Great Demo! & Doing Discovery Updates – Discovery Webinar, Consensus 2024 Survey, New Articles, Two Tips, Public Workshops, More
Peter Cohan
Working to Improve the World One Demo and One Discovery Conversation at a Time!
Hi All,
Here are the latest Great Demo! updates for you, along with links to our latest articles:
Enjoy!
Great Demo! & Doing Discovery Pearls and Epiphanies
“We eat with our eyes first – the same is true in demos!”
New Items
Upcoming Webinar – “Discovery Masterclass” September 19
I’ll be joining Julien Emery of Superpanel Tuesday September 19 at 8:00 AM Pacific Time. Register here!
“See how top PreSales and Sales teams use better discovery to increase win rates.
Who is this webinar for? CROs, Presales, Sales, and Enablement professionals at B2B software companies that are serious about driving growth through high ACV deals.”
And please let us know if there are topics you’d like us to explore!
Consensus’ 2024 Sales Engineering Workload and Compensation Survey!?
The 2024 version of Consensus’ presales survey is now open. I strongly urge you to participate, as the data and findings has proven to be enormously useful. You can find the survey here!
Tip: The Opposite of Active Listening?
How many of us find ourselves forming a response to a prospect or customer comment or question, well before they have finished speaking? I’d guess we are guilty of doing this far too frequently!
Doing this is, in fact, the opposite of active listening – yet we do it all the time. We could call this, “pre-response processing”.
What are the negative impacts? Myriad! While we are constructing our responses, we may miss tone, inflection, words, or even full phrases, putting us at risk of misinterpretation or worse. An answer that is out of alignment with our prospect or customer’s intent negatively impacts their trust in us, damages our authenticity, and can throttle the conversation. They will not feel “heard”.
Pre-response processing seems to happen most frequently when you have “heard it all before”. This can take place in a discovery conversation, when your prospect is describing their situation, and you’ve heard that same story a hundred times before from others!
I found myself doing this today and had to apologize… Which brings me to some solutions:
Other suggestions?
Tip: Sales and the Difference Between Momentum and Inertia
Momentum is defined as the tendency of a body to remain in motion. Inertia is the tendency of a body to oppose the change in its position.
In sales, momentum is expressed as the amount of desire to remain the same; inertia is the amount of energy required to make change happen (or the amount of resistance to change)!
Prospects suffering from momentum issues are likely to do nothing in response to exploring opportunities; prospects who fight change are suffering from inertia! The former is passive; the latter is active…
In either case, discovery questions that examine an organization and individual’s cultural attributes can help determine the likelihood of an opportunity headed towards a “No Decision” outcome.
For example, “Burn Victims” (those prospects who have suffered from failed implementations or purchases that never yielded the expected ROI) are more likely to suffer from inertia issues. “We tried this before, and it didn’t work…!” They push back.
You can uncover “momentum” issues with questions like, “When was the last time your organization implemented a major new software tool?” A response such as, “Well, it has been over seven years since our last project…” would suggest that this prospect may be a “Victim of Momentum”!
Upcoming Great Demo! & Doing Discovery Public Workshops
Sharpen your saw for Q4 beyond! Public Workshops are perfect for individuals or small teams:
Our next EMEA Face-to-Face Public Great Demo Workshop is scheduled to take place next week on September 20-21 in Amsterdam – only a few more seats are available. You can find registration information here. You can also contact Natasja Bax for more information.
Our next North America session will be a Combined Doing Discovery & Great Demo! Demonstration Skills Public Workshop, scheduled for October 16-19, 2023. We are offering Doing Discovery with Great Demo!?This is a 2-day equivalent session facilitated over the web. You can find registration and additional information here, or contact Paul Pearce for details.
Are You Using Demo Automation Tools and Not Seeing the Expected Results??
New! We are launching an EMEA Demo Automation Public Workshop, targeted for October. Contact Natasja Bax for more information.
Maybe your demos were not sufficiently compelling – automating these demos will only have negative effects.
