The standard Mac and Windows mouse cursors are too small and too insubstantial for effective demos. Both display a thin black outline and white body which are fine for your own work. After all, you (generally) know where your mouse is and where it is going!

However, that thin outline and white body can be tough to see as a demo audience member.

Solution?

Increase its size and fill it in to make it stand out clearly. I’d recommend increasing the size 2x and use black for the fill. Here are instructions for the current versions of Windows and iOS (thanks, Google!):

Windows 11: “You can change the mouse cursor in Windows 11 through Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Mouse > Additional mouse settings, or by going to Settings > Accessibility > Mouse pointer and touch. The first method lets you change entire pointer schemes or customize individual cursors by browsing for .cur or .ani files. The accessibility option allows you to quickly adjust the pointer’s size and color.”

Macintosh: “To change the cursor on a Mac, go to System Settings > Accessibility > Display > Pointer to adjust its size and color.”

Do it now!

Next, share your screen with a colleague (over the web) or grab a colleague (in office) and ask for feedback: How easy is it to see the mouse? Too large, too small? Adjust and refine!

Want more tips on mousing and related? See Chapter 15 “Style” in Great Demo!

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.

What’s in This Article for You?

• A Real-life Story of Transformation
• Who Is an Executive?
• Demos for Executives
• Two More Tips

You’ve completed discovery with your prospect’s executive and team, and now it’s time for the demo. What do they want to see?

A Real-life Story

“Walk a mile in your prospects’ shoes…!”

Earlier in my career when I was growing a sizeable business, we needed to implement a CRM system, and vendors were invited to present their offerings. Of the five vendors solicited, only two held any discovery conversations, and all five requested two-hour slots for demos with my evaluation team of eight people. Our experience was not a positive one, but it was transformational!

Imagine going to a restaurant and:

• The waiter presents a fifteen-minute PowerPoint presentation on their founding, history, revenues, team, kitchen equipment, inventory, along with a list of their favorite customers.
• The waiter takes you on a tour of their kitchen, showing you the various food prep stations while emphasizing their approach to portion control and plate layout.
• You return to your table, but the waiter never offers you a menu! Instead, they bring out dish after dish, asking each time, “What do you think of this?” or “Can you see yourself eating these?” and “How do you cook this currently?”
• After enduring this for two hours, you never get to eat what you’d really wanted, despite being presented with dozens of unwanted dishes. Finally, you leave the restaurant, angry and still hungry!

That’s not a particularly pleasant dining experience. Well, each vendor followed that same approach in their demo meetings with us:

• They inflicted lengthy corporate overview presentations upon us.
• Their demos were long, step-by-step, linear explorations of their offerings, with many side excursions into details that we neither cared about nor remembered!
• And none of them showed the key deliverables that we needed and that I as the executive required from their offerings!

After suffering through these five demos (that’s ten hours overall), I gathered the team together and asked them what they thought about the experience:

“Awful!”
“Boring!”
“Terrible!”
“They never showed us what we need!”
“Everything looked complicated and confusing!”
“These systems have way more than we need!”
“Mind-numbing!”

I said, “Folks, I have bad news: We’ve been doing the same thing to our prospects!” I continued, “We need to make two major changes to our processes:

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

Over the next few years, we applied these ideas in day-to-day use. Dozens of discovery conversations and demos went into testing, correcting, improving, and hardening these new methodologies.

What was the result? Transformation to a dramatically improved level of practice!

We began to see prospects who made purchasing decisions during discovery, and demo practices that reduced the length and number of demos yet resulted in more closed business. More recently, the Great Demo! methodology was validated in studies of tens of thousands of demos.

It was a remarkable journey, kicked off by a sales executive who found himself in the role of a prospect!

Who Is an Executive?

“The higher you go, the clearer the measurements of success!”

A very simple and effective definition can be found in the terms “Above the Line” and “Below the Line.” Executives are Above the Line and have the power and authority to buy (or manage a buying committee). Many middle managers may claim that they “make the buying decision,” but when you peel back the layers, they don’t control the budget and are only making a recommendation to a superior.

In companies with a U.S. organizational structure, executives typically include the C-Suite, Senior Vice Presidents, and Vice Presidents, although VPs may have restrictions on spending depending on the company. Directors, Senior Managers, and almost everyone else do not have the power and authority to buy. They are not executives: They are Below the Line.

Executives generally both define and allocate budgets within their portions of the organization. Many executives also have a discretionary budget reserved to take advantage of opportunities or deal with emergencies. Managers who are Below the Line can request and sometimes spend budget, but don’t typically define budgets.

Most executives have very straightforward objectives, representing the overall objectives for their part of the operation. For example:

• CEO: Achieve their profit and/or growth objectives
• CRO: Achieve the target revenues
• COO: Produce and deliver products on time, on spec, and within budget
• CFO: Control and manage costs to meet the bottom-line objectives
• Head of Development: Complete product launches and releases on time, on spec, and within budget

Everyone below executives typically has a piece of the overall objective. For example, regional sales managers are responsible for revenues coming from their region, but not the number summed across all the regions.

Finally, many executives set the vision for their teams. For example, listen to your CEO or CRO at your upcoming sales kickoff meeting: I’ll bet they articulate their vision for the future!

