“Clueless” 

“Technically inept” 

“Lying” 

“Manipulative” 

“Untrustworthy” 

“Annoying” 

“Greedy” 

“Verbose” 

“Pushy” 

“Self-centered” 

“Unethical” 

“ADD” 

These are just some of the descriptions of salespeople that presales folks have posted on LinkedIn. And here are how presales people describe themselves on LinkedIn: 

“Authentic” 

“Trusted advisor” 

“Highly competent” 

“Expert” 

“Customer Focused” 

“Problem solver” 

“Collaborative” 

“Honest” 

“Highly skilled” 

“Consultative” 

Yes, a great many of the LinkedIn posts by presales folks tout their technical acumen, authenticity, being a “trusted advisor,” and other skills and attributes. Many of these claims are true for a portion of the presales population. However, some of the negative characteristics assigned to salespeople are also found in presales. 

Wait. What? 

How is this possible? Well, first, we need to stop the name-calling. 

Stop Bashing Salespeople

“The salesman knows nothing of what he is selling save that he is charging a great deal too much for it.” 

– Oscar Wilde

Granted, there are many salespeople who live up (or down, depending on your perspective) to the frequently used descriptors offered by presales people, including those above, plus being “coin operated,” clueless about their products and technology, interested only in getting the order, and so on. 

However, there are also many excellent sales folks who have earned the same qualities typically assigned to presales.  

They earnestly believe in their products and services. They are (sufficiently and frequently surprisingly) technically and product savvy. They are excellent team players who deeply respect their colleagues in presales, customer success, development, marketing, legal, accounting, and all the other vendor disciplines. They embrace the doctrine of buyer enablement. They live to see their customers succeed over the long term. 

I was facilitating a Great Demo! Workshop at a customer site, when I made a humorous, but disparaging remark about “typical salespeople.” One of the participants, a salesperson, took offense and called me out for my comments. He pointed out that “These generalizations can be very hurtful and unfair…” and he was right!  

He made me realize that I need to evaluate each person on their own merits. We should all do the same and stop systematically bashing salespeople. 

Along similar lines, many presales folks have a perception that doing sales is easy. This couldn’t be farther from the truth! 

Sales Is a Tough Role

“Every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, and no trust.” 

– Zig Ziglar 

If you have never been in sales, it is difficult (if not impossible) to understand exactly how hard the discipline is. It is not just living under the sword of Damocles in the form of the constant pressure to achieve the quota. That’s just the tip of the proverbial sword. 

Doing sales requires executing multiple overlapping, multi-threaded project management exercises. Each sales opportunity is a project with its own timeline, players, challenges, pitfalls, advances, delays, and outcomes. 

Let’s use a demo as an example event. A good, experienced salesperson working on a large opportunity may invest hours preparing, researching, setting calls and meetings, doing discovery, and prepping their team for the demo. The corresponding presales player may invest a few hours to consume the discovery information and prep the demo, and an hour or two to deliver it. 

Presales’ perspective is often, “I did the heavy lifting, now it’s all set up for the salesperson to close the business.” That is, very frankly, naïve. 

Was the demo sufficient proof? Are there other prospective concerns that need to be addressed? Are the competition’s products perceived as a better fit? Is a privacy, security, and/or data review needed? Is the proposal correct? Has a business case been generated? Are the legal agreements acceptable? Is the prospect’s purchasing team demanding unfavorable terms? 

And great salespeople don’t leave the project once the sale is completed. They have set expectations that need to be fulfilled, requiring excellent coordination with implementation, training, and customer success. Sales folks who are also account managers know that their easiest sales consist of expansion into existing, happy, successful customers. 

Opportunity complexity has been increasing, as well. Buying committees today often include six to ten members, and internal prospect politics complicate the process. Combine long sales cycles of six to eighteen months, in many cases, with sales win rates of twenty to forty percent, and your sales team is facing challenging odds, indeed. 

Imagine investing a year in a sales process that ends with a loss to a competitor or a No Decision outcome. I’ve lived this personally; it was quite common when selling into pharma research to find your prospect had just been acquired by another pharma house, and the entire project was put on hold or cancelled. Ouch. 

Combine these challenges with the omnipresent pressure to achieve quota, and you have a difficult journey. It would be like being the captain of a ship, sailing for months to a faraway land, purchasing cargo, and navigating back to your home port, all in the hope that your cargo will still be in demand and be sufficiently valuable to turn a profit. 

And there are no guarantees that you will make a profit! For SaaS companies, only 60-70% of sales staff meet or exceed their quota. This means that one-third of all SaaS salespeople are not bringing in the big bucks in commission that many presales teams often assume they are enjoying. These folks may in fact be earning much less than their presales counterparts. 

So, sales is a difficult discipline, and it takes courage, persistence, and intelligence to execute successfully. Please understand this and pause the assumption that presales folks have the toughest role. Every job at a vendor is tough when you are serious and passionate about it! 

What other personality attributes would you expect in a salesperson? 

Prima Donnas Are Everywhere

“Sales are prima donnas; marketing is clueless.” 

– Me  

I drafted that quote when I was in an “in-between” role, overseas, doing a combination of high-level presales, sales, and customer success. It sure seemed like that to me at the time! 

Yes, there are definitely prima donnas in sales. Intriguingly, I don’t see a strong correlation between the best sales performers and prima donnas; it seems that the prima donna personality may be relatively independent of actual success! 

But here’s another angle: are there prima donnas in presales? Oh, yes. It is a personality trait that is, sadly, broadly distributed! 

Any presales player who fancies themselves as the “go-to” person for a product, technology, presentation, or demo is a candidate. Anyone who perceives themselves “at the top of their game” may also be suffering presales’ hubris.  

And working with prima donnas in any discipline takes some extra effort. Sadly, I am unaware of any real solutions (but we all seem to quietly rejoice when a prima donna takes a fall!). 

Are there other personality attributes that we typically assign to one discipline vs another? 

Introverts vs Extroverts

“I restore myself when I’m alone.” 

– Marilyn Monroe 

There is an ongoing generalization that salespeople are predominantly extroverts and presales are introverts. While this may be true of the broad population, there are many exceptions to this claim. 

As salespeople, many of us are willing to be “on” during a sales call, a discovery conversation, giving a presentation, or delivering a demo, but we also prefer to retire afterwards to the peace and quiet of one’s office or a similar Fortress of Solitude. 

Many of us are not deep relationship builders. Many of us don’t golf or thrive on taking clients out to expensive dinners. Many of us focus intently on working with our buyers, buyers’ teams, and our own teams to enable our prospects to realize the rewards and value of implementing and adopting our solutions. 

So, please don’t assume that because someone is in sales, they must be an extrovert. In fact, an AI Overview offers, “While there’s no definitive percentage, research suggests that the most effective salespeople are often ambiverts (those who score halfway between extreme extroversion and introversion).” 

Next, what impact does experience have on being a salesperson? 

Everyone Was New Once

“You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.” 

– Henry Ford 

One of the biggest complaints I hear from presales folks is how they must “teach new salespeople” all about their products, market, customers, processes, etc. This is a fair complaint: thank goodness it doesn’t (*ahem*) cut both ways! 

I’m sure, for example, that brand new presales staff emerge from their freshly hired cocoons fully fledged and deeply knowledgeable, ready to engage with the most challenging prospects immediately.  

Oh, wait, I’ve forgotten. It often takes six, twelve, or even eighteen months for a presales player to come up to speed. In many cases, new presales staff aren’t even allowed to present demos until after four to six months of onboarding. 

Here’s an interesting question: Are newly hired sales staff provided the same opportunity? Do they get a “pass” on their first six months of service without any need to bring in revenues or hit their quota numbers? 

Generally, nope. 

As an example, I made the transition (I was drafted) from a presales role to sales and was expected to bring in two million dollars in new license revenues that first year, overall, with a similar expectation that I’d also need to meet my quarterly revenue goals. From essentially a standing start, I needed to acquire the necessary sales skills while also finding and working opportunities. This, I believe, is the typical situation for salespeople. 

What’s a solution? 

Cherish your senior sales staff, particularly the ones who consistently make their numbers and who are generally a delight to work with. Hold these folks up as examples for the more junior sales staff to follow and learn from. 

“I understand your desire to offer a free POC,” you note to a new sales rep, “but did you know that Seth (who always makes his numbers) rarely needs to do a POC? He focuses on doing deep discovery followed by a crisp Technical Proof Demo. This is often all that is needed for many of our prospects. I’ll send you examples of his discovery notes so that you can use them as a template.” 

Let’s examine this approach a bit deeper. You’ll notice that I’m not suggesting that you, as a presales professional, try to teach a new salesperson their job. It is very rare for a person to be willing to take advice on their role from someone who is outside of their discipline! It would be like a programmer trying to tell you how to demo. 

Instead, you are simply saying, “Hey, you might want to take a look at your most successful peers and follow their practices…” You can expand on the details as appropriate, again simply referencing “Seth” and his colleagues’ successful methods. 

What’s the next complaint we often hear from presales? “I get requests for customer meetings on short notice!” and, “I’m overbooked!” 

What About Scheduling?

“Opportunity doesn’t make appointments; you have to be ready when it arrives.” 

– Tim Fargo 

One of my biggest complaints when I was in presales, supporting the sales team, was how I’d receive a meeting request for a demo just a day or two before it was scheduled. Frustrating it was, but what I didn’t see were two other challenges. 

The first was the difficulty my sales counterpart had in finding a date that worked for the prospect’s team. It appears to be the rare person in business who has a delightfully empty calendar! So, when a mutually acceptable time was finally agreed upon, it may have been the culmination of resolving a complex scheduling problem.  

When I was in sales and found an open slot that worked for all parties, I’d jump on it. Otherwise, it might literally take weeks to identify an acceptable date. 

Here’s a helpful practice: Reward those reps who schedule with sufficient time in advance of the meetings. Heartfelt thanks and positive comments can impact and drive positive behavior. A gentle pushback on those who abuse scheduling, along with referencing the “Seths” of the sales team, can help change behavior as well. 