Join our Virtual Public Workshop about?interactive demo automation. You'll work with your software and your demo automation tool (we are vendor agnostic).?
This workshop will have two segments for which you can register separately.?
Segment 1: Creating interactive demos for people who need to do this:
Segment 2: Delivering interactive demos for sales teams.
Our next North America Doing Discovery Skills Public Workshop is being scheduled. Please let us know if you have dates or location preferences.
Our next English EMEA Doing Discovery Skills Public Workshop is being scheduled. Please let us know if you have dates or location preferences.
?Great Demo! & Doing Discovery LinkedIn Group – Over 8650 Members
The Great Demo! & Doing Discovery LinkedIn Group now has over 8650 members: It’s an ongoing discussion of thoughts, tips, tools, techniques and best (and worst!) practices to increase your success rates doing discovery, software demonstrations, and related activities. Consider it an online users’ community for Great Demo! and Doing Discovery practitioners and learners.
?Previous Update Items
?Never Stop Learning!
We are delighted to introduce our Never Stop Learning series, consisting of an ongoing series of articles, webinars, interviews, and more on doing discovery, preparing and delivering demos, and related practices.
Articles will be published on Fridays to provide you with inspiring content for weekend reading.
Webinars will likely be presented monthly, including interviews with industry experts offering new and creative ideas to enhance your success.
Both will include validated best practices, top tips, skills and guidance, challenges and the occasional surprise. Let us know if there are topics you’d like to see explored!
领英推荐
Tip: Pre-Discovery for Critical Business Issues?
Here’s the premise: It is very helpful to know your prospect’s Critical Business Issues before the discovery call begins!
Wait, what? Don’t you need to uncover your prospect’s Critical Business Issues (CBIs) in your discovery conversations?
Well, yes… But in the best cases, what you are really doing is confirming your expectations of your prospect’s CBIs in discovery.
Whoa – this seems confusing! However, it’s not. It’s a terrific rescue to avoid equating “pain” with CBIs. This article explains why this is so important, particularly to reduce No Decision outcomes.
Let’s examine a couple of examples to illustrate.
First example: Your prospect is the VP of Sales.
We all know that the huge majority of heads of sales have quota attainment as a major objective or measurement of success. Accordingly, in a discovery conversation with a VP of Sales, if we hear them say, “I need more and better leads…”, we know that this is not a CBI, but is rather a Problem/Reason and will (on its own) be insufficient to drive a purchasing decision.
We need to ask more questions to determine if their insufficiency of leads is impacting their ability to achieve their quota requirements. If we don’t explore this, we are at risk of this opportunity resulting in a No Decision outcome.
We want to have this “pre-discovery” knowledge prior to the call. We should know that the VP of Sales’ CBIs should include “making the quarterly and annual revenue numbers” or similar.
Second example: Your prospect is a Manager of Development.
Again, we should know ahead of the discovery call that this job title’s likely CBIs should include “completing projects on time, on spec, and within budget”.
If we hear a “pain” expressed such as, “We suffer from a large number of errors that result in wasteful rework…” we know that this is a Problem/Reason and not a CBI. If this Manager of Development is on track to finish their project(s) on time, on spec, and within budget, then this opportunity is yet another candidate for a No Decision result. The errors and rework may be troubling but lack sufficient driving force to make a change.
?What are the typical CBIs of your prospects?
?Tip: A Painful “No Decision” Analogy…
Imagine that you own and operate a nice restaurant. How would you feel if you took reservations from 100 folks for an evening of dining and had the following experience?
On the strength of these reservations, you ordered and purchased food and beverages for 100 people, prepped the ingredients, cooked, plated and served the meals, poured drinks, and finally cleared the dishes, and cleaned up the tables and the kitchen afterwards. You employed and paid a dozen staff, including your chef, kitchen and busser staff, host, waiters, and bartender for a full day’s work.
Sadly, 45 of the 100 expected guests never showed!