Generalization Disclaimer!

“For every generalization, there are meaningful exceptions…!”
– Me

Executives are people (in theory) and, accordingly, may exhibit different attributes than are described in this article. Caveat emptor!

Demos for Executives

Six Minutes

This is where “Get to the Point!” really applies! Executives want to see the key deliverables (typically dashboards, reports, and similar vehicles) that they need to run their businesses. They don’t want to see long workflows or processes, and they definitely don’t want to see how to set up or administer the system.

Think in terms of six minutes for an executive “chunk.” That’s sufficient time to present a Great Demo! Situation Slide, share a few key Illustrations, show a Do It pathway, and summarize.

Inverted Pyramid

Be sure to apply the Inverted Pyramid approach when presenting demos (or anything!) to executives. Start with the items that are most important to that executive: “Do the Last Thing First!” Test to see how deep the executive wants to go. Think short and sweet: Encrispen your demo!

Mixed Audience?

Avoid doing the “Hat Dance!” That’s where the vendor tries to incorporate multiple prospect roles in the demo by changing “hats” every few minutes. “Now I’m Acer in accounting and I pass the order to Sheryl in shipping, but first it must be approved by Opal the operations manager…”

Start with the executive and complete what they need to see. Confirm that they are satisfied before moving on.

Stories in Demos

Contrary to some schools of thought, I don’t recommend starting your demo with a long, “limbic-oriented” story or the tale of your personal history. These tend to annoy executives who’d prefer that you get to the point.

Well-crafted stories that encapsulate key features or important ideas are extremely useful, however. See the “Storytelling” chapter in Great Demo! for details on how to create and use metaphors, analogies, and stories in your demos.

And for a delightful example…

A Hero Story

Here’s a wonderful tip from Natasja Bax (who leads the Great Demo! & Doing Discovery team in EMEA): She noted that presenting a Great Demo! Situation Slide tells a simple, but very effective hero story!

The hero (the prospect executive) is facing a major challenge (their Critical Business Issue). As the hero embarks on their journey, they encounter numerous tasks and trials (their Problems/Reasons). While seeking solutions, the hero meets a mentor (the vendor) who provides tools and guides the transformation (the Specific Capabilities needed) which must be completed within a limited timeframe (the Critical Date). As the hero implements these solutions successfully, they are transformed and enjoy the associated rewards (the Delta)!

Executive’s Questions

In Great Demo! I introduce three types of questions:

• Great Questions, which should be answered right away
• Good Questions, which should be parked for later
• Stupid Questions, which should also be parked for later

By definition, all executives’ questions are Great Questions!

Let ‘Em Go

Once satisfied, many executives will choose to leave the meeting. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen or heard the following from the executive: “Folks, I’m comfortable with this as a solution.” They glance at their watch or phone and continue, “I’ve got another meeting I’m going to join now; go ahead and continue with the demo…”

What a delight! They’ve basically just said, “You’ve got the order (unless you screw this up somehow…)!”

“Oh, I’m Nobody…” A True Story

A few years ago, I was delivering a face-to-face demo to a prospect team consisting of several middle managers and their team members. About twenty minutes into the session a woman came into the room. I noticed that the prospect team all turned, glanced toward the new entrant, and suddenly appeared more attentive.

Intrigued, I said to the new arrival, “Hi, I’m Peter Cohan, and you are…?”

She said, “Oh, I’m nobody, just continue…”

I thought, “The reaction from the rest of the room makes it seem like you are certainly somebody important!” I said, “Can I please ask what you do: What’s your job title?”

She responded, “Well, I’m the CEO.” The balance of the prospect team was smiling and sharing quiet comments amongst themselves.

I said, “Terrific, and welcome!” and provided a crisp summary of what we’d covered that was relevant for the CEO. She asked a few questions, nodded her head, and then took a seat in the rear of the room. About ten minutes later she left, quietly giving me a “thumbs up” and a smile!

Yes, we got the order, and that customer became one of the longest-term customers I’ve experienced.

The moral? Don’t assume that someone who comes into a meeting late isn’t worth any attention. Always ask the three questions:

1. What’s your name?
2. What’s your job title?
3. What would you like to achieve in this meeting?

Let the Executive Drive!

“Now this is different…!”

If the prospect executive is also your champion, consider letting them drive a small portion of the demo.

Wait, what?

What if they make a mistake or click on the wrong thing? Reduce the risk with a brief dry run ahead of time. When your prospect executive drives the demo or part of it, three fabulous advantages are gained:

1. The rest of the audience sees first-hand that even their senior management can run the software successfully, proving ease of use. It is quite compelling!
2. The prospect team sees a much stronger level of proof than when you the vendor drive. The sense of reality is deeper and there is less perceived “smoke and mirrors.”
3. The demo becomes truly remarkable: Your prospect definitely will remember this demo…! “You should have seen the demo today. Bob drove and it was really cool!” The result can generate a very positive word-of-mouth effect that ripples through your prospect’s organization.

Post Demo

“Hope is not a strategy!”