The second challenge is well-known to both presales and sales folks: scarcity of resources. On the presales side of the page, we feel we are overbooked, running from call to call, demo to demo, and POC to POC. But the sales side is similarly constrained: there are too few presales staff available, and availability may not align with challenge! 

Here’s a simple solution to avoid being booked back-to-back-to-back: Block fifteen minutes before and after each call (at minimum) to give yourself time to prep for your next engagement and clean up from your last one. This practice goes a long way to help maintain your sanity! 

And consider this: those folks who perceive themselves as the “go-to” person for their product, technology, etc., are self-perpetuating their overbookings! 

Don’t Know Much about History

“The very ink with which history is written is merely fluid prejudice.” 

– Mark Twain 

Another set of misconceptions has to do with “how old is presales” and, “how presales’ (and sales’) skills and approaches have changed.”  

I was watching a keynote speaker at a conference make the claim that “presales, as a function, began in 2007.” Intriguingly, that was also when the speaker first joined an organization in a presales role. The presenter maintained that 2007 was when presales activities first appeared.  

Ridiculous, and deeply narcissistic! 

And that speaker isn’t the only one who appears to suffer from a lack of exploring history. Many other presales pundits have made similar claims, and they tend to date the beginnings of presales with their tenure in the role.

If we use that method of dating, then presales started in 1984 with my first taste of the role in what was called “Product Technical Support,” which included (yep) doing discovery, delivering demos and presentations, managing POCs, and other tasks that are still done today. My next experience was with an organization that labeled its presales team “Field Application Scientists.” Not “Sales Engineers,” notably, because (1) they weren’t salespeople and (2) they were scientists by training, not engineers! 

Speaking of Sales Engineers, I’ve found references to Sales Engineers dating back to the early 1900s, associated with automobile sales teams. I suspect that presales became a profession about the same time that flint shards were chipped into tools! 

Presales as a profession is clearly a discipline that is older than anyone currently alive. Have the skills and methods changed over the years?

Yes and no. 

There has been a slow, general movement in sales and presales philosophy from presenting features, to exploring advantage statements, to confirming benefits, and to being consultative vs “sales-y,” and towards buyer enablement. However, the best sales and presales people have always operated in this “modern,” customer-focused, outcome-oriented, long-term relationship mode. And sadly, many inexperienced sales and presales players still operate in a feature-function manner. 

One of the watershed dividers is the amount of discovery that was done previously versus the amount is being done today. Despite of the plentiful platitudes populating LinkedIn posts such as “No disco, no demo,” most sales teams barely scratch the surface. Typical discovery calls are frequently scheduled for thirty minutes, but often only ten minutes are allotted for discovery, with the balance of the time squandered on corporate and product overview presentations, and the dash to demo. 

The best performers have always explored their prospects’ situations deeply and carefully before proposing solutions, and the best performers today continue to do so. 

The best performers frequently draw from a broader range of experiences than their peers, as well. 

Roles and Experience

“A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.” 

– Mark Twain 

I’m impressed with people who state that they’ve been in presales roles for their entire career, often claiming ten, fifteen, twenty, or more years in the discipline. However, I’m more impressed with those folks who have enjoyed positions in two or more roles. 

Someone who has been in presales in the cybersecurity space for twenty years, for example, has deep experience in that vertical. However, they may know nothing about other markets and verticals. And the buyers in the cybersecurity vertical view purchasing software similarly to buying insurance: they know they must have it, but they don’t really want it! 

This is a very different frame of mind from software that supports pharma research, where scientists are looking for new ideas and novel approaches. They are frequently excited about the possibilities that new software tools offer; it is a mindset that is entirely opposite from cybersecurity. 

Accordingly, be cautious of taking guidance from self-proclaimed “thought leaders” in markets or verticals that are different from yours. Their experiences have been limited by the nature of their markets.

Some of the best salespeople I know came from presales, and some of the best presales folks moved into that role from sales. Each additional role brings with it a corresponding perspective and experiences. 

Imagine that you are a chef in a restaurant that focuses on “California Cuisine.” If you limit your food options to that genre, you will get really good at designing and cooking the specific repertoire associated with California Cuisine. However, how would your menu change if you chose to explore and incorporate Latin American, Southeast Asian, North African, and other flavor palates? I suspect people would beat a path to the door of your restaurant, and you’d have an extensive waiting list every night! 

Here’s some self-inspection: What is my experience? What are my limitations? Extensive and extensive!

On a rough timeline, I have been a:

• Practicing chemist (first person to successfully freeze-dry beer)
• Presales
• Product Manager
• Product Line Director
• Customer Marketing VP
• Senior Corporate Consultant (combo of presales and customer success roles)
• Regional Sales Director
• Head of Marketing
• Founder of a new business unit
• President of that business unit (grew it from an empty spreadsheet to a $30 million business over five years) and member of the C-Suite
• Founded Great Demo! and (hopefully) transformed the skills of thousands of customer-facing folks in markets from A to Z (seriously: from accounting to zymology)
• Member of the Board of Directors of a successful software company since 2004

Is that extensive? Possibly. Am I missing experiences and suffering limitations? Certainly! 

While I’ve been an internal customer of HR, finance, development, and other departments, I’ve never worked in any of those groups. With respect to organization size, I’m inclined towards startups and early-stage companies; my experience with large firms is very limited. 

Personality-wise, I prefer a hands-on approach, including the responsibility of ownership. I’m not skilled at internal politics, and I am poor at committee approaches to projects and problem solving. I’m comfortable making decisions and living with the consequences, and I am willing (eager, even) to “run the experiment” to try something new. I probably align with Innovators and Early Adopters on the Technology Adoption curve. 

Regarding teams that have worked under my watch, my objective is to make them fabulously successful whenever possible. I’ve hired dozens of people and also faced the challenge of firing some. For several years, I managed a team of roughly 120 people that included sales, presales, implementation, customer success, development, and production. I’ve experienced employees with personality challenges and physical limitations, and in one very painful case, a person who philandered with customers. 

Working at an organization’s headquarters provides one perspective, operating from a field office offers another, often richer set of experiences. I was fortunate to have that opportunity for two years in Basel, Switzerland, where you could jump on public transportation just steps from our office and visit three of the world’s large pharma houses in minutes. And I can share that relearning how to type using a Swiss-German keyboard was doubly challenging! 

I read hungrily and consume a broad range of business books and an even broader range of informational books and resources. I am a huge fan of Mark Twain, the Wright Brothers, and the Grateful Dead (I took trumpet lessons at Dana Morgan’s in Palo Alto for those in the know). I love clever quotes, and I collect them from a variety of personalities. 

Finally, I am fortunate to be in a location at the “edge of the earth,” the ecotone where the Franciscan Mélange of the Northern California shore meets the Pacific Ocean’s Humboldt Current. My neighbors include bears, grey foxes, skunks, chipmunks, crows, ravens, osprey, bald eagles, pelicans, cormorants, dolphins, and whales. The ravens and chipmunks, in particular, have been training me to serve them!

Does this sound like a lot of experience? Perhaps, but I recognize that there is much more that I haven’t experienced and am in many cases entirely unaware of, than I know. Now it’s your turn. 

Look in the Mirror

“You can either blame everybody else or you can take a look at yourself and determine where you can improve.” 

– Robert Kiyosaki 

It would be easier to continue to bash salespeople if salespeople were the only people with the faults that many presales pundits proclaim. Sadly, the presales population is also composed of a spectrum of personalities, ranging from the character defined in Ron Whitson’s A Friendly Human in Presales to people who are arrogant, boastful, full of themselves, and suffer acutely from the Dunning-Kruger effect. 

Consider the following things that I’ve encountered in the presales space:

• Self-proclaimed thought leaders who offer platitudes but no real substance. There are many of these!
• Notables who plagiarize and, in many cases, claim otherwise (even when the evidence is obvious).
• Entire presales vendor organizations that have betrayed long-term relationships. Just awful.
• People who have copied, taught, and, in some cases, resold methodologies without consent.
• One organization built a large community by appealing to our altruistic principles and then turned around and monetized what we had all contributed. Completely disingenuous!
• And there are numerous presales vendors who haven’t developed a new idea or experimented with a new method in years, yet trumpet that they are state of the art. 

Is there arrogance in a portion of the presales population? Definitely. Deceit? Clearly. Pridefulness? Of course. Duplicity? Apparently so. Condescension, disdain, contempt? Every day! 

Does all this mean that presales is inherently evil? Obviously not, but presales enjoys and suffers the same spectrum of human personalities as any other discipline. 

It is certainly possible, and perhaps likely, that the presales personalities spectrum is shifted, overall, to the “good” side of the curve, but there is no doubt of the presence of players exhibiting “bad” attributes. 

So, if you are honest with yourself, are you suffering some level of presales hubris? 

Copyright © 2025 The Second Derivative – All Rights Reserved. 

To avoid presales hubris, 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.

A Never Stop Learning! Article 

Have you ever said or heard:

“Sorry, I don’t have an example like that in our demo system…”

“No, we can’t show that workflow – this is a demo database…”

“Our demo environment isn’t up-to-date – that’s why this feature isn’t working…”

“No, I don’t have good data to show in this report – no data, in fact – sorry…!”

“That report hasn’t been built for our demo system – but trust me, it’s terrific!”

In your demos, how often do you find you are apologizing for an inability to demonstrate capabilities, complete workflows, or present compelling results and reports? Far too often, in many cases!

A perfect demo environment enables you to show what you need to show, clearly and convincingly. No apologies, no excuses. Accordingly, here are some recommendations for demo environments to make your demos as crisp, compelling and successful as possible.

What’s in this article for you? A lot! 

• Demo = Fake!
• And Don’t Label Things “Demo”
• No Obviously Fictional Names
• Include Problems, Exceptions, and Opportunities
• U.S. vs International
• Market Alignment
• Market Maturity
• Who Am I?
• Be a Customer
• Keep It Current
• Refresh or Reset
• Availability
• Performance
• Surprise – No Internet Access!
• “Trust Me…”
• Screen and Projection Woes
• Mini Mouse
• Infrastructure Checklist
• A Perfect Demo Environment

Demo = Fake!

