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The Great Demo! Top Ten List
Here are ten steps you can take to improve the success rate for your demos:
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The Second Derivative
1538 Winding Way
Belmont, CA 94002
Phone: +1 650 631 3694
PCohan@SecondDerivative.com
www.SecondDerivative.com
www.DemoGurus.com
Peter E. Cohan, Principal
The Great Demo! Top Ten List
Here are ten steps you can take to improve the success rate for your demos:
1. Be clear on the Objective for the demonstration.
Why are you doing the demo? Is it Technical Proof or Vision Generation; or is it "Spray
and Pray"? Hope is not a strategy! You must know what you want to accomplish before
you begin and plan your meeting with that objective in mind.
2. Be clear on your Customer's Needs.
What are the Critical Business Issues, Key Problems, or Objectives your customer wants to
address? Incredible as it may seem, your customer may not be as in love with your
software as you are! They simply want to solve their business issues. If you don't know
your customer's business issues, then you may need to freeze your hand on your mouse and
start asking questions before launching into a demo.
3. Reconfirm the Meeting Objective and Time Constraints at the start of the meeting.
This apparent courtesy serves to manage surprises and help you stay in alignment with your
customer. How many times have you started a demo only to learn that you have only half
the time you thought you had? How often has the customer brought a larger group of
people of see the demo than you expected? Investing a few minutes at the beginning of the
meeting to reconfirm the time constrains and review the customer's objectives can help you
"rescue" a meeting otherwise headed for disaster!
4. Show the "What" first, then follow with the "How".
Illustrate what good things your offering will do to help the customer address their key
issues as the first thing in the demo. Once they see that your offering can potentially help
them, then you can reveal how the capabilities in your offering accomplish this. If you
spend 30 or 40 minutes telling a story to get to a final "pay-off" screen, you may find your
audience has "checked-out" - and that the key people have left before you reached the big
benefit message. Instead, show them right up-front what business problems your tools will
help your customer address. Your customer will become engaged right away and will drive
the demo forward.
Page 1 of 3 Copyright 2007 The Second Derivative. All Rights Reserved 2/28/20085. Show only the Specific Capabilities needed to address the customer's problems.
This is not product training; it is a critical step in the sales process. Don't show all of the
file types you can open, nor all of the various search options, or formatting choices. Stick
with the directly relevant facts. You can lose business by showing too much or taking too
long. Sales have been lost because "the software looked too complicated" in the eyes of
the customer.
6. Reveal your capabilities in layers, in accord with the customer's level of interest.
First, show the route to achieve the desired result with the fewest number of mouse clicks
(the "Do It" pathway). This proves your capabilities and helps build a vision in your
customer's minds: they can visualize themselves using your software. Then, as your
customer asks questions, you can drive deeper to show more relevant breadth of the
Specific Capabilities desired (the "Peel Back the Layers" pathways). Note that the highest-
ranking audience members may only need to see the "Do It" to be convinced.
7. Manage Questions.
Answer Great Questions right away as they move your demo forward and underscore the
value your tools provide. Address Good Questions, however, at the end of the demo.
Don't let Good Questions or Hostile Questions drive you off track. Queue them up using a
"Not Now" list or "Parking Lot" and address them during a Q&A session. Good questions
represent one of the greatest risks to an otherwise well-prepared demonstration.
8. Manage Bugs.
The likelihood of a bug appearing is directly proportional to the importance of the
demonstration…! Ignore Cosmetic Bugs; it is highly likely that the customer never saw
them - so don't call them out! For Serious Bugs, don't repeat them! Don't go back and
"try it again", as they will likely repeat! Instead, acknowledge the bug and move beyond it,
describing what the audience should have seen. If appropriate or needed, you can try going
back to show the capability later. Deal with crashes the same way.
9. Manage your Delivery.
Stay in alignment with your audience's level, interests, and vocabulary. Map your pace
and language according to locale, technical acumen, etc. Avoid colloquialisms when out of
the country (or in certain parts of the U.S!). Be human and inject humor as appropriate; be
as passionate, compelling and remarkable as possible!
Page 2 of 3 Copyright 2007 The Second Derivative. All Rights Reserved 2/28/200810. Manage your Infrastructure.
Ensure that your equipment, software, and materials are ready to go before you demo.
Ensure that anything you need from the customer is ready similarly. You only need to
forget an item once…!
Follow these "Top Ten" guidelines to increase the likelihood of achieving your goals with
your demos. When you do these ten simple things, you should expect your audience to say,
"Wow! That was a Great Demo!"
Copyright © 2007 The Second Derivative - All Rights Reserved.
For more articles and offerings on demonstration effectiveness skills and methods, visit
our website at www.SecondDerivative.com. For demo tips, best practices, tools and
techniques, join the DemoGurus Community Website at www.DemoGurus.com or explore
our blog at http://greatdemo.blogspot.com/.
