Articles
Stunningly Awful Demos – Debilitating Demo Diseases - Part 2
Blackberry Consumption
Symptoms: Sales rep sitting in the back of the room completely focused on his/her Blackberry; severely
swollen thumbs; impaired ability to communicate in complete, grammatically-correct sentences.
Examples: Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-
tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap…– huh?
Cure: Actively engage in the demo presentation; choreograph the team members’ roles before the demo
begins. For example, the sales rep’s role is to:
1. Perform the introductions and review the meeting objectives.
2. Present and review relevant Situation Slides and accompanying Illustrations.
3. Help to manage and capture “Good” (and “Stupid”) questions on a whiteboard or Word document.
4. Redirect audience attention away from the scene of the disaster after a software crash or severe bug.
5. Summarize when appropriate and/or inject pauses in the delivery.
6. Identify next steps and summarize the overall meeting.
Feature Pox
Symptoms: Presentation of waaaaaaaay too many features and capabilities. Severe boredom, ennui, and
sleeping may ensure in the customer’s ranks. Other symptoms include stifled yawns, furtive glances at
wristwatches and – in one documented case – a customer getting up from the table to physically bang his
head on the wall…!
Examples: “Let me go through each of the tabs across the top in order…”
Cure: Reality Pills, taken 4 times daily. Present only the Specific Capabilities needed by the customer to
address the problem. Hold everything else back.
Crickets
Symptoms: The sound in the room after the presenter asks, “So, are there any questions so far?”
Examples: Chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp….
Cure: Encourage, drive and generate interactivity. Turn the demo from a one-way presentation into a two-
way conversation. Involve the customer. Ask “closed-probe” questions. Confirm interest. Invite the
customer to “drive”. Pause occasionally and summarize at the end of each section. Fumigate as needed.
Clairvoyance Annoyance (aka Premature Elaboration)
Symptoms: Prescience. Answering questions before they are completed because you’ve heard them all
hundreds of times before. Causes severe annoyance in customers. The appearance of great
embarrassment, flushing and jackass ears on the presenter may also occur.
Examples: Customer: “Does it run on…”
Cure: Zip it – and let the customer ask the full question. Listen intently. Ask for clarification, as needed.
Parse as to whether the question is a Great Question (answer it right away), a Good Question (queue it up
for later) or a Stupid Question (also queue it up for later). Manage Q&A professionally using a “Not Now
List” or “Parking Lot”.
Overscriptosis – Hardening of the Demo
Symptoms: Following a rigid vendor-created demo script, regardless of the needs or interest of the
customer. Difficulty in determining if the demo is live or recorded, even with the presenter’s mouth moving
in the front of the room.
Examples: “Let me check my script for the next thing I need to show you…”
Cure: Inject Reality, intravenously. Invest in sufficient qualification and discovery with the customer to
determine what Specific Capabilities are desired. Show these, only, following the Great Demo!
methodology:
1. Review the customer’s Situation
2. Present an Illustration of the end result
3. Do It (prove it in the fewest number of steps)
4. Peel Back the Layers in accord with the customer’s interest
5. Manage questions
6. Summarize
Vacuuosititis – Cluelessness in Marketing Roll-out Demos (aka Feature Rash)
Symptoms: A rash of features and non-specific, buzzword-compliant benefit statements. Atrophied,
disconnected, narcoleptic audience reaction. Snoring.
Examples: “Now I’ll show you our new biframulator tool, designed to save time and money.
Cure: Apply Get-A-Clue™ topically. Gather Informal Success Stories from existing customers, pre-release
and beta sites, and apply liberally to the affected presentation. Replace feature-orientation with Critical
Business Issue/Solution scenarios. Repeat as necessary until feature rash disappears.
Auto-Demo Hell – Cluelessness in Recorded Demos
Symptoms: See Vacuuosititis, above. Additionally, victim assumes that all prospects have the same
problem, the same challenges, and the same objectives. Victim attempts to create a “one-size-fits-all”
demo in spite of serving multiple markets and job titles. Viewers habitually drop-out of the 20 minute
recording after only 2 minutes. Victim delusion and hallucinations may occur, signified by calling this a
“highly qualified, hot lead”.