One of our objectives in a software demo is to “suspend disbelief.” Anything that looks real helps our cause; anything that appears fake hurts us.

Even though our prospects have asked for a demo (and that we teach demo skills in our Great Demo! Workshops), I recommend avoiding the use of the word “demo” in, well, demos. And in demo environments in particular!

Why? Because customers unconsciously translate “demo” as “fake.”

If it is a demo environment, then it is not real from your prospects’ perspective. Anything done in such an environment is suspect, accordingly!

So don’t call it your demo system, your demo environment, or a similar demo name. Instead, give it the name of a fictional but plausible customer or other realistic-sounding option. (“Apex” is an example we used previously.)

What about using “demo” in other parts of your demo environment?

And Don’t Label Things “Demo”

Anything labeled “demo” in your (ahem) environment causes the same result. Demo = fake.

File names, module labels, login names, forms, dashboards:  I’ve seen all these emblazoned with “demo” in one form or another. All these scream “fake!” to our prospects and customers.

Again, use a neutral name or naming convention that looks like a real customer. Much better!

No Obviously Fictional Names

When your prospect sees the names of famous characters in your demo environment, it’s another declaration that “This is fake!”

I recently saw a vendor who used the actors’ names from the full Oceans series of movies, including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Julia Roberts (the original cast), plus Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, and Anne Hathaway. All these names were in the vendor demo database.  I’ve also seen sports figures, important scientists, authors, and more.

Perhaps it’s easy to remember the names, but they all shout, “This is fake!”

Instead, use realistic names, addresses, and other data. Some demo environments use the names of your organization’s team. That’s a bit better, but it doesn’t take long for a prospect to realize that you and your colleague appear to be responsible for most of the records in your system! (Many startups suffer from this unconscious form of narcissism.)

The strongest approach is to use realistic data that is independent of your company.

A great source for convincing data is to use the data sources created and used by your own organization’s QC team. After all, your QC folks need realistic data sufficient to explore a broad range of testing scenarios. (Hmmm – these should be very similar scenarios to what you need to demonstrate!). A couple of example sources are SQL Data Generator and Mockaroo.

Include Problems, Exceptions, and Opportunities

Status quo is boring.

I’ve seen countless demos that present a dashboard or report that shows everything “looking good.” Everything is “in the green” without any problems or concerns. This is pointless!

You need to show that your tools can find your prospects’ problems and that your software can directly address those problems and enable solutions.

The most compelling demos show examples of how customers can solve their business problems, address outliers and exceptions, and surface and exploit opportunities. This means that your demo environment needs to include good instances of these with good example data:

• Problems should be uncovered and presented clearly, providing opportunities for alerts to be generated and sent from your system (just like your customer would use it).
• Exceptions should be similarly discoverable, with the appropriate data to explore and determine how to address (just as your customer would investigate).
• Opportunities should be readily surfaced and exploitable (just as your customer would pursue).

The more realistic, the better!

U.S. vs International

When I was banished overseas (to Switzerland, tough duty), I realized that our demo environment was entirely U.S. focused. This can be a big “fail” for prospects located elsewhere.

U.S.-based companies often use demo environments that show U.S. maps, list U.S. cities and addresses, U.S. telephone numbers, U.S. currency, U.S. ZIP codes (even the use of the term “ZIP Code” is an example!), U.S. product names, and more. This can be semi-insulting to non-U.S. audiences, and it won’t help your cause.

If you want to sell in Europe, make sure you have Euros, European addresses and postal codes, telephone country codes, and all of the other units and measures that are used in your target countries and markets. (Furlongs per fortnight is one of my favorite arcane units!)

Want to sell into the UK or other English-speaking (but non-U.S.) countries? You may also need to use their local version of English spellings and vocabulary. Now that box is ticked!

Launching into Asia-Pacific? Same guidelines.

You don’t support local languages in these regions? You may want to rethink your strategy!

Very simply, you need to have region-specific data (as appropriate) if you want to build a vision for your prospects of using your tools in the region(s) in which they operate. And, correspondingly, if you are a non-U.S. software company seeking to enter the U.S. market, the same guidelines apply to you as well!

Market Alignment

Have you ever seen a demo presented to a large construction firm that used example data from the banking industry? I did, and the demo utterly failed. The closer you align your demo data to your target markets and verticals, the better:

• Best case: Your data, vocabulary, use cases, and demo examples match your prospects’ specific market or vertical.
• Next best: Your data, etc., are close enough to your prospects’ specific market that your prospect can make the connection. Important consideration: It is your prospects who decide if your data is “close enough!”
• Generally insufficient: Your data, etc., doesn’t bear any resemblance to your prospects’ market. You are asking them to make too large a leap, and their disbelief is no longer successfully suspended.
• Really bad: Data that is obviously fake and has nothing to do with the target market. Sadly, this is too often the case!

One successful approach I’ve seen is to have a fairly neutral set of data but also have the ability to configure or customize the screen labels, dashboards, forms, and field names to map to specific markets. There are now products that offer this capability that you should explore (e.g., Saleo). Otherwise, achieving this may require some level of configuration or programming, but the payoff can be high.

An additional note to consider: Customer Success experiences suggest that the further your prospective customers are from your current, successful target markets, the worse the fit and likely represent the highest risk of failed or unhappy implementations. Yes, inappropriate demo data may be a leading indicator of churn!

Market Maturity

Interestingly, prospects at different stages on the Technology Adoption Curve will likely react very differently to demo data. “Technology Adopters” and “Early Adopters” are often very forgiving of the data that is used.

“Early Majority” prospects may be reasonably forgiving, but the further you move to the right, towards and into the “Late Majority,” the more they need to see truly representative data.

Who Am I?

Logging in as “Admin” is another approach that yells “Fake!” to your audience. Many vendors use an Admin logon to enable access to their full range of capabilities.

The only people who log in as “Admin” in real life are, well, the system administrators! This is even more of an issue when vendors start talking about Setup Mode items, such as how “the system can be configured by role for end-users, managers, executives,” etc.

Along similar lines, try to avoid obviously fake names, such as:

• Stanley Staffer
• Mary Manager
• Ernie Executive
• Adeline Admin

I’ve seen all four and many more in demos! Do these names look real? Nope. Avoid these and successfully suspend disbelief!

Be a Customer

Seriously.

Some of the best demo environments are “customer” instances, created and maintained exactly the same way as real customers’ environments.

For SaaS organizations, this can be hugely advantageous. Your demo “customer” is treated the same as all the other customers, getting updates, improvements, etc. on exactly the same timeline.

You’ll know your demo environment will be up-to-date and consistent with what all your other customers are using. No surprises…! (Or fewer surprises, at least…!)

Keep It Current

I recently saw a workflow “alert” in a demo that showed a missed task that was 5 years old! Holy old cow! Some manager is going to be very angry if this was real life.

Workflow dates need to appear to be current (or reasonably so). The older the information, the less believable it is.

In many systems, this presents challenges; there needs to be a way to “refresh” demo environments quickly and easily. Again, tools like Saleo may offer automated solutions.

Refresh or Reset

Perhaps one of the hardest tasks for those who maintain demo environments is to keep them current and up to date (and avoid embarrassing problems like that above!). There are several strategies that can be employed:

• Review and refresh the data: This relies on somebody periodically working through the relevant data/workflows/alerts/etc. to cleanse outdated bits and update as needed. This is work, but it needs to be done to keep your demo environment as realistic and believable as possible.
• Reset: Wouldn’t it be great to simply hit a button and have everything returned to a pristine “zero” state? There are a number of vendors who, in theory, provide these capabilities, including Cloudshare, Skytap, Quali, Qloudable, VMware Workstation, Microsoft Dynamics’ Test Drive, and others. Check them out if you are unfamiliar…!
• Alternatively, you may want to create scripts in your own environment to accomplish the same goal.

Availability

In some organizations, demo environments need to be reserved ahead of time (for a range of reasons). In some cases, these reservations may need a day or more in advance.

This can make things challenging for any demos that need to be done in a shorter timeframe or on an ad hoc basis. I’ve heard these environments referred to as having been implemented by the “Sales Prevention Team…!”

In other cases, it may take time to “spin up” a demo environment. This may be unavoidable but troublesome, and you’ll need to plan accordingly.

And, of course, have you ever tried to access your demo environment only to find it “down” or simply unavailable? Not good, particularly if you flew across the country (or ocean) for your most important demo of the year…!

In a demo that I saw recently, the software announced, “Not Enabled for This Demo Account” when the presenter tried to show a specific use case. Even worse, the use case was introduced by the vendor as “here’s something really cool…,” not in response to a prospect question!

Fundamentally, your demo environment needs to be consistently available: You need to be able to count on it to suspend disbelief successfully.

Performance

“…The demo system is slow today because…” Have you ever heard these words in a demo meeting? Have you ever spoken them yourself?

Your prospects will only remember one word: “slow!”

Prospects assume that whatever environment you are using for your demo is going to be better than theirs, often much better. I’ve never heard a prospect say, “Our network is blisteringly fast…!”

In some cases, you may be able to pre-fetch, cache or otherwise out-flank areas of potential performance problems. You’ll want to fully characterize and be closely familiar with your demo environment to know how to prepare.

Best case? Your demo environment is truly “blisteringly fast” and has no visible performance issues: “Wow – look at that! It displayed the results even before we submitted the request!”

Surprise – No Internet Access!

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you needed access to the web to run your software and found zero connectivity?

Or have you ever been asked to do a demo at a government organization that didn’t allow access through their network?

[This reminds me of the Monty Python Cheese Shop sketch: “Sorry, fresh out…”]

You may need to have backup plans in place for these situations, which might include:

1. The ability to run your full software from your laptop without any internet connectivity.
2. Or the ability to use your own “mifi” or “myfi” environment, if allowed.
3. Or (least attractive, but still a bit of a self-rescue) you’ve captured a healthy set of the key screens from your software into PowerPoint or Keynote that you can share without any network connection to give your prospect a sense of what your system can do.

