve.
?? Remind them of their desired goals "Earlier you shared your looking to "
At this point you start to demo the exact feature that aligns with their big problem.
You'll be tempted to ask "What questions have you got?" or "does that make sense?".
Avoid this.
Instead call out a case study of another successful customer.
And most importantly, get them talking!!
At Salesforce, when a transformational part of the solution was demo'd, it was always followed up with a question:
?? Get them talking "How does that compare to what your doing at the moment?"
Your Demo is 2-3x Micro Conversations.
Most good demo's will solve for 2-3 major pains that solve 1-3 big problems.
For every part that you demo, run through this conversation framework.
It's simple but extremely effective.
Final Thoughts & Next Steps
Forget boring, forget generic—make your demos stand out.
Demo the best part, the part that solves the customers pain exactly.
One final thought on this is to be clear on "why" your giving the demo.
What is the decision you want the person to make at the end.
e.g. they want to make sure its not too complicated for their team before they proceed to making you vendor of choice.
This means you can speak to simplicity and confirm you've hit the mark while you demo.
At the end of the demo you can agree together to move to the next stage or not.
Apply these tactics in your next demo. Observe how your customer reacts to it.
TLDR
Have a Great Week!
Paul M. Caffrey
p.s. want to prepare yourself or your team to sell like top sales professionals? Check Out Prepared Selling - Find Out More | Keynotes | Workshops | AE Coaching