{"id":29082,"date":"2018-02-20T11:11:21","date_gmt":"2018-02-20T11:11:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/?p=393"},"modified":"2026-09-15T19:51:05","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T19:51:05","slug":"vision-generation-demos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/vision-generation-demos\/","title":{"rendered":"Vision Generation Demos"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wsb-element-2f053c0a-f127-46a4-993d-6d1348c75be7\" class=\"wsb-element-text\" data-type=\"element\">\n<div class=\"txt \">\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">Vision Generation Demos &#8211; The Crisp Cure for Stunningly Awful Harbor Tours<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"wsb-element-26df7756-04f1-420d-93d6-df18f32298e7\" class=\"wsb-element-text\" data-type=\"element\"><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">What is a Vision Generation demo?\u00a0 It is\u00a0<em>just enough<\/em>\u00a0demo to generate a vision in the customer\u2019s mind that a solution to a business challenge is\u00a0<em>possible<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 and to enable a Discovery conversation to take place.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">A Vision Generation demo should only take a\u00a0<em>few<\/em>\u00a0minutes \u2013 and may consist entirely of one or two well-chosen screens or screen-shots (\u201cIllustrations\u201d for you Great Demo! practitioners\u2026).\u00a0 Let\u2019s explore\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Many software vendors have two types of demos:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Overview<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Deep Dive<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Both types, when delivered in the absence of sufficient Discovery information, can lead to stunningly awful results.\u00a0 Generally speaking, \u201cDeep Dive\u201d demos are delivered after a reasonable amount of Discovery has been completed.\u00a0 Most overview demos, however, are inflicted with little or no Discovery information in place (and qualification questions alone are\u00a0<em>not<\/em>\u00a0sufficient!).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">As a result, overview demos have a range of (customer-generated) names, including:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul class=\"featureList\">\n<li class=\"tick\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Show-up and throw-up<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"tick\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Spray and pray<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"tick\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Tech splatter<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"tick\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The IKEA demo<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"tick\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Living in the Land of Hope<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"tick\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Whisky-Tango-Foxtrot, and, of course,<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"tick\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Harbor Tour<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">These painful demos often last 30, 45, or 60 minutes \u2013 or even longer.\u00a0 I\u2019ve heard vendors say, \u201cWe couldn\u2019t possibly do an overview of the system in less than 2 hours\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Customer recipients during and after these demos are often heard to mutter phrases such as:<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"gdp-leave-space\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> \u201cWhere is this going?\u201d<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\"> \u201cOMG-when-will-this-end?\u201d<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\"> \u201cKill me now\u2026\u201d<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\"> \u201cThat\u2019s an hour I\u2019ll never get back\u2026\u201d<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\"> \u201cWhat was the point?\u201d<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\"> \u201cWho invited those guys in here?\u201d <\/span><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Equally bad, vendors know that they are wasting time delivering overview demos that go nowhere\u2026\u00a0 (Not to mention potentially huge travel and opportunity costs, so I won\u2019t).\u00a0 What if you could reduce your traditional overview demos from 1 hour down to a few crisp minutes?\u00a0 \u00a0What could you use that time for, instead?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Clearly, the best solution is to complete sufficient Discovery prior to any substantive demo.\u00a0 However, many customers are either unwilling or unable to provide Discovery information in the absence of a demo.\u00a0 They may even say, \u201cJust show me an overview and I\u2019ll let you know if anything looks interesting\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #000000;\">How do we solve this conundrum?<\/span><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>One Guideline and Two Ideas<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">First, consider the following &#8220;rule&#8221;:\u00a0 no demo shall last longer than 4 minutes without receiving sufficient Discovery information.\u00a0 Note that &#8220;receiving sufficient Discovery information&#8221; can take place during or immediately after those 4 minutes of demo&#8230;\u00a0 Think in terms of\u00a0<em>quid pro quo<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 if I show you something (a brief demo), I expect something in return (some Discovery information).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Second, contemplate the idea of Vision Generation demos: \u00a0JUST ENOUGH demo to enable a Discovery conversation to take place.\u00a0 In Great Demo! methodology, a Vision Generation demo might include an example Situation Slide (&#8220;Here&#8217;s how we helped other ______ [job title] in _____ [industry]&#8230;&#8221;) followed by a compelling Illustration or two.\u00a0 Total time?\u00a0 About 4 minutes or less&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">This highly successful approach is based on reference selling, gently borrowed from a range of sales methodologies (including Challenger, Solution Selling, Customer Centric Selling, Sandler, SPIN, Miller Heiman, Value, TAS, etc.), and applied specifically when you\u2019ve been asked to present an overview demo.