Whatever you use as a solution, the closer it appears to be your real software, the better you’ll be able to suspend disbelief.

“Trust Me…”

Have you ever heard a vendor say, “Oh, trust me, these reports are terrific…!”

Far too often, I see demos that show reports or dashboards with sketchy data or no data at all! This is even worse when the reports/dashboards are the final screens for important use cases (fail!).

Workflows need to work, reports need to be well-populated, graphs need to be displayed properly, alerts need to be driven by realistic actions, and so on. Your software needs to appear to operate as it would for your prospect as a customer, as much as possible.

Screen and Projection Woes

Have you ever connected to a display or projector (or “beamer”) in a face-to-face demo and been surprised at what happened to your screen? Many meeting rooms and conference facilities have older, lower-resolution projection systems that are insufficient for demos from high-resolution laptops, resulting in invisible buttons, lost portions of your screen, and unexpected scroll bars.

At minimum, characterize the display system you must use so that you can reduce and manage surprises. Be prepared: Practice key portions of your demo in-situ, before the meeting starts.

Even better, if you do a lot of face-to-face demos, consider purchasing and carrying with you a projection device that enables your software to be shown in the best possible light (no charge for this pun!). An investment of a few hundred dollars or euros could save thousands in otherwise wasted time and travel expenses!

Mini Mouse

Finally, consider your mouse cursor: After all, your audience will be trying to watch its movements for an hour or longer in many demos. How visible is it?

You may want to consider increasing its size and/or fill. Most of the default mouse settings on Windows and Macintosh laptops are too small for demos. Explore the options and see what looks best with your software and typical demo scenarios.

Infrastructure Checklist

This is a long article offering a lot of ideas. We’ve explored some aspects of your hardware and software demo environments, but every individual’s situation is unique.

In Great Demo! Workshops we suggest making and using an Infrastructure Checklist to reduce the risk of bad things happening to you in your demos: “The same bad thing should never happen to you more than once, if it is under your control…!”

A Perfect Demo Environment

A truly perfect demo environment probably doesn’t (yet) exist, but by pursuing the guidelines above, you will certainly improve your probability of success with your demos. A few changes may yield the difference between obviously fake and successfully suspending disbelief.

Copyright © 2019-2025 The Second Derivative – All Rights Reserved.

To learn more ideas, tips, and skills, consider enrolling in a Doing Discovery or Great Demo! Workshop or explore our books, blog, and articles on the Resources pages of our website at https://GreatDemo.com. Join the Great Demo! & Doing Discovery LinkedIn Group to learn from others and share your experiences.

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” – Attributed to Lao Tzu

“The best software journeys begin and end with a single mouse click!” – Me

There’s a lot of discussion today about storytelling in demos and related sales activities. Many software vendors talk about “The Journey” or “The Customer’s Journey” as a storyline. We need to ask ourselves, however, what is important for your prospect or your customer?

Is it really the Journey, or is it the Destination, or possibly Both?

What’s in This Article for You?

• What’s the Difference between the Journey and the Destination?
• It’s All About Value
• When It’s Not the Journey
• When It Is the Journey
• When It Is the Destination
• When It Is Both
• A Matter of Perspective

What’s the Difference between the Journey and the Destination?

Most software is designed to support one or more workflows. For example, one accounting workflow processes and pays invoices (at the last possible minute!). Another accounting workflow generates and sends out invoices to their customers.

In these cases, the Journeys are the steps involved with executing these workflows, and the Destinations are the payment of those invoices in the first case and the issuing of invoices in the second example.

Choosing to focus on Journeys vs Destinations is highly dependent on job title. For some people, simplifying the Journey may be the objective; for others, it may be enhancing or improving the Destination.

In the two scenarios above, individual contributor staff members are the people who execute these workflows. While getting the invoices processed is certainly the goal, and hence a Destination, these people are generally more concerned with improving and simplifying their Journey through their workflows. They want workflows that are shorter, easier, and suffer fewer errors.

Accounting managers, on the other hand, use other workflows to track invoice payment and processing status and associated KPIs. They want to maximize the delay of payment for incoming invoices and minimize days outstanding for outbound invoices. And while improving these workflows might be of interest, the Destinations for these managers are the reports or dashboards that show the status of the KPIs and areas to target for improvement. In these cases, the Destinations are generally more important than the Journey.

Accordingly, the higher the job title, the shorter the workflow (in most cases!). Not surprisingly, the shortest workflows are performed by executives and may consist of a single mouse click to bring up a report or dashboard. These reports and dashboards represent important high-level Destinations, while the Journey itself is of little interest.

Answering the question of “Is it the Journey or the Destination?” can draw upon an analogy: If I want to travel to New York City from my home in Trinidad, California, I experience several smaller Journeys and Destinations in my trip to reach my final Destination, a hotel in New York City. Here’s the full workflow:

• Drive from Trinidad to our local airport (ACV): a short, easy Journey to an interim Destination
• Fly from ACV to San Francisco Airport (SFO): a short, sometimes cramped Journey to another interim Destination
• Fly from SFO to Newark (EWR): A long, hopefully upgraded (but otherwise cramped) Journey to yet another interim Destination
• Travel from EWR to my New York City hotel (by train or Uber/Lyft): A moderately short Journey to my final Destination

Note, also, that there are many more small Journeys and interim Destinations embedded in this workflow, including walking through terminals, going through security, waiting at gates, etc. The nature of these experiences impacts one’s overall perception of the Journey: Were these many small portions pleasant or painful, and should they be included in a description of the Journey? Too many details may make the story boring!

The question to answer is, “What’s most important for this specific prospect, this specific person?”

If my objective is to get to my hotel in New York City as comfortably, cheaply, and rapidly as possible, there are several possible storylines to choose from, depending heavily on the specifics of my situation and the travel products and services that I consume!

It’s All About Value

Here’s a very simple formula to determine if the Journey, Destination, or Both should be your focus: Where will your prospect gain value from using your software?

• If your prospect only gains value along the Journey or if there are sufficient waypoints of value realization along the way, then the Journey is your storyline.
• If your prospect only gains value from the Destination, then promote the Destination for your storyline.
• And if both, then Both!

But, be cautious about making assumptions. For example, a “Journey to the Cloud” could entail both, but you need to assess this carefully. For example:

• If the Journey is just a series of tasks and steps to migrate your customer’s existing environment to the cloud and there is no value returned to the customer at each of the steps, then the Destination is the correct positioning.
• Contrariwise, if your customer enjoys value realization at several (or all) of the steps, then you should promote both the Journey and the Destination.

Now, let’s look at four sets of storyline scenarios:

• When It’s Not the Journey
• When It Is the Journey
• When It Is the Destination
• When it’s Both

When It’s Not the Journey

Many vendors try to glorify the workflow(s) enabled by their software as “Journeys,” but they may be misunderstanding their prospects’ perspective. We vendors, after all, are often in love with our own software. What does our prospect think? What are our customers’ perceptions?

After all, a workflow is still work: A series of steps or tasks that need to be completed. Most software products automate and streamline traditional workflows, often embracing a broader range of functions while making them faster and with fewer possibilities for errors. But is a workflow Journey a good storyline for a demo?

Here are a few examples where the Journey is likely not the desired experience, from your prospects’ perspective:

• Anything to do with Setup Mode: The work required to implement a system is generally not a good Journey storyline for a demo, particularly if there is no value associated with the Setup steps.

For example, entering information into a database or CRM system delivers no value to the user; it is only when the database is large enough to provide useful search results and analyses that value is gained.

• For an executive or senior manager, most workflows are not particularly interesting and don’t make for a compelling Journey storyline.

Workflows are simply sets of tasks that need to be executed by staff members. Senior management does want to make sure that their staff will be comfortable using the software, but that is (potentially) their staff members’ Journey, not management’s.

• For staff members, workflows are the tasks they do repeatedly. And, like the details of my trip to New York City, it may not be a Journey they want to reexperience!

So, if you, as the vendor, can’t offer any improvements to your prospects’ workflows, don’t use those workflows as Journey storylines!

When It Is the Journey

Our accounting examples where the product improves the invoice processing workflows (without any real change to the output payments or invoices) represent good cases where the Journey is the best storyline. So, the Journey storyline may be your best choice when your offering improves the workflow without impacting the output or deliverables.

Again, we can apply the simple test: Where will your prospect gain value? If there is no value change or improvement in the Destination, then the best storyline positioning is the Journey.

Are there other situations where the Journey is the best option?

When It Is the Destination

After a moment’s thought, you exclaim triumphantly, “What about situations where you are simply exploring?”

You elaborate, “What if we are doing an ad hoc exploration of large masses of data, looking for novel trends or unanticipated relationships? Isn’t that another example of a Journey alone?”

After a moment’s thought, you answer your own question. “Oh!” you say, a bit crestfallen, “I guess finding trends or new relationships are actually desired Destinations.” (I agree!)

Frankly, it is likely that most software solutions focus on Destinations. For example:

• Finding and addressing problems.
• Identifying root causes.
• Delivering reports.
• Providing alerts.
• Exposing opportunities.
• Surfacing exceptions.
• Achieving governance.
• Enabling a process.
• Facilitating continuity.
• Establishing and confirming compliance.
• Optimizing systems, processes and workflows.
• Improving performance.

Even avoiding loss can be a Destination (think about it…!).

If your prospect expects to receive all the value based on arriving at one or more Destinations, then position your storyline accordingly.

Is it possible for a demo storyline to be both the Journey and the Destination? Yes, and this is the best possible situation!

When It Is Both

Contemplate software that supports employee onboarding. Here, it is likely that you have elements of both involved.

This is a Journey, leading from recruiting to hiring, through initial HR onboarding forms and documents, to receiving hardware, to identifying and executing training, ongoing development, career advancement, etc. As with life, one’s career is (hopefully) a Journey, with waypoints of accomplishments along the route.

These waypoints are Destinations (or at least interim Destinations). From the perspective of an applicant, receiving an offer letter is definitely a Destination (often received with a vocal, “Whew!”). Getting hired is the starting point for a Journey with that organization that might span years, including advancement, certifications, promotions, and other achievements as Destinations.