You invested in purchasing, preparing, serving, and cleaning-up for nearly half of the restaurant’s seating that didn’t show up. How would you feel?
Surprisingly, this is status quo for sales! Typical B2B software vendors suffer from an average 45% No Decision rate. That’s right: ~45% of all deals forecasted to close end in a No Decision outcomes.?
(A No Decision outcome is generally defined as an opportunity forecasted to close that is not won by the vendor nor lost to a competitor, but where the prospect chooses to do nothing. Also known as “Do Nothing” or “Status Quo”, and often evidenced by opportunities that just “roll-over” to the next quarter – quarter after quarter!)
?How often do you execute an entire sales cycle only to have the prospect do nothing, yielding a No Decision outcome? Contemplate the effort that went into these opportunities: qualification calls, overview demos, discovery conversations, deeper demos, POCs, proposals, and perhaps even more. It’s like all that work purchasing, preparing and serving dinners to a pile of restaurant “no shows”.
No Decision rates represent one of the biggest “knobs” in terms of improving sales productivity, yet very few vendors take action to improve their numbers. Consider: If you have ten salespeople and you reduce your No Decision rate by 10%, you just gained a “free” salesperson and the incremental revenue they generate!
Solution? The Doing Discovery book and Workshops detail three objective parameters that you can use to identify and address No Decision sales opportunities.
What’s your current No Decision rate? What would you like it to be?
Doing Discovery and Great Demo! Third Edition International Availability Confirmed: The Doing Discovery and Great Demo! Third Edition books are available internationally on these Amazon sites:
Great Demo! Third Edition Full Launch!
The long-awaited Third Edition of Great Demo! is now available in paperback, Kindle, and Audiobook versions. Over 400 copies have already been purchased in the past few weeks – bulk discounts are available, as well – contact me for information!
The book has been substantially updated and expanded – it is now really two books in one! Part 1 focuses on the core Great Demo! methodology while Part 2 offers skills, tips, and truly best practices for:
What’s changed? Lots! The second edition was published in 2005; this third edition is completely updated, overhauled, and extended, incorporating the new learnings and practices we’ve implemented and production-hardened with customers.
Here’s the Table of Contents:
INTRODUCTION
PART 1 – CORE METHODOLOGY
1? WHAT IS GREAT DEMO?
2? WHY DO DEMOS FAIL?
3? WHAT HAPPENS IF THE DEMO FAILS?
4? YOUR PROSPECT
5? THE GREAT DEMO!
6? BUSINESS PREPARATION
7? TECHNICAL PREPARATION
8? MANAGING TIME AND QUESTIONS
9? DEMO DELIVERY – PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
PART 2 – ADVANCED TOPICS
10? MULTI-SOLUTION, MULTI-PLAYER DEMOS
11? VISION GENERATION DEMOS
12? YOUR DEMO ENVIRONMENT
13? VIRTUAL DEMONSTRATIONS
14? STORYTELLING
15? STYLE
16? OTHER FORMS OF PROOF
17? IMPLEMENTING GREAT DEMO!
18? BECOMING A DEMO MASTER
INDEX
And I have a special offer for those who write a nice 5-Star review on Amazon – contact me for details!
Doing Discovery – Now Over 3700 Copies
Over 3700 copies of Doing Discovery have been purchased in the past few months, including over 650 Audiobooks, and I’m hearing very positive feedback from those who have put the ideas into practice. Reports include:
?The advantage goes to those of you who adopt early – get your copy here!
Custom Seminars, Webinars, and Workshops
?At your next SKO, QBR, or upcoming gathering, contemplate including a Great Demo! or Doing Discovery Seminar or Webinar to stimulate thinking and begin the process of change. To really master the skills, schedule a Great Demo! Workshop to train the team.? Seminars, Webinars and Workshops can be face-to-face or delivered virtually.? Topics include:
?Contact us to discuss organizing a custom session for your team!
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Copyright ? 2023 The Second Derivative – All Rights Reserved.
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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 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.