Examples: “Click here to watch our product demo.”
Cure: Create a cocktail of Informal Success Stories; then distill carefully to recover the High-Probability
Sales Situations. Craft focused, specific demos for each targeted Sales Situation and provide a Menu to
prospects browsing to guide them to the relevant Sales Situation by Job Title and/or Industry. Note:
symptoms may reappear with each new software release.
Rampaging Pronouns – Too Many Fictional Characters
Symptoms: Demo begins by introducing Mike the Manager, Eunice the End-User, Veronica the VP, Andrew
in Accounting, Sally the Sales Director, and Ike from IT. Presenter immediately loses track of which
pronoun to use: I, you, he, she, them, they, um, hmmm. Audience immediately loses patience. Sales rep
loses deal, misses quota, and suffers Terminus Abruptus.
Examples: “Next, I’ll show you how Eunice enters the account information, which you can use to calculate
the total so she can add the new lines which I need for the next section.”
Cure: Apply restraints; purge excess pronouns (may be painful – Pro-No™ and Pronoun-Be-Gone® are
two products often recommended and can be purchased over-the-counter). Replace with “you”, exclusively.
Atrophied Communication (aka CRM Refusal) – Pre-Call Inadequacy
Symptoms: Sales rep communicates key pre-call information in the car on the way to the customer, in the
customer’s parking lot, or in the customer’s lobby.
Examples: Sales rep: “Oh, by the way, you need to show them the new biframulator tool – I promised them
that we’d show it today.”
Cure: Take two cell phones (or Blackberries) daily. Use to communicate pre-call information as needed –
well before the demo is scheduled.
We hope this compendium helps you to diagnose and treat your own team. If this is an emergency or you
feel you need a specialist, please contact us right away.
Blackberry Consumption
Symptoms: Sales rep sitting in the back of the room completely focused on his/her Blackberry; severely
swollen thumbs; impaired ability to communicate in complete, grammatically-correct sentences.
Examples: Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-
tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap…– huh?
Cure: Actively engage in the demo presentation; choreograph the team members’ roles before the demo
begins. For example, the sales rep’s role is to:
1. Perform the introductions and review the meeting objectives.
2. Present and review relevant Situation Slides and accompanying Illustrations.
3. Help to manage and capture “Good” (and “Stupid”) questions on a whiteboard or Word document.
4. Redirect audience attention away from the scene of the disaster after a software crash or severe bug.
5. Summarize when appropriate and/or inject pauses in the delivery.
6. Identify next steps and summarize the overall meeting.
Feature Pox
Symptoms: Presentation of waaaaaaaay too many features and capabilities. Severe boredom, ennui, and
sleeping may ensure in the customer’s ranks. Other symptoms include stifled yawns, furtive glances at
wristwatches and – in one documented case – a customer getting up from the table to physically bang his
head on the wall…!
Examples: “Let me go through each of the tabs across the top in order…”
- “And next I’ll show you our context-sensitive help system…”
“Here are the 17 file export options – I’ll go through them one by one…”
Cure: Reality Pills, taken 4 times daily. Present only the Specific Capabilities needed by the customer to
address the problem. Hold everything else back.
Crickets
Symptoms: The sound in the room after the presenter asks, “So, are there any questions so far?”
Examples: Chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp….
Cure: Encourage, drive and generate interactivity. Turn the demo from a one-way presentation into a two-
way conversation. Involve the customer. Ask “closed-probe” questions. Confirm interest. Invite the
customer to “drive”. Pause occasionally and summarize at the end of each section. Fumigate as needed.
Clairvoyance Annoyance (aka Premature Elaboration)
Symptoms: Prescience. Answering questions before they are completed because you’ve heard them all
hundreds of times before. Causes severe annoyance in customers. The appearance of great
embarrassment, flushing and jackass ears on the presenter may also occur.
Examples: Customer: “Does it run on…”
- Presenter: “Yes! We support Vista, Windows XP and some older versions of Windows, including
the MS Office products on each of those platforms, including Office 97, Office 2003, Office 2007 and
all of the current and ‘compatibility’ file types.”
Customer: “…Macintosh?”