This new employee’s hiring manager has also enjoyed a complementary series of Journeys and Destinations. Making the decision to bring this person aboard is a major Destination; completing onboarding is another, and ongoing growth and development consists of multiple Journeys and Destinations.

This all offers some rather fascinating possibilities for storylines for your demos and discovery conversations!

A Matter of Perspective

Another point of view on the Journey vs Destination vs Both is exactly that: It may depend on the point of view of your prospect. Let’s revisit the trip to New York City, but in this case, you are heading out on a well-deserved holiday (congratulations!):

You are flying overseas for a vacation at a beautiful resort… Is it the Journey, the Destination, or Both that matter?

If you are flying in a cramped middle seat in coach in the back of the plane for eleven hours, sitting in front of the couple with the teething child, struggling for the armrest with your neighbor, and getting up every hour for that same neighbor to go to the lavatory, it is probably not the Journey that is of interest! It may be an experience, but perhaps one that you wouldn’t like to repeat. (Are you getting value from the experience?)

On the other hand, if you are in first class, enjoying the sumptuous airport lounge, fine dining, comfortable seats, unlimited drinks, a lie-flat bed, and noise-cancelling earphones, then the Journey might be worthwhile as well! (Are you getting value from the experience?)

In both cases, the Destination is definitely important: That gorgeous resort with your spacious, well-equipped room, outstanding views, activities, etc. (Are you getting value from the experience?)

Many years ago, I flew from San Francisco to Spain to attend my first European Users’ Group meeting. I was in the cattle-car portion of coach on a 747; my vice president of sales and CFO were in business class. I can share with you that the Journey was not a pleasant experience for me, but senior management had a great trip!

A Few Additional Ideas

Many software products enable the same end result or deliverable to be achieved but faster, better, or cheaper. This is a case of the same Destination, different Journeys (different methods of getting to the Destination). Want an analogy? Compare driving for hours to purchase a simple household product vs ordering it online. I’d suggest that the Journey is the important storyline in these cases!

Finally, first-hand experiences can be extremely valuable in your evaluation of demo storylines. If you have ever been the customer and used the product that you now represent, you are in a terrific position to leverage your knowledge. Ask yourself, “Did I enjoy the Journey or was it the Destination that was desired, or Both?”

Alternatively, ask your current customers the same question, taking careful note to correlate their job titles with their responses. What you learn should provide you with terrific storyline positioning for your demo and discovery conversations with your prospects.

It’s All About Value (Again)

When you are determining the best positioning and storyline for your demos, discovery conversations, and other customer-facing interactions, consider where your prospect will get value:

• If your prospect will gain value along the Journey or if there are sufficient waypoints of value along the way, then sell the Journey.
• If your prospect will only get value from the Destination, then sell the Destination.
• And if your prospect enjoys value gains from both, then sell Both!

And so ends this article’s Journey… Did you get value along the way?

Copyright © 2020-2025 The Second Derivative – All Rights Reserved.

To learn more ideas, tips, and skills, consider enrolling in a Doing Discovery or Great Demo! Workshop or explore our books, blog and articles on the Resources pages of our website at https://GreatDemo.com. Join the Great Demo! & Doing Discovery LinkedIn Group to learn from others and share your experiences. 

Below are ten lessons from the dating world that will make your demos unforgettable, and maybe even inspire you to explore Great Demo! training to master these techniques and leave prospects saying, “Where have you been all my life?” 

1. When Competitor Talk Kills the Mood

Imagine this: you’re out on a first date, and everything’s going well until your date starts going on and on about their ex. Suddenly, you’re wondering, “Why are they so focused on someone else when I’m right here?” In demos, trash-talking competitors have a similar effect. It can make you seem petty, insecure, and—frankly—a little desperate. Instead, focus on what makes your product amazing. 

Case in Point: One rep, eager to stand out, made a point of calling out competitors’ shortcomings. But halfway through the demo, his prospect started to look distracted. Eventually, the prospect chose to move forward with the competitor he had been downplaying. Why? Because the focus had shifted from his own solution’s strengths to everything his competitor was supposedly lacking. 

Great Demo! Insight: Great Demo! teaches you to position your product confidently, highlighting the unique value it brings—no comparisons, no distractions. 

Pro Tip: Say goodbye to “ex talk.” Instead of focusing on the competition, focus on what you do best and why it matters to the prospect. 

2. First Impressions Matter—Don’t Start with the Resume

Just like dating, first impressions set the tone. Imagine showing up to a date in sweats and kicking things off with, “So, here’s a bit about my career trajectory.” Yikes! In a demo, starting with your company’s founding story can have a similar effect. Great Demo! emphasizes beginning with the prospect’s challenges and goals—creating a connection from the get-go. 

Case in Point: One rep used to spend the first ten minutes of every demo talking about his company’s history, values, and market position. Prospects would lose interest before he even got to the product. After learning Great Demo!, he switched to opening with a Situation Slide focused on his prospect’s most pressing challenge. Engagement skyrocketed. 

Great Demo! Insight: Our training teaches you to lead with the prospect’s challenges rather than company history, making them feel like you’re here to solve their problem—not just showcase your achievements. 

Pro Tip: Before your next demo, research a specific pain point your prospect faces and lead with it. Watch engagement soar. 

3. Don’t Be the Clingy Type—Accept Rejection Gracefully

Rejection is tough, whether it’s from a date or a demo. But sometimes, there’s just no spark, and that’s okay. Imagine leaning in for a first kiss only to be met with a polite, “Not yet.” Ouch, right? Great Demo! teaches you to handle each demo gracefully and focus on ideal matches, rather than pushing every lead down the same path. 

Case in Point: One sales team had a high-profile lead they poured resources into. But the lead ended up going with a competitor. Instead of obsessing, they used it as an opportunity to refine their approach. Weeks later, they closed a larger deal with a prospect who was the perfect fit. 

Great Demo! Insight: Learn to gracefully accept a “no,” keeping doors open and using feedback to improve future demos. Great Demo! training develops resilience and focus so that you can handle each prospect with confidence. 

Pro Tip: After a rejection, seek feedback, thank them for their time, and keep the door open for future conversations. Every “no” gets you closer to the right “yes.”

4. Ask Questions, and Actually Listen!

Ever been on a date where the other person only talks about themselves? Exhausting, right? Don’t make the same mistake in demos. Great demos are conversations, not monologues. Through Great Demo!, you’ll learn to ask smart discovery questions and listen to the answers—uncovering insights that help you tailor your approach on the fly. 

Case in Point: A rep once struggled with prospects who’d zone out halfway through his demo. After attending Great Demo!, he started each call by asking the prospect about their biggest challenge. That simple change led to a more personalized demo and a better connection, improving his close rate. 

Great Demo! Insight: Great Demo! trains you to use discovery questions that uncover the issues that matter most to prospects, allowing you to adjust your demo in real time for maximum impact. 

Pro Tip: Start with, “What’s your biggest pain point right now?” Use their response to tailor the rest of your demo.

5. Stay Present—Don’t Check Your Phone!

Picture yourself on a date, and every few minutes, your date checks their phone. It’s distracting, disrespectful, and honestly, it feels like you’re the backup plan. In a demo, your undivided attention matters just as much. Prospects can sense when you’re distracted, and they may start to wonder if they’re truly valued. 

Case in Point: A remote sales rep got into the habit of checking emails during demos. A prospect noticed, ended the call, and chose not to move forward. After taking a Great Demo! training, he committed to eliminating all distractions during demos making his prospects feel fully valued, and saw his engagement rate skyrocket. 

Great Demo! Insight: Great Demo! emphasizes the importance of giving your full focus to each prospect. You’ll learn techniques for staying present, building trust, and minimizing distractions for a seamless experience. 

Pro Tip: Turn off notifications before each demo. Make your prospect feel like they’re the only person in the room.

6. Plan a Memorable Experience

A great date isn’t just a meal; it’s a memorable experience. The best demos are the same, they don’t just run through features but address the prospect’s challenges in a way that sticks. Great Demo! is all about designing demos that resonate, keeping you top of mind long after the call. 

Case in Point: A rep discovered her prospect struggled with reporting tasks. Instead of a standard feature rundown, she focused her demo on reporting capabilities, making the solution relevant to her prospect’s daily frustrations. They remembered her demo—and ultimately, her product—because it was meaningful to them. 

Great Demo! Insight: Great Demo! shows you how to make each demo memorable by centering it around specific challenges that matter to the prospect. 

Pro Tip: Identify one core issue they’re facing, and center the demo around it. Prospects remember solutions, not lists of features.

7. Don’t Rush—The Three-Demo Rule

Good relationships take time to develop. Rushing through every feature in a single demo can overwhelm your prospect. Great Demo! training emphasizes pacing and understanding when to go deeper and when to hold back, letting your prospect absorb the value of each feature. 

Case in Point: One rep was notorious for trying to cover every feature in one demo, leaving his prospects confused and overwhelmed. After taking a Great Demo! training, he learned to pace his demos, focusing on core benefits and reserving details for future conversations. The result? Prospects were more engaged and understood the product’s value more clearly. 

Great Demo! Insight: We help you structure complex demos, giving prospects time to absorb each feature’s value and building anticipation. 

Pro Tip: For complex solutions, consider breaking your demo into stages, covering only the essentials in each session.

8. Trust Your Instincts

In dating, you know when there’s a spark and when it’s time to pivot—the same is true in demos. Suppose a feature resonates with your prospect, Great Demo! training helps you recognize and respond. Conversely, if a prospect seems disengaged, pivot to something that’ll recapture their interest. 

Case in Point: A rep noticed a spark when he mentioned automation. Seizing the moment, he tailored his demo to emphasize this feature, ultimately sealing the deal. Great Demo! equips you to read cues and adapt, creating a more connected, responsive demo. 

Pro Tip: Pay attention to their reactions. Lean into what excites them, and pivot if needed to keep them engaged.

9. Don’t Lean in for the Kiss Too Soon

In dating, going in for the kiss too early can backfire. The same is true in demos. Asking for the sale before your prospect sees the full value can feel pushy. The Great Demo! methodology teaches you how to build trust and excitement first, so when it’s time to ask, they’re eager to say “yes.” 

