a Sales Consultants guide to presenting and demos

ECOMMERCEandB2B.COM | @justin_king 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 | Img source: http://francis-moran.com/author/anil/

A Sales Consultants guide to PRESENTING and DEMOS

By Justin King @justin_king

ECOMMERCEandB2B.COM | @justin_king 2

Complexity is your

enemy. Any fool can

make something

complicated. It is hard to make something simple.


As a Sales Engineer, your

expertise is whatever technology

or industry you are focused on.

However, your craft is communication.


This SlideDoc is focused on how we do our craft.

Visit duarte.com for

more info on SlideDocs


This is a compilation of my

reading of blogs, books and

my own experience. I will

give credit everywhere I can

for other peoples work.


A good Sales Consultant does 3 things really well:

1

2

3

presentation

demo

field questions



1

2

3

presentation

demo

field questions


The following couple of points come from

Don McMillan at technicallyfunny.com and

his Life after Death by Powerpoint video.

Watch it – it is funny.

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

PFYxx3o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbSPPFYxx3o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbSPPFYxx3o


outline ≠ slides


Instead of this…


Our software is the bestest because of:

1.Best Customer Experience

2.Business tools

3.Flexible and scalable


Do this…


Our software is the

bestest…

2. Business Tools 3. Flexible and

Scalable

1. Best Customer

Experience

ECOMMERCEandB2B.COM | @justin_king


• The next mistake is taking everything

you are going to say about the slide

and writing it on the slide. Although

this eliminates the need to memorize

your talk, ultimately this makes your

slides crowded, wordy and boring.

You will lose your audience’s

attention before you even reach the

bottom of your...


• Continued… first slide


( you or the slide )


Eliminate as much

text as you

possibly can


Don’t do this

ECOMMERCEandB2B.COM | @justin_king 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 | Img source: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/nickmalik/archive/2010/04/29/drawing-effective-technical-diagrams.aspx?Redirected=true


Don’t do the EYE CHART thing either

If you have say “this is a bit of an eye chart”, you are already wasting everyone's time

http://lifeoflewwho.wordpress.com/2012/08/15/the-biggest-little-things/


Instead of putting multiple images on a page

WITH lots of text too like…


Or stretching and pixelating the image like this…


How about this instead.


Figure out a way to tell a story.

Stories are entertaining.

Stories are memorable.

And being memorable is a successful

presentation.


Buy and read these books TODAY



1

2

3

presentation

demo

field questions

ECOMMERCEandB2B.COM | @justin_king 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 | Img source: http://www.bubblews.com/news/730378-movie-review-the-incredible-burt-wonderstone

Your demo should be a magic show


1. Well scripted and practiced

2. A memorable story line or humor

3. The story line and humor help draw attention

away from or to whatever the magician wants.

4. Builds tension and surprises the audience

5. Includes the audience at each step

6. Starts and finishes with an impressive trick or

feat


Take the time up front for

Discovery and Planning

ask questions and script out your demo

39


Like any great show we want to

grab their attention, build tension,

create twists, and end with

excitement and a payoff.


To do that: Show them the sizzle first

Then deconstruct how you got there

Show them the sizzle again


To do that: Show them the sizzle first

Then deconstruct how you got there

Show them the sizzle again

Build tension, like “we don’t believe that is real software” or “that is very different from how we have done things”

ECOMMERCEandB2B.COM | @justin_king 43 43 43 43 43 43 43 43 43 43 43 43 | Img source: http://www.goziplineusa.com///

Tension and twists help

keep your audiences

attention focused on

you the entire time. If

they don’t know what is

coming next, they will

pay attention. It is an

advanced presentation

skill, but amazingly

effective when you pull it

off.


Here are some things to do or not to do.


“Look how simple it is to do this”

Say this often


An excerpt from: http://greatdemo.blogspot.com/2012/01/practice-your-mouse-movements-all-time.html

For some people presenting demonstrations, moving the mouse smoothly and deliberately occurs naturally. For others, it can be a real challenge! Here’s a quick tip: practice moving your mouse as if you are delivering a demo all of the time. The “muscle memory” associated with constant practice will reward you when you are in the heat of a tough demo – and can’t invest time to think about how best to move your mouse. When we are mousing for ourselves, our mouse movements tend to follow the motion of our eyes. So, if we are hunting for a specific command or tool, as our eyes flit back and forth across the screen so does our mouse! Instead, think (first) about where we want the mouse to go, then move it smoooooothly and deliberately to that specific location. And don’t move it again until you’ve identified the next specific destination…!