Most executives will not allow you to consume their team’s time in a demo, particularly a long demo unless they are serious about your solution. Accordingly, a terrific practice is to establish a Mutual Action Plan prior to the demo (you’ll find more details on Mutual Action Plans in Doing Discovery, in the “Wrap Up” section on page 136). This plan should define the next steps on their buying journey.

Bear in mind that even executives may find it hard to say “No” and terminate a buying process with you. Don’t be the poor vendor in Part 1 of A Prospect’s Tale!

Two More Tips

Uncontrolled Vocabulary?

“And we offer the highest degree of allowlisting,” said the sales rep.

There were blank looks from the prospect executive and other players in the meeting, but no one said anything

“But wait: There’s more! Our system delivers near-real-time dynamic allowlisting!” announced the rep, triumphantly, clearly expecting a chorus of “oohs” and “aahs.”

Again, there was no response from the prospect team. In fact, most of them looked confused and the executive appeared distinctly annoyed. What was going on? It was a case of “Controlled” vs “Uncontrolled Vocabulary!”

Vendors who use acronyms and jargon that are meaningless to prospect executives are at risk! When all participants in a meeting share a common understanding of terms, it is “Controlled Vocabulary,” and precise communication can be enjoyed. “Uncontrolled Vocabulary” takes place when participants are unfamiliar with a word, phrase, or acronym.

Uncontrolled Vocabulary is mentally rejected by your audience. Even worse, Uncontrolled Vocabulary tends to annoy executives, as it positions them as uninformed or worse!

Guidance when working with executives?

• Ensure that you both share the same understanding of terminology.
• Identify and close any gaps.
• Use their terms whenever possible!

Here’s a fun example of wildly uncontrolled vocabulary – enjoy!

Executives Are People, Too

Many years ago, when I was studying organic chemistry at university, I realized I didn’t fully understand the mechanics of a certain reaction (specifically SN2). My professor, Dr. Charles Perrin, terrified me and many of my classmates, appearing to us as unattainably majestic, knowledgeable, and sharp-witted.

I entered Urey Hall to take advantage of his office hours and felt my heart pounding in my chest as I approached his door. I knocked and I heard his voice say, “Enter…!” As I stepped over the threshold, he rose from behind his desk, came around it, smiled, and reached out his hand, saying, “Relax, I’m human…!”

Fifteen minutes later I had learned two lessons:

First, I had gained a (reasonably) solid understanding of SN2 reaction mechanics (and still have a basic grasp of the topic). Second, I realized that despite someone’s exalted position, they are still human!

There’s a postscript to this story: Later that same year, our university orchestra and choir were performing Mozart’s The Magic Flute. As the second trumpet, I was near the rear of the orchestra on the stage, but I could plainly see Dr. Perrin in the front row of the audience, with members of his family. As we finished the performance, I believe I saw him glance my way and smile!

Copyright © 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.

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.

• POV Process Management: Brian Skrocki shared how his team achieved a 100% technical win rate in their first quarter by implementing disciplined strategies.
• Structured Evaluation Plans: The importance of creating mutual action plans with prospects, involving clear timelines, use cases, and success criteria to ensure high success rates while maintaining low sales costs, was highlighted.
• Great Demo! Methodology: This methodology ensures that all necessary information is captured to fully understand the client’s needs, enabling the creation of a comprehensive plan that addresses specific business problems, which led to Jupiter One’s success.
• Shark Tank Concept: The “Shark Tank” process was introduced for handling complex POV situations requiring more than standard integrations or extended time frames. This involves presenting cases to internal stakeholders for approval, ensuring alignment with business objectives, and support for strategic opportunities.
• Homerun Presales: Used by Jupiter One, Brian Lewis described how Homerun Presales manages POV plans and sets clear client expectations. This tool facilitates tracking efforts across technical sales cycles and ensures all activities and criteria are documented and visible to both teams and clients.

View Recording

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

This is a very (very!) common problem, as screen resolution of computers has continued to increase, and it has a very simple solution. Do two things:

1. Increase your mouse cursor size.
2. Choose a mouse cursor style that is “filled-in” or high contrast.

On Mac, you’ll find mouse size adjustment in:

• System Preferences
• Accessibility
• Display
• Pointer…
• (about 200% is good – move to the second mark on the scale)

On Windows you’ll find mouse size and fill-in choices in:

• Start
• Settings
• Ease of Access
• Cursor and Pointer

(The specific steps may depend on which version of Windows you have.)

Now enjoy the improved visibility your audiences will experience…!

• Automating a fast-food restaurant doesn’t make the food any more palatable!
• Automating the production of a poorly designed car results in piles of poorly performing cars (as well as increased breakdowns, maintenance expenses, insurance costs, and recalls. It’s hard to recall a poor demo!)
• Automating the assembly of products from poor-quality components yields tons of sub-standard products and negative product reviews.
• Providing ChatGPT with mediocre content as the input doesn’t improve the value of the output.
• Automating chopping onions just makes you cry faster, longer, and more painfully!

Your objective is to engage your prospects with content that compels action, and traditional approaches have proven to be ineffective. Great Demo! methodology has been validated as a refreshingly successful approach for demos in studies of tens of thousands of recorded demos!

Learn and apply practices for automated demos that yield the desired results. Contact Natasja Bax for more information.