Case in Point: A rep lost deals after pushing for commitments too soon. After learning Great Demo!, he realized the value of pacing. He focused on solving key problems, letting prospects see the product’s impact before moving to the close. 

Great Demo! Insight: Great Demo! training helps you build excitement, letting your product’s value take the spotlight before you move in for the close. 

Pro Tip: Hold off on the close until they’ve fully seen the value. Build excitement first, and the close will feel natural.

10. Watch Out for “Bad Breath” Moments

No one wants to be close to someone with bad breath, right? In a demo, “bad breath” moments happen when vague answers, dodged questions, or overselling creeps in. Great Demo! helps you refine your approach for a fresh, transparent, and valuable demo. 

Case in Point: A rep frequently struggled when answering questions about limitations. After Great Demo!, he learned how to handle tough questions with honesty, building trust instead of eroding it. Prospects appreciated his transparency and saw him as a credible, trustworthy partner. 

Great Demo! Insight: We teach you how to navigate tough questions with honesty and grace, building trust and respect. 

Pro Tip: Keep it fresh—be upfront about any limitations and answer questions with transparency.

Conclusion: Mastering the Art of Demo Dynamics

With a little dating wisdom and Great Demo! skills, you can transform your demos from forgettable presentations into powerful, meaningful engagements that win over even the toughest prospects. If you’re ready to turn awkward “dates” into lasting relationships that lead to closed deals, consider exploring Great Demo! training to master these techniques and more. After all, the secret to a great demo—and a great date—is always the same: make them feel seen, valued, and understood.

About the Author

Paul H. Pearce has over 25 years of experience in executive leadership in Sales, Presales, Field Enablement, and Business Development.  As the first certified Great Demo! and Doing Discovery training partner, Paul has mastered the methodologies and today contributes to its ongoing success helping organizations dramatically increase sales and success.  As the President of Great Demo! LLC, Paul has consulted and trained hundreds of organizations and practitioners and recommends ways to increase sales and customer success through proven methodologies and real-world experience.

The same is true for sales professionals delivering high-stakes demos. If you’re dragging through your demos or scheduling them when your prospect is half asleep, you’re missing golden opportunities.

The timing of your demo could be the difference between closing the deal and watching your prospect’s eyes glaze over. That’s where we can draw lessons from Daniel Pink, a best-selling author and expert on human behavior and timing.

His book “When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing” provides groundbreaking insights into how our natural rhythms affect productivity and decision-making. Armed with this knowledge, you can schedule your demos for maximum impact, just like a top athlete plans their training and meals for optimal performance.

We’ll dive into Pink’s research and combine it with lessons from the primacy and recency effect found in Great Demo! to help you time your demos like a pro. And, as you’ll see, what you eat throughout the day can have a massive impact on your energy levels and focus during crucial client interactions.

1. Breakfast: Fueling Up for a Winning Start

Analogy: LeBron James Basket Ball Pre-Game Routine

LeBron James doesn’t start his game by gorging on junk food and hoping for the best. Before every game, he fuels his body with a mix of proteins, complex carbs, and hydration. Why? Because what you eat sets the tone for how you perform. Just like an athlete, your breakfast should prime you for peak mental performance.

What I Eat for Breakfast:

For me, eggs are always my go-to breakfast. They’re quick and easy to prepare, and if I’m in a hurry, I grab a couple of hard-boiled eggs to eat on the run. Eggs give me the energy I need without weighing me down—perfect for a busy morning of back-to-back meetings.

Here’s your winning breakfast lineup:

• Eggs or Greek yogurt (protein): To build and sustain energy throughout your morning.
• Whole grains (oats or whole wheat toast): Slow-releasing energy to avoid spikes.
• Fruits: Natural sugars for that quick boost without the mid-morning crash.

What to Avoid:

Sugary cereals and pastries—these are like shooting for a three-pointer and air-balling. They give you a quick high and a nasty crash right when you need focus.

Why it matters for demos:

According to Daniel Pink, people’s cognitive sharpness peaks in the late morning. If you’ve got an important demo, this is prime time—when you and your prospect are both on your A-game. Use this time to tackle the big, technical features that need full focus.

2. Mid-Morning Snack: Maintaining Momentum

Story: Marathon Fueling Strategy

Think of a marathon runner. They don’t wait until they’re about to collapse to refuel—they grab a quick energy gel or snack during the race. That’s exactly how you should think about your mid-morning snack. It’s your fuel station between breakfast and lunch, keeping you steady and focused.

My Snack Routine:

Snacks for me are usually mixed nuts, especially almonds. They’re easy to carry, healthy, and keep me going. What I don’t do is drink caffeine in the morning or when I know I’ll be in a stressful situation. It took me years to realize that caffeine constricts blood vessels, raises blood pressure, and for me, it results in heavy sweating. Not a good look, especially when you’re wearing your favorite blue shirt. (Too much info? Maybe. But it’s true!)

Snack ideas:

• Almonds or mixed nuts: Packed with healthy fats and protein to keep you going.
• Fruit with nut butter: A great balance of natural sugars and fats.

What to Avoid:

Candy bars or sugary snacks. They’re like sprinting out of the gate in a marathon—you’ll crash hard and fast when you need steady energy.

Why it matters for demos:

A quick snack keeps you from dragging through your back-to-back meetings. It’s the fuel you need to stay sharp and avoid zoning out when your client throws you an unexpected curveball.

3. Lunch: Keep It Balanced, Not Heavy

Analogy: NFL (American Football) Halftime Fuel

NFL players don’t scarf down a pizza during halftime. Why? Because that would slow them down for the critical second half. Lunch is your halftime—keep it light, balanced, and ready to sustain you through the afternoon.

What I Eat for Lunch:

I typically go for a garden salad at lunch. It’s light, keeps me energized, and avoids the dreaded carb crash. I used to struggle with that slump, but cutting out heavy carbs at lunch has made a world of difference.

Your lunch playbook:

• Lean proteins (chicken, turkey): Helps repair and sustain energy.
• Quinoa or brown rice: Complex carbs for long-lasting energy.
• Leafy greens: To keep your brain sharp.
• Avocado: Provides healthy fats that sustain energy without the crash.

What to Avoid:

Heavy pasta or greasy fast food. It’s like loading up on carbs before overtime—you’ll be sluggish and foggy just when you need to be at your best.

Why it matters for demos:

The afternoon slump is where many salespeople make mistakes. Pink’s research shows that early afternoon is when energy dips and critical thinking wanes. Keep lunch light to avoid the carb crash and ensure you’re still in the zone for those crucial afternoon discussions.

4. Mid-Afternoon Snack: Avoid the Crash

Story: The Formula 1 Pit Stop

Imagine you’re a Formula 1 driver. You don’t ignore a critical pit stop—you need it to refuel and keep racing. Your mid-afternoon snack is that pit stop, a quick recharge that keeps you from running out of gas.

Snack suggestions:

• Greek yogurt with berries: Protein and antioxidants for a steady energy boost.
• Hummus with carrots or cucumber: Light, fiber-packed, and balanced.

What I Do:

If I’m winding down a bit, I might have a little caffeine in the afternoon, but I try not to drink it after 1 p.m. to ensure it doesn’t affect my sleep later. Moderation is key here.

What to Avoid:

Sugary drinks and energy bars are the junk food of racing. They’ll give you a jolt, then leave you stalled right when you need to finish strong.

Why it matters for demos:

According to Pink’s research, this is the sluggish period for most clients, where attention wanes. Use this time to present lighter features that don’t require intense concentration, or focus on storytelling. You can also demo features that aren’t as strong—clients are less likely to notice weaknesses during a dip in their energy. Remember, primacy and recency matter. Hit them with your best features at the start and finish, and use this slower period for less critical elements.

5. Dinner: Refuel and Recharge for Tomorrow

Analogy: Serena Williams’ Recovery Meals

Serena Williams doesn’t leave her body to change—her post-match meals are about recovery and preparation for the next challenge. Your dinner should do the same. Keep it balanced and light, setting yourself up for a fresh start tomorrow.

Here’s your dinner strategy:

• Lean protein (salmon, tofu): Repairs muscles and keeps energy levels stable.
• Sweet potatoes or wild rice: Complex carbs for recovery.
• Broccoli or leafy greens: High in fiber, and great for digestion.

What to Avoid:

Late-night junk food binges are like skipping recovery stretches after a match—you’ll regret it the next day.

Why it matters for demos:

A balanced dinner ensures you wake up refreshed and ready to tackle the next day. This is key for sales professionals with packed schedules—your performance tomorrow depends on your recovery today.

6. Hydration and Caffeine: Use Strategically

Story: The Professional Cyclist’s Water Strategy

Professional cyclists don’t just chug water at the end of the race—they hydrate throughout. Hydration keeps their muscles functioning and their minds clear. The same principle applies to sales. Stay hydrated all day long.

• Water: Consistently sip throughout the day.
• Caffeine: Use strategically in the morning and avoid overdoing it in the afternoon. Too much, and you’ll crash by the time your final demo starts.

What to Avoid:

Energy drinks and soda. They’re like cheap fuel for a high-end engine. They’ll get you moving quickly, but you’ll fizzle out fast.

7. Timing Your Demos: Daniel Pink’s Insights

Who is Daniel Pink?

If you’re unfamiliar with Daniel Pink, he’s a best-selling author known for his work on motivation and human behavior. In his book “When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing”, Pink explores how our bodies and minds follow daily rhythms, and how we can harness these rhythms to improve productivity and decision-making. Pink’s research is highly relevant to sales professionals because understanding when your client’s energy peaks and dips can dramatically improve the effectiveness of your demos.

Analogy: The Perfect Game-Winning Shot

Think about a basketball player lining up for the game-winning shot. Timing is everything. Too early or too late, and you miss the sweet spot. Pink’s research gives you that perfect timing window for your demos.