\u00a0 It goes like this:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">A customer arranged a demo meeting with you, but has not (yet) agreed to a Discovery conversation.\u00a0 His expectation is that you\u2019ll deliver some kind of \u201coverview\u201d demo\u2026\u00a0 What you know so far is that he is the VP of Sales of a mid-size software company (and you sell sales automation software tools).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">You say, \u201cI\u2019m glad we are able to invest this time together today.\u00a0 Before we get into a demo, let me share how we\u2019ve helped\u00a0<em>other<\/em>\u00a0VP\u2019s of Sales at similar-sized software organizations address some of their business challenges\u2026\u201d\u00a0 You then present the following slide in PowerPoint:<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Situation<\/span><\/h4>\n<div class=\"gdp-leave-space\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Job Title\/Industry: \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 VP Sales, Mid-size Software<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Critical Business Issue: \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Achieving\/exceeding quarterly and annual quota<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Problems\/Reasons: \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Poor insight into pipeline\/forecast<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Specific Capabilities: \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Rapid view of actuals, status, problems<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Delta\/Value: \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0$2M incremental revenue <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">You note that \u201cVP\u2019s of Sales at other, similar software companies shared their concerns about making their quarterly and annual numbers.\u00a0 They said what was holding them back is that they had little or no visibility into their current forecast and pipeline going forward.\u00a0 They said it took way too much time and effort to determine which sales projects were solid, which were at risk, and where there were holes or gaps in their pipelines.\u00a0 They often had to go back and forth with IT, who would run searches on their behalf, but the results were often not what they needed, requiring several iterations of the process \u2013 and errors and miscommunication often took place.\u00a0 The result was that it was very difficult to coach the sales team properly and they were often at risk of missing their quarterly numbers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">You continue, \u201cThey said they were looking for some way to access the full forecast and pipeline information, see exactly which deals were in good shape and which needed assistance, and understand exactly where the forward-looking pipeline was strong and where there were gaps.\u00a0 They said they wanted to get this information in a dashboard or similar vehicle that they themselves could query and drill down for details, without any need for IT.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">You explain, \u201cWe provided those capabilities \u2013 and our customers report that they\u2019ve been able to generate 1-3 million dollars in incremental revenue and redeploy several full-time-equivalents in sales and sales operations to other, more productive tasks.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">You then ask, \u201cHow does this compare with\u00a0<em>your<\/em>\u00a0situation?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">There are three possible answers from your customer [Quiz \u2013 before reading on:\u00a0 what are they?]:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cI have that same situation\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cI have a similar situation\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cMy situation is different\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">After your customer\u2019s response, you ask, \u201cTell me about your specific situation\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Customer says (for example), \u201cOh, well, I am under pressure to make my numbers \u2013 that\u2019s consistent.\u00a0 However, we have pretty good pipeline management capabilities today, but I do have a number of sales people who either sandbag [under-forecast] or who have Happy Ears [over-forecast] and both of these groups need coaching.\u00a0 Right now I don\u2019t have good insight into their projects \u2013 our current system doesn\u2019t support this\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">You ask (as you begin to take notes), \u201cWhat are you using today\u2026?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">What has just taken place?\u00a0 You and your customer have just entered into a Discovery conversation \u2013 which is\u00a0<em>exactly<\/em>\u00a0what you want.\u00a0 Delightful!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Discovery, Then Demo, Then Discovery\u2026<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In the scenario above, it is likely that you continue the Discovery conversation for some time \u2013 and you may get to the point where you\u2019ve now learned enough to provide a more substantive, focused demo.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In the spirit of\u00a0<em>quid pro quo<\/em>\u00a0it may be your turn to provide information \u2013 and a short, focused demo segment based on what you\u2019ve learned so far may be very reasonable.\u00a0 After that, back to Discovery\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Here\u2019s a quick road-map of the process so far:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul class=\"featureList\">\n<li class=\"tick\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Vision Generation Demo (\u22644 minutes)<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"tick\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cHow does this compare with your situation?