A Never Stop Learning! Article

“I get paid to point, click, and talk…”

– A senior presales practitioner ruefully describing his traditional demos…

What’s in This Article for You?

• Why being boring is bad (as if this even needs to be said!)
• A SAD true story (SAD = Stunningly Awful Demo)
• Some basic practices for improved results
• A better baseline
• What about personality?
• Moving towards remarkable
• A collection of remarkable examples

Reading note: The ideas get more remarkable as you go deeper into this article…!

Boooooring…!

When was the last time you saw a demo that was really engaging, thought-provoking, or memorable?

As a vendor, how many times do you find that you are bored by your own demos (or your team’s demos)? After all, you’ve seen them over and over and over, with basically the same talk track and sequence of steps.

Be honest: How many of us, in the midst of a colleague’s demo, are exploring something on the web or on our phones?

Even worse, contemplate your prospects’ perceptions as they listen to these same cookie-cutter demos, watching as the presenter methodically clacks the same clicks and plods the same paths they’ve followed dozens of times before!

Boring.

Now contemplate what your prospect remembers about your demo after they’ve seen two, three, or more demos from your competition that show similar capabilities. It’s hard for them to differentiate between you and

the alternatives. All of the demos consist of the same traditional flows with little or nothing that appears particularly novel or intriguing: Just “point, click, and talk!”

No wonder you have to repeat demos for the same audience. No wonder your prospects request a POC. No wonder your prospects can’t make a decision and “kick the can down the road.”

A SAD True Story

A few years ago, I was watching a partner vendor present a face-to-face demo to an important prospect in Switzerland, and it was not going well!

A couple of days before the demo meeting, I provided the vendor with a rich set of discovery information, which we discussed in detail. This was a key customer and we wanted to be properly prepared. Sadly, we were unable to organize a dry run before the event: This was a major mistake!

About fifteen minutes into the demo, the partner started a Terrible Tabs Death March. You know, where the presenter works through the details of each and every tab, one after another (after another, after another…).

By the third tab, the audience realized what was going on, indicated by shifting chairs and squirming bodies. A few prospect participants began to doodle on their notepads. Well, this was bad, but it got worse…

As the vendor clicked on the fourth tab, the head of the prospect team stood up, walked to the side of the conference room, and slowly but steadily banged his head on the wall: thunk, thunk, thunk!

Clearly, this demo was memorable, but not in a positive way (people still talk about this meeting today)!

Some Better Basics

DON’T

If you want to sound like most other vendors, go ahead and inflict a 20-minute corporate overview/product overview presentation on your prospect. That should have them browsing online in no time!

DO

It’s all about your prospect. Start with a crisp summary of the discovery information you’ve collected. A Great Demo! Situation Slide is perfect for this. Stay in “You Mode” as you review this summary.

DO (BONUS)

Ensure that you understand and have confirmed your prospect’s Critical Business Issue, Delta elements, and Critical Date to avoid a No Decision outcome.

DON’T

Start with Set-up Mode items and present a long, linear flow that consumes the allotted time. This will also keep you from presenting the reports, dashboards, and other deliverables that your prospect really wants to see!

DO

Start with a “Wow!” by showing the deliverables that your prospect desires: “Do the Last Thing First!” These should solve your prospect’s Problems/Reasons (“pain”) and enable them to address their Critical Business Issues.

DO (BONUS)

A “before and after” method of illustrating deliverables can be very effective. The “before” shows your prospect’s current, painful process or inadequate deliverable; the “after” demonstrates the glorious wonders of your solution (presented with the sound of angels singing!).

DO (BONUS BONUS)

When you follow the Do the Last Thing First approach and apply the Inverted Pyramid structure, you may actually finish the demo well before the allocated time is consumed. Imagine how happy your prospect will be to get that time back in their day: Now that’s remarkable!

DON’T

Show demo data that doesn’t align with your prospect’s business or scenarios that don’t reflect reality. Presenting a manufacturing example to a group of finance folks will get you laughed out of the room (or virtual room).

DO

Invest a bit of time (or in a tool) to show relevant data and visuals that reflect realistic use cases.

DO (BONUS)

Make sure your demo environment includes representative problems that can be solved, exceptions that can be investigated, and opportunities that can be explored. Make the data interesting!

DON’T

Explore all of the possible options for each function or pursue every “if” and “or” case. Keep in mind that your audience will remember the first couple of ideas and the last thing that you present. Everything in the middle is at risk of sounding like crickets in an empty room, “chirp chirp chirp chirp…!”

DO

Organize and present your demo segments applying the Inverted Pyramid method. This technique delivers the most important ideas right up front and enables your prospect to explore in as much detail as they have interest!

DON’T

Point, click, and talk, and point, click, and talk (and point, click, and talk) for ten minutes, and then ask, “Any questions so far?” What do you think your prospect’s response will be? Yup, you guessed it: “Nope, we’re good…!”

Similarly, avoid the phrase, “Does that make sense?” You may not want to hear your prospect’s real answers!

DO

Invite your prospect to engage by using frequent summaries (after each segment, at minimum). The act of Peeling Back the Layers actually drives questions and comments from your prospect.