Here’s the breakdown:

• Morning (9 AM – 12 PM): Analytical thinking peaks—use this time to present your most complex, critical features.
• Early Afternoon (1 PM – 3 PM): Energy dips, so counteract sluggishness with stories, lighter demos, or interactive features. Present weaker parts of your solution here when clients are less focused.
• Late Afternoon (3 PM – 5 PM): Energy rebounds. This is the time to wrap up with recap discussions or hit them with your final, memorable feature.

What to Avoid:

Scheduling your most important demo during the early afternoon slump. This is when everyone’s dragging. Keep your big guns for the morning or later in the day when energy is higher.

Conclusion: Fuel, Focus, and Perform Like an Athlete

Whether you’re training for a marathon or delivering a demo, timing and energy management are everything. By eating the right foods at the right time and scheduling your demos according to your clients’ energy peaks and dips, you’ll be demoing like an elite athlete. Hit them with your strongest features when they’re sharpest and save the lighter stuff for the afternoon slump.

Want to learn more about maximizing your demo performance? Head over to GreatDemo.com to dive deeper into the primacy and recency effect and perfect your demo timing.

About the Author

Paul H. Pearce has over 25 years of sales and executive leadership in Sales, Presales, Field Enablement, and Business Development.  As the first certified Great Demo! and Doing Discovery training partner, Paul has mastered the methodologies and today contributes to its ongoing success helping organizations dramatically increase sales and success.  As the President of Great Demo! LLC, Paul has consulted and trained hundreds of organizations and practitioners and recommends ways to increase sales and customer success through proven methodologies and real-world experience.

What’s in This Article for You?

• The Empty Kitchen: A Story
• The Challenge: Starved for Data
• Zero Is Less Than Zero
• Breakeven: The Tipping Point
• To Breakeven and Beyond!
• Winning the Business and Generating Reference Customers

The Empty Kitchen: A Story

Most of us accumulate and stock our kitchens slowly over time as we move away from our parents’ houses and launch ourselves into adulthood. Herbs and spices, canned goods and pasta, refrigerated staples, and seasonings and sauces are typically collected over time, often taking months or years.

Imagine what it would be like to encounter an entirely empty kitchen…!

After living in Switzerland for two years, we returned to our home in California. The folks renting our house had moved out a few weeks before our arrival and, as previously agreed, they had completely removed all food from the premises. The fridge was totally empty: There were no sauces, no jams, no jars, no food of any kind. The shelves were equally bare. Even the spices and herbs were all gone.

Without any food, our kitchen, while complete in terms of appliances, pots, pans, tools, and utensils, was effectively useless. It had potential, but that potential could only be realized once we had re-stocked it.

Our first few uses were simply reheating restaurant leftovers and take-out meals. It took several trips to our local markets to put food on the shelves, literally! And it was only once a set of basics was accumulated that we were able to really use our kitchen to prepare meals. That represented a breakeven point: cooking in our kitchen vs going to restaurants and buying take-out meals. Several weeks went by before things were back to our pre-Switzerland inventory

It was a significant event in our lives that holds strong memories!

The Challenge: Starved for Data

Empty databases are like that empty kitchen. Lots of potential, but without food to cook you’re going to have unfilled stomachs! Similarly, an empty database leaves your customers starved for data.

CRM systems, AI tools, inventory applications, knowledge management systems, business information management platforms, and related software all depend on the quantity and usefulness of the content in their databases to provide value to our customers. AI systems typically need at least two databases: One that serves as a training set and a second source for analysis. A database needs to contain a significant amount of data to be useful!

How long will it take before the value is realized? Are there mechanisms to speed up the process?

The time from licensing until achieving pragmatic, day-to-day use of a database generally depends on the amount and utility of the data in the new database. The Database Breakeven Point, the point at which a growing database becomes truly useful, is a remarkable tipping point for achieving vendor and customer objectives.

Zero Is Less Than Zero

What help is a Yelp, Amazon, or Google Maps record that lacks any reviews? If you are trying to compare a business or product vs other options that have multiple positive reviews, the zero reviews entry doesn’t stand a chance! Similarly, an item with just a couple of positive reviews is suspect, particularly in comparison with alternatives that have dozens!

A freshly implemented empty database offers no value (since there is nothing there!). As users enter new content into the database, its value begins to grow. Growth can be slow, however, and growth that takes too long can result in an unhappy customer that churns.

A traditional method to grow a database is for customer users to enter information either altruistically or based on a workflow-driven by management mandate. Early in its life, users of the new database are not likely to perform searches or generate reports based on the content, since the amount of information is too small to be useful.

As a result, the value perceived by the user community is zero or even negative. “I’m putting a lot of effort into this and so far, I’m getting nothing back…!” It is the promise of future utility, not present value, that drives this process.

A simple test can be applied to a growing database to assess its current utility. Users will ask themselves, “What is the likelihood that I will find what I am looking for in this new database, as opposed to using my traditional methods for finding that same information?”

When there is little data in the database, users know that it is likely a waste of their time to invest in searching the database, since the answers are probably not yet present. Instead, they will continue to seek the information they want using their old, established processes (which, while they may be inefficient, users perceive that at least they work!).

Breakeven: The Tipping Point

As the database matures, the probability of finding relevant, useful answers to users’ questions increases. At some point in time, the probability of a user finding the desired information in the database is effectively equal to that of the traditional process: This is the Database Breakeven Point, and users will begin to consider it worthwhile to try the database first vs their traditional approaches.

From the Database Breakeven Point forward, the path to reaching your customers’ deployment and ROI objectives becomes substantially more achievable! This makes the Database Breakeven Point a key Value Realization Event along that pathway.

To Breakeven and Beyond!

As a vendor, how can you use this concept in your sales, marketing, deployment, and customer success efforts?

1. Set and manage expectations:

Use your experience with the growth of databases in other customer implementations to help your new customers predict and manage their own situations. Setting reasonable expectations for value realization and tangible payoffs for users can make the difference between a happy customer and one who is frustrated and at risk of churning.

2. Fill the box before delivery:

If you can deliver your database pre-filled with useful, relevant content, you can accelerate the process and reduce the time it takes to reach the Database Breakeven Point. One example of this is to include publicly available information or other curated data in the database during implementation. Your customer then adds their own proprietary information on an ongoing basis. The pre-filled data may offer sufficient content to get beyond the Database Breakeven Point right at time zero!

Optionally (and even better!), you may be able to charge for the pre-filled data based on its utility and value. Another similar approach is to partner with third parties who provide content that enables your database to be delivered pre-filled with useful information.

3. Collect and curate:

Depending on the nature of the database and its intent, there may be substantial content existing in other forms that can be loaded to fill the database faster. In the best cases, this effort can take the form of a database loading or migration project to move the existing data into the new repository.

A bit more challenging is when the relevant information is scattered across a range of formats and tools. Moving this content into the new database will likely be more difficult, but doing so will help you achieve the Database Breakeven Point faster.

Either way, if you leave the capture and archiving of this information to the customer, it may take a long time for them to begin the effort and move toward their Database Breakeven Point. After all, it is likely that you as the vendor know the most about how to find, capture, organize, and store data in your tools. Consider including appropriate services in your implementation plan (hopefully to be paid for by your customer, of course!) that accelerate the process and move your customer towards breakeven as rapidly as possible.

4. Focus on early wins:

Identify and focus database growth on areas that will yield rapid wins for your customer as Value Realization Events. These may be small victories, but their importance can be huge! If there are specific departments or projects that can help to achieve breakeven quickly, you can guide your customer’s attention to these specific areas. Do discovery to uncover these opportunities!

Once your customer has reached breakeven for one or more of these targets, you’ve equipped your customer champion or buying committee with the ability to leverage these early victories to promote the use of the database more broadly. Success breeds success!

Winning the Business and Generating Reference Customers

These ideas can be used to your advantage, both before and after the purchase takes place. Vendors who provide clear guidance to customers on how best to achieve a successful implementation have a competitive advantage over those who cannot. The ability to offer a Transition Vision, the path from where your customer is today to where they want to be tomorrow, can make a substantial difference in winning the business.

Similarly, getting past the Database Breakeven Point and achieving a successful implementation faster provides vendors with referencable customers more rapidly. Small, quick wins can offer the fastest route to referencing and avoid churn.

Use the Database Breakeven Point concept to increase your success rates in selling, deploying, and expanding the footprint of your database offerings. To return to our kitchen analogy, the faster your shelves get stocked, the more likely you will have referenceable, renewing accounts. Get cooking!

Copyright © 2006-2024 The Second Derivative – All Rights Reserved.

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 books, 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.

This article is for all of us who are experiencing the Dunning-Kruger effect, have experienced it, or will experience it. And if you aren’t concerned, you should be!

What’s in This Article?

• A Story and a Harsh Lesson
• Competency, Complacency, and the Dunning-Kruger Effect
• Seven Levels of Skills – Before and After
• Four Stages of Learning
• Outflanking Dunning-Kruger
• A Summary and a Challenge!

A Story and a Harsh Lesson

I will immodestly state, while simultaneously suffering from and defying Imposter Syndrome, that some years ago I was the “go to” person for our organization’s demos. If it was an important opportunity, it was “Call for Cohan!” I flew across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific delivering thousands of demos to prospects, customers, partners, and third parties, and enjoyed unrelenting accolades from my sales colleagues. Very frequently my demos “sealed the deal!”

I was at the top of my game. My demos were smooth, polished, precise, and practically perfect (or so I thought)! Until…

Until I became the prospect and was on the receiving end of demos from vendors asking me for hundreds of thousands of dollars in license fees. Then the scales fell from my eyes!

That’s when I suddenly realized I was standing firmly atop “Mt. Stupid.” There was an enormous amount about demos that I didn’t know!

What had happened?

I’d moved to a new position founding and leading a business unit and was growing a sales and presales team to the point where we needed a CRM system. We invited several vendors to present demos of their offerings.

Of the vendors solicited, only two held discovery conversations with my team, focused on confirming that we had “pain.” While the two vendors who did do some discovery performed slightly better, all the vendors’ demos were traditional end-to-end, show-everything, non-conversational, two-hour-long, agonizing Odysseys. They were perfect examples of stunningly awful harbor tour demos!