Don’t describe

the labor, just show us the baby

ECOMMERCEandB2B.COM | @justin_king 48 48 48 48 48 48 48 48 48 | Img source: http://blog.munchery.com/2012/04/meet-chef-michelle-harrison/

saying we are going to move REALLY FAST through this next section

ECOMMERCEandB2B.COM | @justin_king 49 49 49 49 49 49 49 49 49 49 | Img source: http://audiohotsauce.com/art-installations-and-interactive-spaces-at-lightning-in-a-bottle/

While starting the meeting off saying it is going

to be interactive and all about THEM


Telling everyone about your

slow internet connection is

a waste of time

50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 | Img source: http://pchelpplanet.com/internet-slow-today/how-to-deal-with-slow-internet-connections//


Excerpts from SecondDerivative.com

1.“The Harbor Cruise” Be unclear on the Customer’s Needs. Offer and deliver a demo in the hope that your customer will see something of interest, eventually.

2. Present a Linear Demo from beginning to end: “Where is this going…?”. You can ensure the same awful fate for your customers by delivering long, linear demos that start at the beginning of a workflow and take forty or sixty minutes (or longer!) to finally reach the big pay-off screen.

3.“Death by Corporate Overview”. Make Number 2, above, even worse by starting the meeting with twenty minutes of your corporate overview. Regale your audience with your mission statement (yawn), your company’s formation and history (yawn), your revenues, office locations, markets, products, and that smorgasbord of customer logos (yawn, yawn, yawn, snooze…).

4. Don’t reconfirm the Time Constraints for the meeting: “Sorry, we’re out of time…”

5.Show as many Features as possible. Want to make your software appear as confusing and complex as possible? Want to find more ways to bore and torture your audience? It’s easy: show as many features and capabilities that you possibly can!

6. Show the same demo all the time. Ignore the fact that the VP in the room only wants a top-level overview of your offering and that the managers in the room are interested only in their portion of the process.

7.“But what about…?”. Letting questions divert your demo is an excellent way to ensure that you lose the customer’s key players early in the meeting and run out of time before you’ve gotten to your key points.

8.Let Bugs and Crashes consume you: “Gee, it’s never done that before…”. As a bonus, make sure that the balance of your team is sitting in the rear of the room doing email on their phones and not helping manage the audience.

9.“Ta-da… Any questions?” You’ve been demoing along for twenty or forty minutes and you finally get to your big pay-off screen – the key message. You present it for 500 milliseconds and then move swiftly to a PowerPoint slide that says, “Thank you”.

10.Avoid Summarizing: “And the next thing is…”. Roll along from section to section, through segment after segment, in a continuous verbal assault. Leave no pauses, offer no introductions and, by all means, don’t summarize after you complete an important segment.



1

2

3

presentation

demo

field questions

ECOMMERCEandB2B.COM | @justin_king 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 | Img source: http://www.ebay.com/sch/Altered-Art-Collage-/75570/i.html

Don’t build a

watch when

they ask what

time it is.


Yes or No is a

perfectly good

answer

ECOMMERCEandB2B.COM | @justin_king 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 | Img source: http://www.ebay.com/sch/Altered-Art-Collage-/75570/i.html


Objection creates opportunities


See and Hear Comprehend Satisfy Empathy Yes

Clarify

No

No

Verify Yes


Does anyone

have any

questions

for my answers? -Henry Kissinger

58 58 58 58 58 58 58 | Img source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/11/kerry-syria_n_3903888.html

ECOMMERCEandB2B.COM | @justin_king 59 59

ECOMMERCEandB2B.COM | @justin_king 60 60


Pivot and Bridge Statements



1

2

3

presentation

demo

field questions


1

2

3

presentation

demo

field questions

Sales is what we do, but a Consultant

is who we are.


@justin_king | [email protected]

thank you!

mailto:[email protected]

a Sales Consultants guide to presenting and demos

Business

Transcript of a Sales Consultants guide to presenting and demos