DO (BONUS)

Here are several alternatives to the banal and boring, “Any questions so far?” and “Does that make sense?”:

• “Questions?”
• “Questions or comments?”
• “Your thoughts?”
• “Feedback?”
• “What do you think so far?”
• “Comments, questions, observations?”
• “Does that resonate?”
• “How does that resonate?”
• “What are your thoughts on this?”
• “How does this look to you?”
• “How does this compare with your current system?”
• “Is this the kind of capability you have in mind?”

DON’T

Pre-answer all the questions you’ve heard multiple times before. Doing so is a terrific way to kill any reasonable possibility of a dialogue. (Pre-answering is also known as “premature elaboration…!”)

DO

Be prepared to respond to the questions you’ve heard multiple times before, but don’t provide answers until your prospect actually asks the questions! This is the essence of Peeling Back the Layers, enabling a real conversation to take place while letting your prospect explore your capabilities in as much depth as they have interest.

DO (BONUS)

Practice superior question-handling skills (see Chapter 8 “Managing Time and Questions” in Great Demo!). Show genuine interest, explore the “why” behind prospect questions, and be curious about anything usual! Use a Parking Lot to capture any questions or topics that need to be addressed after the demo.

Make sure you’ve adequately closed prospect questions. Here are a few phrases to draw from:

• “Does that sufficiently answer your question?”
• “Is that sufficient?”
• “Have I adequately addressed your question?”
• “Is that what you wanted to know?”
• “Is that sufficient or do we need to go deeper?”

You can also precipitate prospect questions by offering an interim summary:

• “So, to summarize…”
• “To recap…”
• “So, what you’ve seen so far…”
• “In conclusion (on this point)…”
• “To sum up…”

DO (BONUS BONUS)

A simple “yes” may be a sufficient response to many prospect questions!

DON’T

When you have situations with multiple solutions or multiple players (or both!), don’t force everyone in the audience to stay through the entire meeting, wondering when they’ll see the portions of the demo that are relevant to them.

DO

Use The Menu Approach and let your prospect define the agenda. Not only will they be more engaged, you’ll learn what is most important to them!

DO (BONUS)

Organize the time to ensure that the highest-ranking prospect players are addressed early in the meeting. Getting a “yes” on your solution from them will reduce the potential for objections from the balance of the prospect team.

DO (BONUS BONUS)

Be prepared to release prospect players once their segments are complete. “Thanks for joining the demo today. Looks like that covers your areas of interest. You are welcome to stay, but you’re also welcome to leave if you’d prefer: That’s an hour you get back in your day!”

DON’T

End your demo with a slide that says, “Thank You” or “Questions”, and no verbal summary. Your audience will remember the last element of your demo surprisingly well. Don’t squander this opportunity!

True story: At the end of a demo a few years ago, a vendor shared a PowerPoint slide that contained a large, golden, slowly rotating 3D question mark as they asked, “Any questions?” Those of us in the meeting all remember that rotating image, but sadly little else!

DO

Provide a crisp summary of what you’ve shown, what questions were asked, the responses provided, and any topics or questions that were parked along the way. This recap takes advantage of prospects’ typical retention curves where the last topic is remembered quite well.

DO (BONUS)

As you begin your final summary, redisplay the most compelling visual (Illustration) from your software. Linger lovingly over this screen as you deliver your summary and take any final questions.

DON’T

End the meeting without a mutual plan of action or “next steps” discussion. Even worse, don’t succumb to the temptation to offer a “free POC”…! (Remember: Our objective is to secure the order with the least expensive form of proof!)

DO

Discuss a Mutual Action Plan that, in the best cases, includes tasks for both you and your prospect.

DO (BONUS)

Discuss prospect-specific Value Realization Events: what these are, how to measure them, and how and when they can be achieved. Doing this proves to your prospect that you are truly interested in their success and not simply getting the order! (Doing Discovery provides details on this highly effective differentiating process.)

Interim Summary

The DO and BONUS practices above will make your demos much more memorable than traditional approaches. Before we move on to some remarkably marvelous methods, do you have any questions, comments, or observations on what we’ve covered so far? Is there anything that stands out for you, in particular?

(See what I did there?)

A Better Baseline

Training is a rational starting point, of course. Presentation skills classes help presenters improve their level of practice. Sales methodology courses provide processes to help salespeople progress and secure business faster. Discovery and demonstration skills training enable customer-facing teams to improve these processes, similarly.

All of these help people get better at what they do and enable improved baselines of practice.

Some training involves making small, incremental improvements. This tends to be lower risk but also yields smaller gains. In the world of software demos, helping people to improve existing talk tracks or eliminate unneeded features is good, but it is not going to result in a demo that is perceived as particularly remarkable. You simply achieve a marginally better baseline.

More sophisticated and “rip and replace” training methods enable major step-changes: new ways of doing things that go well beyond the status quo. Great Demo! methodology is an example of doing things quite differently: a significant step-change. This type of training often requires changing or replacing ingrained habits, but the payoffs are commensurately much more rewarding!

Starting demos with Great Demo! Situation Slides is surprisingly refreshing for audiences who are expecting to suffer through vendor corporate overviews. Applying the Do the Last Thing First concept rescues prospects from the tyranny of traditional demos that seem to take forever to get to the desired deliverables. Peeling Back the Layers turns demos from boring monologues into engaging, bidirectional conversations.