Presenter: “Oh. No.”
Cure: Zip it – and let the customer ask the full question. Listen intently. Ask for clarification, as needed.
Parse as to whether the question is a Great Question (answer it right away), a Good Question (queue it up
for later) or a Stupid Question (also queue it up for later). Manage Q&A professionally using a “Not Now
List” or “Parking Lot”.
Overscriptosis – Hardening of the Demo
Symptoms: Following a rigid vendor-created demo script, regardless of the needs or interest of the
customer. Difficulty in determining if the demo is live or recorded, even with the presenter’s mouth moving
in the front of the room.
Examples: “Let me check my script for the next thing I need to show you…”
- “Hang on a moment, I need to find my place in the script…”
Cure: Inject Reality, intravenously. Invest in sufficient qualification and discovery with the customer to
determine what Specific Capabilities are desired. Show these, only, following the Great Demo!
methodology:
1. Review the customer’s Situation
2. Present an Illustration of the end result
3. Do It (prove it in the fewest number of steps)
4. Peel Back the Layers in accord with the customer’s interest
5. Manage questions
6. Summarize
Vacuuosititis – Cluelessness in Marketing Roll-out Demos (aka Feature Rash)
Symptoms: A rash of features and non-specific, buzzword-compliant benefit statements. Atrophied,
disconnected, narcoleptic audience reaction. Snoring.
Examples: “Now I’ll show you our new biframulator tool, designed to save time and money.
- “Next I’ll present all of the new capabilities we’ve put into the new release – shouldn’t take more
than two hours…”
Cure: Apply Get-A-Clue™ topically. Gather Informal Success Stories from existing customers, pre-release
and beta sites, and apply liberally to the affected presentation. Replace feature-orientation with Critical
Business Issue/Solution scenarios. Repeat as necessary until feature rash disappears.
Auto-Demo Hell – Cluelessness in Recorded Demos
Symptoms: See Vacuuosititis, above. Additionally, victim assumes that all prospects have the same
problem, the same challenges, and the same objectives. Victim attempts to create a “one-size-fits-all”
demo in spite of serving multiple markets and job titles. Viewers habitually drop-out of the 20 minute
recording after only 2 minutes. Victim delusion and hallucinations may occur, signified by calling this a
“highly qualified, hot lead”.
Examples: “Click here to watch our product demo.”
Cure: Create a cocktail of Informal Success Stories; then distill carefully to recover the High-Probability
Sales Situations. Craft focused, specific demos for each targeted Sales Situation and provide a Menu to
prospects browsing to guide them to the relevant Sales Situation by Job Title and/or Industry. Note:
symptoms may reappear with each new software release.
Rampaging Pronouns – Too Many Fictional Characters
Symptoms: Demo begins by introducing Mike the Manager, Eunice the End-User, Veronica the VP, Andrew
in Accounting, Sally the Sales Director, and Ike from IT. Presenter immediately loses track of which
pronoun to use: I, you, he, she, them, they, um, hmmm. Audience immediately loses patience. Sales rep
loses deal, misses quota, and suffers Terminus Abruptus.
Examples: “Next, I’ll show you how Eunice enters the account information, which you can use to calculate
the total so she can add the new lines which I need for the next section.”
Cure: Apply restraints; purge excess pronouns (may be painful – Pro-No™ and Pronoun-Be-Gone® are
two products often recommended and can be purchased over-the-counter). Replace with “you”, exclusively.
Atrophied Communication (aka CRM Refusal) – Pre-Call Inadequacy
Symptoms: Sales rep communicates key pre-call information in the car on the way to the customer, in the
customer’s parking lot, or in the customer’s lobby.
Examples: Sales rep: “Oh, by the way, you need to show them the new biframulator tool – I promised them
that we’d show it today.”
- Presales Person: “Oh – that’s too bad; I don’t have it on my machine. Why didn’t you ever answer
my email messages asking what we know about the account and what we need to show?!!”
Cure: Take two cell phones (or Blackberries) daily. Use to communicate pre-call information as needed –
well before the demo is scheduled.
We hope this compendium helps you to diagnose and treat your own team. If this is an emergency or you
feel you need a specialist, please contact us right away.
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