The two day, two hour demo.
Article #2: The two day, two hour demo.
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2016. A sales person called Roger, a presales colleague called Faye and myself were part of a team bidding for a large mobile telephone communications contract. We knew our product well, we could present our PowerPoint slides with our eyes closed, and we had our software environment configured ready to show. The only problem was, we all lived in the south of England and the customer's office was in Manchester, England - at least 4 hours away by train.
Their project manager had asked for a demo. Apparently the team wanted to see what we had to offer and had arranged for an on-site meeting in their head-quarters with 30 people coming to see our presentation at 10am. Coffee would be needed for this one!
The next time we could do the trip was in 2 weeks time. So we all booked our tickets and got on with other things. As did the prospect.
Let's calculate the cost of this exercise.
Our company:
领英推荐
Our prospect:
30 people total, 15 who travelled in specifically for the meeting.
So it cost ￡2733 to our company, and ￡4350 to our prospect!
We did the 2 hour presentation, but the prospect had misunderstood what our software did and whilst it was the only time they could get the 30 people in the room, they weren't ready to kick off this vendor comparison. They ultimately found the exercise fairly pointless. We did not win the deal. This unqualified demo cost more than SEVEN THOUSAND POUNDS. The customer got a demo, so that's good. But what a waste.
We spent a lot of money only to not ring that bell. Something had to change... but why were we so misaligned? We find out in next week's article.
Follow #buyerenablement here on LinkedIn for the next installment. (have you read my previous article in the series?)
￡7K for an unqualified demo, that was just one that day in the fine city of Manchester, I wonder just how many other ￡7K’s took place in the city of Manchester, region of Lancashire, country of England, the nations of the United Kingdom, the continent of Europe or globally that day in 2016? …at what fiscal cost to our collective businesses? ….at what cost to our planet in resources consumed? Your previous article went back a few years earlier and it did make me stop and think about a similar message that I presented a short while ago at our Sales Kick Off, namely…. ….how have WE changed in the last decade? (We = PreSales).
Co-Founder at Ikuto
2 年I think I know where this one's going! Great pt. 2 and it's crazy to think things like this do still actually happen now in some organisations when PreSales isn't as valued, nurtured, protected, and invested in as it should be!
Working to Improve the World One Demo and One Discovery Conversation at a Time!
2 年And please don't forget Opportunity Cost...! What ELSE could have been done with that time? What OTHER projects could have been moved forward? This is ALSO an example of why doing discovery (and qualification, in this case) is so important!
Global Presales and Buyer Enablement Leader | Digital Buyer Experience | Presales tech Evangelist | LEGO collector using LEGO to demonstrate Value | Love hiking & Exploring new places! Peloton beginner level!
2 年This is such a great read! I remember where I was 10 years ago (no age jokes please Adam Freeman), selling SaaS software to Events/Conference producers. I also remember how suddenly the shift from customisation to configuration meant you had functionality gaps that required the ability to sell and understand “value”!
Helping companies see clearly and understand fully
2 年I know that this isn't quite your point Mark, however, if you can present your slides with your eyes closed, you will likely cause the audience's eyes to close. Slick ppt is a buzz killer ??