After suffering through these demos from a prospect’s perspective, two things became very clear:

1. Those vendors who did little or no discovery were disqualified extremely rapidly.
2. All the vendors’ demos followed a traditional, end-to-end, linear approach.

But there was something else that was even worse!

I realized that we were doing the same things. We were doing insufficient discovery (because our technology was so cool!) and we were presenting boring, traditional, end-to-end demos that “saved the best stuff for last.” We loved our products and wanted to show our prospects everything!

After the experience with the CRM vendors, I gathered the team together and said, “Folks, I have bad news. If you felt that the discovery done by these vendors was insufficient and that the demos we just saw were painfully bad, guess what? We’ve been doing the same thing to our prospects…! We need to make two major changes:

1. We need to approach discovery from the perspective of what our prospects need us to know before we propose any ‘solutions.’
2. We need to turn our demos upside down and Do the Last Thing First.”

These revelations resulted in substantially rearchitecting our discovery and demonstration processes. And, while it was sobering to realize that we were just as bad as other vendors, it was even more painful to realize that we never would have known it until we became the prospect!

Why does this happen?

Competency, Complacency, and the Dunning-Kruger Effect

“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.”
– Galileo Galilei

Prior to the painful revelation above, I believed that I was truly at the top of my demo delivery game. It turned out that while I was decidedly skilled at communicating the advantages of our capabilities, I was merely competent in terms of demo effectiveness!

Worse, I had grown complacent and had ceased to explore alternative approaches to my demos. I was focused on the least valuable phase of change, refinement: very small improvements that yielded little or no additional value.

I was sitting firmly atop Mt. Stupid! The Dunning-Kruger effect takes place when a person believes they are more competent that they actually are (and often ceases to continue to learn).

This effect takes place frequently in people who have been in a role for several years and are perceived by themselves (and others, in many cases) as highly competent and effective. Presales folks who have three-to-five years of experience are frequent victims and those who have been promoted into front-line manager positions are even more susceptible!

It can be extremely hard to recognize the Dunning-Kruger affliction in oneself. It often takes an outside push, such as my case in the story above, to recognize the ailment and pursue a solution!

This article is written for all of us who are experiencing Dunning-Kruger, have experienced it, or (take a breath!) will experience it!

Is the Dunning-Kruger effect real? Oh, yes!

Seven Levels of Skills – Before and After

At the beginning of Great Demo! and Doing Discovery Workshops I often introduce seven levels of skills and ask the participants to rate themselves. Most participants mark themselves as operating at Levels 4-6 (where Level 7 is the highest).

At the close of these Workshops, I ask participants to rank themselves again. This time, they have downgraded their level of competence to Levels 2-3. The “beginning” assessment is Dunning-Kruger at work!

Why does it happen?

Four Stages of Learning

“If knowledge is power, knowing what we don’t know is wisdom. We learn more from people who challenge our thought process than those who affirm our conclusions.”
– Adam M. Grant

There are four stages that people go through when learning new concepts, skills, and practices:

1. Unconsciously Incompetent: They don’t realize that there are problems with their skills and practices. Very simply, they don’t know what they don’t know!
2. Consciously Incompetent: They realize that there are problems, but they don’t know how to address them. This is when training and/or mentoring have the greatest impact.
3. Consciously Competent: They now understand how to address their problems but must consciously think about the new practices and skills to apply them. They are in a phase of ongoing improvement and need to be supported by active coaching.
4. Unconsciously Competent: They no longer need to think about their actions and are able to act automatically. They are at the top of their game… Or are they?

One would think that Stage 4 is optimal, but it may only represent a waypoint in a person’s learning journey: It may simply be another Mt. Stupid!

This is why I continually exhort my team, my colleagues, my customers, and myself to “Never Stop Learning!” It is only through the recognition that “there must be much that I don’t know” that we can escape Dunning-Kruger!

What are other ways to combat Dunning-Kruger?

Outflanking Dunning-Kruger

“It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.”
– Mark Twain

First, we need to admit that the effect and its impact are real! This alone can take some major mental manipulation. Consider the following phrases:

• “This is the way we’ve always done it…”
• “Things are working just fine…”
• “I’m at the top of my game…” (Rarely uttered, but frequently thought!)
• “I’m making my numbers…”
• “I’m achieving my objectives…”
• “I just earned a promotion…”
• “I just earned a raise…”

And here are a few more subtle forms:

• “Oh, I continually work to refine my practice…” (But only in very small ways.)
• “I’m open to new ideas…” (But I don’t take action.)
• “New is not necessarily better…” (I’m very comfortable with my current way.)
• “Why don’t you give it a try…? (But I won’t!)

Each of these communicate satisfaction with status quo and resistance to change. After all, if things are going well (or appear to be going well), why should you contemplate change?

In the world of products, one of the best strategies is to be your own competitor: It should be your new product that disrupts the status quo and surpasses your existing product. In other words, if a product is going to out-compete your existing offering, it is best if that new product is yours, as well!

The same principle applies to skills and practices. The best situation is where your new, superior practices replace the old ones (before your competition does)!

For most of us to even try something new, we consciously or unconsciously examine the associated risk-reward equation: “If I do try this, what is the likely outcome? What is the best possible result? What is the worst possible result? What happens if I do nothing…?”

If the equation doesn’t show a sufficient gain with low or acceptable risk, we tend not to pursue the change. For example, “If I try a new demo technique and it fails, we might lose the business!” That’s a severe disincentive!

The Technology Adoption Curve applies to acquiring and practicing new skills and methods, in addition to products: The same principles apply! Innovators represent only 2.5% of the population and Early Adopters comprise 13.5%, so only 16% of us naturally embrace exploring and trying new ideas. That’s about one person in six, a distinct minority.

Not surprising, then, is that about the same sixteen percent of presales and sales folks actually adopt the practices rolled out in organizations’ annual training efforts. Everyone else is in a “wait and see” mode.

It’s like people considering jumping into a pool that might be a bit cold. If the 16% who leapt into the water appear to be enjoying cool refreshment (resounding success), only then will the Early Majority enter the pool (and they’ll do so carefully!). The Late Majority will cautiously test the water with their toes but will not get wet unless they are pushed! And, of course, the Laggards wouldn’t be caught dead near the water at all.

A Summary and a Challenge!

“If you think training is expensive, try ignorance.”
– Peter Drucker

Recognizing that you or your team are suffering from the Dunning-Kruger effect may be an important first step. Have you made any significant changes to your practices over the past few months? Past year? Past several years? In the answer is “No, not really,” or “Well, we keep tuning things,” then you may be near or at the summit of Mt. Stupid

You can use internal or external skills assessments to determine your position on the skills development curve. Here are two examples, one for demonstration skills and one for discovery skills. An honest assessment may yield surprises and corresponding opportunities!

With respect to learning and changing, there are five possibilities:

1. You can not learn and not change.
2. You can learn and not change.
3. You can change and not learn.
4. You can change and learn.
5. You can learn and change.

It’s your choice!

To learn the methods introduced above, consider enrolling in a Doing Discovery or Great Demo! Workshop. For more demo and discovery tips, best practices, tools and techniques, explore our books, blog and articles on the Resources pages of our website at GreatDemo.com and join the Great Demo! & Doing Discovery LinkedIn Group to learn from others and share your experiences.

In this insightful episode of Coffee with Sales Engineers, we sit down with Peter Cohan, founder of the Second Derivative and author of ‘Great Demo!’ and ‘Doing Discovery.’ Peter shares his transformative journey from a chemist to an SE legend, offering valuable lessons for current and aspiring sales engineers. Topics covered include the critical pillars of a successful SE, the importance of discovery, and the dynamic relationship between account executives and sales engineers. This episode is packed with actionable advice for anyone in or considering a career in sales engineering.

• 00:00 Introduction and Welcome
• 00:23 Guest Introduction: Peter Cohan
• 01:05 Peter’s Early Career Journey
• 02:47 Transition to Pre-Sales and Marketing
• 04:09 Founding and Growing a Business Unit
• 04:53 The Role of a Sales Engineer
• 09:14 The Importance of Learning and Teaching
• 12:18 Core Skills and Attributes of a Great SE
• 22:26 Effective Collaboration with Account Executives
• 32:15 Final Thoughts and Recommendations”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIIvE0ynDig

Enjoy!

Here are the main objectives of this session:

• Identify the key challenges that presales and sales teams encounter and learn effective strategies to overcome them.
• Shift your focus toward client success throughout the entire process to ensure long-term satisfaction and recurring revenue
• Achieve seamless collaboration through implementing the SEAMless Sales® methodology

Watch the full webinar to learn how you can improve your client relationships and achieve long-term success through better collaboration. If you want to know more about how the SEAMless Sales® concept can help you and your team, keep watch for the upcoming release of Art’s book, Making SEAMless Sales. Follow Art, Peter, and Paul for more insights and strategies that can lead your team to long-term success.

View Recording

If you have inquiries, you can reach out to the webinar hosts through the following channels:

Julie addressed the critical aspects of mastering virtual presentations, emphasizing the importance of looking directly at the camera to foster connection and trust. The hosts discussed the need for expressive gestures and facial expressions to convey engagement and professionalism. They shared techniques for varied voice modulation to maintain audience interest and tips on creating visually appealing and concise slides. They also offered strategies for active listening and engaging passive audiences, including the use of purposeful pauses and treating silent parts of the conversation as dialogue.

Key takeaways from the webinar that will help you improve your virtual presence:

1. Camera Connection: Look directly at the camera to build trust.
2. Expressive Communication: Use gestures and facial expressions to convey engagement.
3. Voice Modulation: Vary your tone and pace to maintain interest.
4. Effective Visuals: Design concise and visually appealing slides.
5. Active Listening: Engage with your audience by summarizing their points and maintaining eye contact.
6. Engagement Techniques: Use purposeful pauses and treat silent parts of virtual meetings as interactive dialogues.

Watch the full webinar to learn more about mastering your virtual executive presence and improving audience engagement!

View Recording

If you have inquiries, you can reach out to the webinar hosts through the following channels: