TECH IS A DRAG

Ask The Right Questions To Solve Their Most Pressing Business Problems

(3 min read)

For a technologist, the tech can be the object of fascination all by itself.? But should it be?? Why does the technology even exist?? Other than being a glorious toy, technology can enable people to do amazing things, expand business, or even save lives.? I love technology as much as anyone, but the days of building a cool mousetrap and having customers swarm to you are long since over.

Transforming your technical presentation into a business discussion can help you break through when a pure technology lecture runs into a brick wall. So how do you do that?

A Great Demo

The technology discussion and demo can produce a lot more traction if it is geared directly at the pain that the customer is suffering.? Asking questions about what they are experiencing can help you direct the demo to the features that will solve their problem and get the initiative to the next phase.

Many times we are told to "Just show your product.? You always to a great demo."? That is usually the case because you are trained and know your product.? While the customer is usually nice enough to oblige you with an hour of their time, they will go dark after the meeting and you won't be able to move the pursuit forward.? The problem was not with the demo, but with the positioning of the features to meet the customer's needs.?

Be Curious

Focus your demo toward the needs of the person at the other end of the table.? So how do you find the actual needs of the customer?? You must ask the right questions to get them to open up about the issues in front of them.? If you have the opportunity to do that before the demo, great!? However, as a sales engineer, you are brought into the second meeting and the account executive has already done the discovery.

For example, the account executive has already qualified that the customer is in need of a good ERP application for their supply chain management team.??? The AE has built the relationship with the IT director and CIO and they are eagerly looking forward to your solution to their problem.? As you are setting up the projector and getting with the title slide, you can ask just a few questions that will help you focus the demo in the right areas:

1. Describe to me a few of the biggest issues you run into with Resource Planning.

2. Tell me about some of the goals that you are looking to achieve.

3. What is getting in your way?

?Simple enough.? The answers to these questions three will help you target the presentation and demo to focus on exactly what they need.

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Kick the can(ned demo)

The AE will expect a great demonstration because you know your product well.? Now is the time to deliver everything that your rep and the customer need and push the opportunity to the next stage of creating the configuration and quote.? Since you now have some key bits of information from the customer around their need and expectations, you can target the demo to the exact needs expressed and skip over all of the features that are perhaps cool, but irrelevant to the customer.?

Keep it simple, focused and directed to the customer's issues and you will seemingly be the right person, with the right product, at the right time.

The tech always follows the business problem.? Showing the tech without that context is sometimes successful, but increasing your odds with the right context will often push your product past the competition.? Using the business issues to pull the tech will be more successful than just presenting the tech alone.

Never forget, tech is a drag.

If you desire to improve as a presales engineer or optimize technical support for sales, please contact me directly today via LinkedIn Messenger to schedule your complimentary 30-minute Presales Technical Effectiveness Evaluation or Technical Sales Acceleration session.

Kerry facilitates cross-functional teams to create, implement and accelerate innovative technology products, services and sales strategies maximizing efficiencies, customer experience and corporate profitability. He speaks from 30+ years of presales experience with Fortune 500 companies Dell Technologies, HP, Sequent and Control Data. Kerry is Managing Principal of Pinnacle Technical Presales empowering the presales consultants to deliver the highest quality sales experience for their customers.?Kerry holds degrees in Computer Science, Information Systems Management, Telecommunications, and an MBA. Living in Colorado, Kerry enjoys everything about the great outdoors.