\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"tick\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Discovery questions and conversation \u2013 10, 20 or 30 minutes \u2013 as long as is comfortable<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"tick\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Brief focused demo (brief Technical Proof demo, in Great Demo! methodology vocabulary)<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"tick\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">More Discovery questions and conversation<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"tick\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Another brief focused demo segment, if appropriate<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"tick\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Repeat as needed\u2026<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Your objective is to gain a clear and complete understanding of your customer\u2019s situation \u2013 partly so that you can put together and deliver a more substantive focused (Technical Proof) demo, if needed \u2013 and partly so that your\u00a0<em>customer<\/em>\u00a0is comfortable that you have a sufficient understanding of their situation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Discovery is done partly for you, the vendor \u2013 and partly (largely!) for the sake of the customer.\u00a0 Customers are typically unwilling to accept a solution if they feel the vendor has an insufficient understanding of what they believe is their unique, specific situation.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #000000;\">One Guideline and\u00a0<em>Two<\/em>\u00a0Ideas?<\/span><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">For those of you who were paying attention and counting, you\u2019ll note that I promised one guideline and two ideas \u2013 it looks like I owe you one more idea, so\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Vision Generation demo described above assumes that you have a reasonable understanding of your customer\u2019s top challenges before the meeting.\u00a0 However, what if you\u00a0<em>don\u2019t<\/em>\u00a0have a good idea of your customer\u2019s main problem areas?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Consider using the Menu Approach to identify customer challenges and topics of main interest. (The Menu Approach article on my website at<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\"> <a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/the-menu-approach-a-truly-terrific-demo-self-rescue-technique\/\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Menu Approach \u2013 A Truly Terrific Demo Self-Rescue Technique<\/a> describes how to put this into practice in detail \u2013 you can browse for it or simply send me an email and I\u2019ll send you the article.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Menu Approach presents the customer with a list of high-probability topics of interest \u2013 and invites the customer to choose which topic(s) are of most interest to them.\u00a0 You can then transition to a corresponding Situation Slide and use an appropriate Illustration or two for each topic \u2013 delightful!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Note that the Menu Approach can be applied on-the-fly during the meeting \u2013 or you can send a Menu of topics (with brief textual description of each topic) to your customer ahead of time and ask them to rank the topics in terms of importance to them: \u201cHigh\u201d, \u201cMedium\u201d, or \u201cLow\u201d \u2013 and send the list back to you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">This \u201cself-Discovery\u201d exercise enables you to target the \u201cHigh\u201d importance topics for crisp Vision Generation demos and to drive the Discovery conversation in accord with what is perceived as most important by the customer.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #000000;\">But Wait:\u00a0 There\u2019s More<\/span><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Finally, here are a few additional ideas you may find useful \u2013 or at least amusing!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">A colleague of mine, when asked to \u201cjust show us an overview demo\u201d by his customers, responds, \u201cI\u2019d be happy to \u2013 our overview demo takes about 2 hours for each product \u2013 and we have a pile of products.\u00a0 When would you like to schedule this?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">When receiving the same request (\u201cjust show me an overview\u201d), another colleague tells the customer, \u201cOh, do you\u00a0<em>really<\/em>\u00a0want me to show-up-and-throw-up?\u00a0 Spray-and-pray?\u00a0 Take you on a tour of an Ikea?\u00a0 You really\u00a0<em>want<\/em>\u00a0a Harbor Tour demo?\u201d\u00a0 After the laughter dies away, he says, \u201cI can either torture you for a few hours of overview demo \u2013 or we can invest a few minutes of discussion to focus in on what you want.\u00a0 Your choice\u2026!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Another Great Demo! practitioner described the \u201cSerial Serving\u201d analogy.\u00a0 He told the customer, \u201cWell, asking me to do an overview demo is like asking me as a waiter in a nice restaurant to just start bringing dishes of food to your table \u2013 and let me know when you get something you like\u2026\u00a0\u00a0<em>Or<\/em>, I can show you a menu of what we offer, so that you can see what is possible for your meal and then\u00a0<em>choose<\/em>\u00a0what is most interesting to you!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Vision Generation \u2013 An Encrispened Demo<\/span><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">A Vision Generation demo is designed to provide the customer with\u00a0<em>just enough<\/em>\u00a0demo\u00a0for the customer to be willing to invest more time with you.\u00a0 Four minutes of Vision Generation may be all that is needed to start a substantive conversation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Just think:\u00a0 if you are able to reduce your traditional overview demos from 1 hour down to 4 minutes, what delightful (and more productive) activities could you use that time for?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Copyright \u00a9 2016 The Great Demo \u2013 All Rights Reserved<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is a Vision Generation demo?  It is just enough demo to generate a vision in the customer\u2019s mind that a solution to a business challenge is possible \u2013 and to enable a Discovery conversation to take place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,8,10,21],"tags":[6,7],"class_list":["post-29082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aweful_demos","category-great-demo-blog","category-methodology_basics","category-vision_generation","tag-articles","tag-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29082"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47477,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29082\/revisions\/47477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}