The mental investment to successfully apply Great Demo! practices are more challenging, but the yield is a huge multiple of that effort! Question: Do you want to be perceived as average, slightly above average, much better than average, or truly remarkable?

What About Personality?

I once saw a face-to-face demo where the presenter recited a script in a dead monotone, punctuating delivery with what became a sadly predictable use of the keyboard space bar to advance the screen (it was a recorded demo driven from the keyboard). People in the audience were texting one another with increasingly derisive comments about how incredibly, painfully boring the demo was.

Unfortunately, while this demo was remarkable, it wasn’t remarkable in a good way!

Personality differences can have a major impact on the retention of information. But being bubbly and upbeat is just a part of the solution, and relying on your delightful personality alone is insufficient to achieve remarkability. In fact, being perceived as overly positive can be a negative in many cultures and situations.

Presales folks are frequently (and often inaccurately) described as being introverted, while salespeople are generally classified as extroverts (again, a poor generalization). Some people are “natural” presenters; others need to learn skills to make their communication more effective.

Adapting your personality for demos can be a bit like acting: You are taking on the role of a different person or manifesting different personality attributes for your demos. In any case, you may need to perform with personality characteristics that are different from your non-business or non-customer-facing self.

Leveraging or adapting your personality to improve demo delivery is part of the expected baseline, accordingly. So, let’s move on to more interesting ideas!

Moving Towards Remarkable

What makes prospects and customers say, “Remember the time that vendor did that really amazing demo?” What is the difference between a good demo and something that people still talk about?

They’re remarkable. They’re memorable. They stand out from all of the other demos and presentations because they really are different. They depart from the expected norms, they “push the envelope,” and they set new boundaries. In many cases they have a surprising twist:

“…Remember the time the SC brought in that huge stack of papers to search through like we were doing at the time? That really reflected our then-current situation!”

“…It was so great when they had our VP of Sales drive a portion of the demo. If he could do it, anyone could!”

“… Remember when that salesperson showed an analysis of our situation? It was uncanny how accurate it was!”

“…I loved it when they let me search their database. I found answers that I didn’t know existed, then emailed them to myself and completed my project earlier and much better than I’d expected!”

These demos were so remarkable that they not only secured the order but also stayed in these customers’ minds long afterward. Let’s explore what makes certain demos truly remarkable and how to implement these practices within your organization.

A Collection of Remarkable Examples

Stand-up comedians constantly test and improve their material, providing a wonderful example for demo practitioners.

Comedians introduce new ideas, explore audience reactions, and change, add, or delete material in their “routines” accordingly. Their expectation is that each subsequent performance will be better than the previous show. Evolution at its best: survival of the fittest jokes…!

Comedians need to have material that is consistently remarkable. Should demos be any different? Nope! Here are some examples of applying this same idea to the fabulous world of demos:

• When you use a prop or visual aid in a demo that really engages the audience and makes them light up, repeat it for the next relevant group. Explore showing it vs passing it around (for face-to-face scenarios) and compare the results.

I’ve seen wonderful props used in both face-to-face and web demos, from huge stacks of paper (representing current manual processes) to machine parts that were just about to fail (showing how predictive maintenance works), and software driving robots for special functions (in one case, the software instructed a liquid-handling robot to create the perfect martini!).

Pro Tip: Props and visual aids for face-to-face demos should be easily transportable or locally procurable. I frequently use a newspaper as a prop to illustrate the use of the Inverted Pyramid concept in demo delivery. When I’m on the road, I still look for a stack of newspapers in the hotel lobby to use in that day’s training!

Pro Tip: Props and visual aids aren’t limited to face-to-face demos. You can present props via your webcam, for example. I’ve even modeled handing things to the audience through my webcam and have audience members pretend to take them from me!

True Story: I was delivering a Great Demo! Workshop and during the final roleplay exercise one of the participants rounded up a large cup and two sealed water bottles before he began. He presented his Situation Slide, followed by a nice-looking dashboard as his Illustration.

He then grabbed both of the water bottles, banged them together, and said, “If I understand correctly, your current situation has silos that can’t be connected, like these two sealed water bottles.” He banged them together again. He then opened both bottles and poured portions from each into the cup and announced, “We are enabling you to combine your data in ways you’ve never been able to do before and…” He brought the cup to his lips and took a big sip, followed by a refreshing “Ahhhh…! And enable you to consume that data in ways you’ve never been able to do before!”

Thunderous round of applause!

• Let your prospect drive a portion of the demo. This really wakes up the audience!

Demos are often a form of proof, particularly for “ease of use.” Having an audience member drive a portion of the demo is a remarkable way to confirm ease of use and may avoid a costly POC!

Pro Tip: Use your champion for a “Do It” pathway or similar brief segment and have them practice the pathway before the actual demo.

• Tell stories! It’s amazing to watch your audience’s reaction when you ask, “Would you like to hear the true story of…?” They will literally lean forward in their seats! (Check out the chapter on Storytelling in the Third Edition of Great Demo! for more details on storytelling practices for demos.)

Pro Tip: When you tell a story that really resonates, keep it in the act, and work continuously to make it even better in subsequent demos. When you see consistent success with that story, share it with your colleagues!

