Building a Business Value Demo

OR

How to give a better pre-sale demonstration

Alec Clews http://alecthegeek.wordpress.com

Voga Consulting Services http://voga.com.au

Talking about

Why we do it

What to do

How to do it

Traps and Pitfalls

How to avoid (some of) the problems

Technology and tips

What we are NOT going to talk about

Presentations

(But of course many of these ideas apply to presentations, as well as how to write your curriculum vitae)

Basic talking and listening techniques

This is no magic wand

Your demo must reflect you and your values

No one size fits all

I'm just one guy, so you teach me as well please

Why do we do it?

Add value for ourselves

Make a sale

By giving value to the customer

Understand and Manage the business

Do more better and faster

Save money

Value is $$$$$

But more on that later

Problem No 1

People have short attention spans and only hear what they want to hear

SO

Assume customers have IBS and will leave after 10 minutes

SHOW THE VALUE EARLY

Be specific about the value

This is one way our customers are saving 15%---30% of their development costs

This customised report shows customer satisfaction trends over time so that you discover what works and make improvements

These tailored alerts give you feedback on your security exposure, when server changes occur, so you can remediate immediately

Problem No 2

People hate lies, or what they think are lies

SO

Discover the customers PAIN FIRST then relate to your VALUE offering

Be Credible

Don't lie! EVER!

Know your Product or Service and the Market

OK

That's all folks

the rest is just details...

but that of course is where the Devil lives...

What is value?

MONEY

Which is either

Understand and Manage Business

Do more, better and faster

Save Money

(or Risk management, Competitive advantage, Cost reduction)

Show the Value Early

Start with reports and other information

Oh no. Reports are boring!

They're important to the guy with the budget!

Show and then describe, how the product is useful and easy -- VALUABLE

Relate it back to the customer's pain

Have a structured demo plan

ALWAYS follow your plan

You can get lead down the wrong way very easily

Vary the pace, emphasis and words to suit the current situation

Be good enough to start using the local terminology

Helps you maintain control and authority

Stay focused on the VALUE

Problem no 3 Nerd in the Room

Can derail your demo plan in 15 seconds flat!

Does it use Perl 5.10 specific features?

Our standard is to use DBIx::Class

CAREFUL might be a key influencer

Be as water

Deflect

Postpone

Seek to understand fully (Leads back to 1)

e.g. 'Why is that important you you?'

Problem no 4 It's FAB baby!

The Old, Easy, Way (the perceived wisdom)

Features

Advantages

Benefits

The New Way

It's all about the VALUE

Example of FAB

What you say

'These screens are blue with black text'

'Makes it easier to avoid re-key errors'

'Saves on time, mistakes and costs'

What they think

We don't use blue anywhere else?

I wonder if the other vendor forces us to have blue?

What time is lunch?

We need to show Pain and Value
e.g.

'Accepted costs for re-key errors are 20% of total and major cause is poor UI design'

'These screens are designed to minimise operator fatigue and errors'

'Preliminary results suggest 10-12% saving off the bottom line cost'

'From our discussions earlier it sounds to me as if you are in a similar position. Do you agree?'

The demo

Repeats the sales messages about VALUE

Through the medium of a working product and

In the context of the prospects needs

Importance of Language

Use their language or jargon

Connect your ideas to their mental map

Demonstrate the business value & costs

2008 Digital Business Group Pty Ltd

The entire enterprise 2.0 implementation must be congruent with other internal & external messages, otherwise it will seem strange to staff and other stakeholders. It is also very hard to bolt on a totally new image or cultural practice onto an existing set of imagery and cultural practices. This is all about authenticity to your brand, culture and people. Also it is easier for people to accept new initiatives if they are connected to things with which they are already familiar. Thus it can benefit adoption of the enterprise 2.0 initiative to connect it to existing branding and communications. Above all the whats in it for me (W.I.F.M.) factor is critical we need to show people why participating in the new initiative will benefit them both professionally and personally.

Problem 4 Leading ourselves astray

People ask questions and have agendas

We want to be helpful

OOPS our message is destroyed and we lose control

So:

Work answers into current demo

Offer to follow at the end

Offer a follow up meeting

Demo should be like an onion

Show how great the Value is

Reports and business information...

Then show how easy it is for users

Transactions and ...

Show how low the support impact is

Configuration, Security, ...

Aim to finish after reports!

(Peeling back the layers 1 by 1)

Traps and Pitfalls

Focusing on the appearance or architecture of the product

Talking about the configuration and set-up first

Qualifying every answer with technical detail

Showing every feature in the product and giving product training

Selling our knowledge instead of the product

Showing something we are not sure of

Problem 5: Having no hard edges

If a product (or service) has clearly defined 'edges' then it's easy to show value

Large products with soft edges are hard to show which value are we selling?

Make your own edges

Edges may change depending on customer needs careful thought and practice...

Need multiple demo plans to show appropriate value

Compare MediaWiki vs. TikiWiki

Focus on the application on top of the platform/framework/tool set

Tips and Tricks

Use Virtual Machine technology

Protects precious demo from external changes

Makes set-up easy and fast

Use a fixed specific data set you know

Practice and refine, again and again and...

After every demo ask

Three good things

Three things to improve

Tips and Tricks 2

Beware cultural differences. e.g. My approach works in Australia but needs changing in India

Prepare by listening to the customer and make sure you know why they want to listen. Confirm your understanding. DISCOVERY

Use the customers language, not yours

e.g. machines vs. servers, iterations vs releases

Features can be presented as an opportunity to attack or a tactic to defend or both

Demo as a slide show

Showing a product as a set of screen shots, or outputs, and associated data can be a valid second choice:

UI is too small or hard to demonstrate live

No UI to show

Forces a large complex demo to stay on track

Back up in case demo fails on-site

As a handout but be very careful where it ends up

Key Takeaways

The Demo MUST

Address the PAIN

Show the VALUE

Be Credible

The boring bit

Alec's started in NCR UK pre-sale team in 1982

In and out of technical sales and consulting ever since

and project management, support, development, change control,...

Currently an independent consultant for Software Process and Tools

Business cards provided for modest fees

With thanks to:

My many friends and colleagues over the years including, but not limited to:

Paul Fenwick for help with OpenOffice

The sales team at Tripwire for improving my skills

Peter Rooke for being a sounding board

Kate Carruthers http://digbiz.com.au/ for material

The Sales Warrior blog for imagery (http://xrl.us/onbpi)

The really boring bit

This document is copyright 2008 Alec Clews

Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (see http://xrl.us/ondsh)

Further Information

http://delicious.com/alecclews/demos

Solution Selling training and books

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10/15/08

2008 Digital Business Group Pty Ltd