• When you present a terrific payoff screen or key report (an Illustration) that really resonates with a prospect player, do it again the next time you demo to someone with the same job title.

Pro Tip: Prospect executives may only need to see a relevant Situation Slide and one or a few compelling Illustrations, without any need to go deeper. I cannot tell you how many times we had completed this portion of the meeting and heard the executive say to their team, “Folks, I’m comfortable with this as a solution. I have another meeting I’m going to join, but you can stay and continue the demo as long as you need.” Congratulations: The order is now yours!

• For multiple-solution or multiple-player demos, use The Menu Approach. This fabulous practice puts the agenda in the prospect’s hands, engaging your audience right from the beginning of the meeting.

Pro Tip: Include more items on your Menu than the allotted time allows. In addition to this being a very effective method of Vision Expansion, this tactic also gives you a reason to reengage later on. (You can find details on Vision Expansion and Vision Reengineering in Doing Discovery.)

• One of the strongest versions of “You Mode” is to use your audience’s specific names. There are few things as attention-grabbing as when you use someone’s name in a demo meeting.

A colleague told me a fabulous story about his “Names Superpower.” During the meeting introductions, he would carefully memorize the names of all of the prospect players to a surprisingly deep level. How deep? During one face-to-face meeting, while he was drawing on a whiteboard, a prospect participant asked a question and, without turning around, my colleague provided the answer using the correct name for that person. Wow!

• Power of the Pause: In music, a short period of time with no sound can be extremely dramatic, and the same principle also applies to demos. When you describe a key screen or idea, pause for a moment to give your audience time to absorb the concept, think about it, and provide a comfortable opening for questions or comments. There is no requirement to constantly fill “dead air”!

Interestingly, even the use of alliteration and careful selection of words can impact your audience’s attention. Hard consonants and sibilants serve as percussion to the melody of your sentences, for example. Explore this for yourself: Listen to some of your favorite music and note the dynamics, pauses, crescendos, fermatas, and other hooks designed to engage and stimulate the listener.

• When you are doing online demos, use the annotation tools. (Zoom has a terrific set of annotation capabilities. As of this writing Teams does not, so consider a third-party tool such as ZoomIt). The act of a new, unanticipated graphic appearing on the screen refreshes the audience. Sadly, the huge majority of vendor staff rarely employ these tools. This is an opportunity to differentiate!

Pro Tip story: We were working with a prospect over the web and needed to get clarification about some elements of their workflow. We opened up a whiteboard in Zoom, drew the main workflow elements on the screen, and then worked collaboratively with our prospect to refine it. When it was complete, our prospect asked, “Can you please save this and send it to me? This is the best representation we’ve yet seen of this workflow!”

• A crisp, meaningful quote or verbal sound bite can often make your demo more memorable, partly through association with the quote itself. Great Demo! Workshop participants from years ago will often regale me with their recollections of specific phrases we used in those Workshops, such as:

“Encrispen!”
“Do the Last Thing First!”
“Fewest number of clicks” (with the commensurate hand motion)
“We are victims of momentum!”
“Thunderous sound of applause!”

Pro Tip: Synthesizing and using your own new words or phrases can be particularly memorable. See these two definitions of “Encrispen,” for example!

• Give your prospect something of real value from the demo (other than just pleasant memories). Most demos involve fake data or model scenarios. If your offering can actually solve a real problem during the demo, do so!

A few years back, I used to present our “Available Chemicals Directory” database to our prospects. This was a chemistry structure-searchable electronic collection of the world’s hundreds of chemical catalogs. Prior to our database, scientists had to search each catalog manually, often taking hours and even more often missing good candidate compounds, due to the intrinsic limitations of chemical names (In chemistry, one picture is truly worth one thousand words!).

I would execute an example search in the database and then ask, “Anyone want to look for a compound you’re interested in?” I’d pick a volunteer and guide them through the search process and, more often than not, they’d find what they were looking for! I’d then email the results to the prospect after the demo, often saving them, not just hours in searching but weeks that would otherwise have been spent in wasted laboratory synthesis efforts.

A customer who purchased the product immediately after the demo told me, “Cohan, you just showed us how three weeks in the lab can save seven minutes in the database!” (I love the clever twist of the wording…)

• Pro Tip: Apply two or more of these approaches in parallel!

Demo elements that were memorable, that were particularly remarkable, are the elements to harvest, refine, and reuse. Demos should evolve to incorporate the best material for each prospect situation.

Share and Leverage

Now you have your own personal stock of remarkable demo ideas. Consider tapping into other examples from your colleagues, competitors, and third parties as well.

• With your own team, organize a “Demo Day” where team members present demo components and ideas that worked extraordinarily well.
• Watch recorded demos from your colleagues and assess: What caused the most positive responses from the audiences? What props or visual aids were used that really resonated? What stories had the audience on the edge of their seats? What additional ideas can you harvest?
• Watch demos from other companies: online, at conferences, or as a prospect when vendors present at your company. Collect ideas to incorporate into your own demos. What did you like? What didn’t resonate? What was remarkable?
• Watch non-demo presentations (www.TED.com, for example) to harvest novel and remarkable ideas that could be applied to the wonderful world of demos.

Where else can you find other remarkable ideas?

From Traditional to Better to Truly Remarkable

A traditional demo is typically what you were taught when you first joined the customer-facing team: “Here’s the demo for product X…”

Substantially better demos result from applying Great Demo! principles, such as Do the Last Thing First, Fewest Number of Clicks, Inverted Pyramid, Peel Back the Layers, and the appropriate use of question management Parking Lots.

Truly remarkable demos harvest the best, most memorable elements of your or your team’s demos and replay them on a consistently improving, ongoing basis. The payoff? Truly remarkable demos have the highest success rates of all in securing the business!

Copyright © 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 GreatDemo.com and join the Great Demo! & Doing Discovery LinkedIn Group to learn from others and share your experiences.

Your Background and Your First Impression

Your background plays a big role in the first impression you make in virtual meetings. It’s where decisions about your credibility, competence, and interest level are formed. While it’s possible to overcome a negative first impression, it takes a lot of effort. And lately, I’ve seen a lot of sellers who have their work cut out for them as the result of poor decisions (or lack thereof!). Here are a few examples of backgrounds that people may find suspect, questionable, or controversial:

• Cluttered offices with overflowing piles of papers
• Bookshelves lined with The Top 50 Business Books Ever Written
• Inadequate lighting casting half of someone’s face in darkness
• Half-indoor/half-outdoor views
• Fixtures or artwork appearing to sprout from people’s heads
• Beds in hotel rooms
• Weapons
• R-rated (or simply disturbing) photos and paintings
• Items signaling a specific political affiliation
• Half-eaten food items

Your background sends a message, whether it’s professional, competent, authentic, or something else entirely. When used thoughtfully, it offers context and insights into your character, creating opportunities to connect. However, if used incorrectly, it can be a source of distraction or disconnection. Let’s explore some of the choices you have when it comes to backgrounds.

Choosing Your Background: Authentic vs. Virtual

With virtual meetings, your location is up to you. That means you can hold meetings anywhere from your home office to the captain’s seat on the Starship Enterprise. But choose wisely. Unless your real environment provides a negative experience for your audience, I recommend using an authentic background whenever possible. Here’s why:

The Leveling Power of Authentic Backgrounds

For decades, most B2B meetings have been held in the customer’s business location, (aside from the occasional restaurant, bar, or golf course). Video provides a unique opportunity to eliminate that unequal footing of being on your customer’s turf. Authentic backgrounds humanize you and invite customers into your world, making meetings more personal than ever before.

Considerations When Using an Authentic Background:

A good background should be neat, clutter-free, well-lit, and reflect a spark of your personality. Personal elements—or props—like books, pictures, or furnishings, may stimulate conversation and deepen connections. But even the best intentions can quickly cross the line into scene stealers or credibility crushers if you’re not careful. Here are a few to avoid:

• Obvious ‘Props to Impress.’ Have you really read the Top Business Books of All Time strategically laid out on your shelf? If you have, congrats. Unfortunately, it’s become such a cliché’ that it appears as a blatant attempt to impress. And if you haven’t read them? Well, I know one person who got caught and it was pretty embarrassing.
• Obvious ‘Props that Distress.’ Video calls are not the place to share politically incorrect or otherwise controversial subject matter. Your family and good friends may give you the benefit of the doubt, but assuming customers will is simply naïve. Use good judgment and when you’re in doubt, ask a peer or two.
• Intimate spaces or furnishings – like beds.
• Poorly or overly lit spaces.
• Cluttered desks or shelves.

When to Use a Virtual Background

Sometimes your space is not “camera ready.” Perhaps there is too much clutter, you’re in the middle of a home repair project, or the only suitable space provides TMI (Bedroom Zoomers, I’m talking to you!) Then it’s time to consider using a virtual background.

Considerations When Using a Virtual Background:

• Choose an understated virtual background that is appropriate for the meeting size and audience. For example, avoid the ‘super-sized conference room’ or ‘sea of cubicles’ for a one-on-one conversation.
• Avoid backgrounds that include a lot of diagrams or fake calculations – unless you want your customer to try to solve the puzzle while you’re speaking!
• Be cautious with humor and cultural references to prevent potential offense.
• Beware of ongoing distractions, like backgrounds featuring giant cartoon characters or leaping tigers.
• Avoid fast movements to reduce disappearing body parts.

Summary

Your background is just one part of your virtual first impression, but it’s an essential one. Don’t leave it to chance, and when possible, leverage the benefits of a natural background.

P.S. You can read more about creating a winning first impression in virtual meetings in my book “Look Me In the Eye: Using Video to Build Relationships.”

About the Author

Julie Hansen has coached thousands of sales and presales professionals around the world to deliver more successful demos and presentations as a Great Demo! Partner, and through her company Performance Sales and Training. A thought leader in the use of video in sales, Julie is also the founder of the Virtual Presence for Sales Pros Master Class and an award-winning author of three sales books, including Sales Presentations for Dummies and Look Me In The Eye: Using Video To Build Virtual Relationships with Customers, which was named the Top Sales Book of 2021. In addition to a successful career in sales, Julie worked as a professional actor appearing in over 75 plays, commercials, and television shows.