Page 3 of 3 Copyright 2007 The Second Derivative. All Rights Reserved 2/28/2008
1538 Winding Way
Belmont, CA 94002
Phone: +1 650 631 3694
PCohan@SecondDerivative.com
www.SecondDerivative.com
www.DemoGurus.com
Peter E. Cohan, Principal
The Great Demo! Top Ten List
Here are ten steps you can take to improve the success rate for your demos:
1. Be clear on the Objective for the demonstration.
Why are you doing the demo? Is it Technical Proof or Vision Generation; or is it "Spray
and Pray"? Hope is not a strategy! You must know what you want to accomplish before
you begin and plan your meeting with that objective in mind.
2. Be clear on your Customer's Needs.
What are the Critical Business Issues, Key Problems, or Objectives your customer wants to
address? Incredible as it may seem, your customer may not be as in love with your
software as you are! They simply want to solve their business issues. If you don't know
your customer's business issues, then you may need to freeze your hand on your mouse and
start asking questions before launching into a demo.
3. Reconfirm the Meeting Objective and Time Constraints at the start of the meeting.
This apparent courtesy serves to manage surprises and help you stay in alignment with your
customer. How many times have you started a demo only to learn that you have only half
the time you thought you had? How often has the customer brought a larger group of
people of see the demo than you expected? Investing a few minutes at the beginning of the
meeting to reconfirm the time constrains and review the customer's objectives can help you
"rescue" a meeting otherwise headed for disaster!
4. Show the "What" first, then follow with the "How".
Illustrate what good things your offering will do to help the customer address their key
issues as the first thing in the demo. Once they see that your offering can potentially help
them, then you can reveal how the capabilities in your offering accomplish this. If you
spend 30 or 40 minutes telling a story to get to a final "pay-off" screen, you may find your
audience has "checked-out" - and that the key people have left before you reached the big
benefit message. Instead, show them right up-front what business problems your tools will
help your customer address. Your customer will become engaged right away and will drive
the demo forward.
Page 1 of 3 Copyright 2007 The Second Derivative. All Rights Reserved 2/28/20085. Show only the Specific Capabilities needed to address the customer's problems.
This is not product training; it is a critical step in the sales process. Don't show all of the
file types you can open, nor all of the various search options, or formatting choices. Stick
with the directly relevant facts. You can lose business by showing too much or taking too
long. Sales have been lost because "the software looked too complicated" in the eyes of
the customer.
6. Reveal your capabilities in layers, in accord with the customer's level of interest.
First, show the route to achieve the desired result with the fewest number of mouse clicks
(the "Do It" pathway). This proves your capabilities and helps build a vision in your
customer's minds: they can visualize themselves using your software. Then, as your
customer asks questions, you can drive deeper to show more relevant breadth of the
Specific Capabilities desired (the "Peel Back the Layers" pathways). Note that the highest-
ranking audience members may only need to see the "Do It" to be convinced.
7. Manage Questions.
Answer Great Questions right away as they move your demo forward and underscore the
value your tools provide. Address Good Questions, however, at the end of the demo.
Don't let Good Questions or Hostile Questions drive you off track. Queue them up using a
"Not Now" list or "Parking Lot" and address them during a Q&A session. Good questions
represent one of the greatest risks to an otherwise well-prepared demonstration.
8. Manage Bugs.
The likelihood of a bug appearing is directly proportional to the importance of the
demonstration…! Ignore Cosmetic Bugs; it is highly likely that the customer never saw
them - so don't call them out! For Serious Bugs, don't repeat them! Don't go back and
"try it again", as they will likely repeat! Instead, acknowledge the bug and move beyond it,
describing what the audience should have seen. If appropriate or needed, you can try going
back to show the capability later. Deal with crashes the same way.
9. Manage your Delivery.
Stay in alignment with your audience's level, interests, and vocabulary. Map your pace
and language according to locale, technical acumen, etc. Avoid colloquialisms when out of
the country (or in certain parts of the U.S!). Be human and inject humor as appropriate; be
as passionate, compelling and remarkable as possible!
Page 2 of 3 Copyright 2007 The Second Derivative. All Rights Reserved 2/28/200810. Manage your Infrastructure.
Ensure that your equipment, software, and materials are ready to go before you demo.
Ensure that anything you need from the customer is ready similarly. You only need to
forget an item once…!
Follow these "Top Ten" guidelines to increase the likelihood of achieving your goals with
your demos. When you do these ten simple things, you should expect your audience to say,
"Wow! That was a Great Demo!"
Copyright © 2007 The Second Derivative - All Rights Reserved.
For more articles and offerings on demonstration effectiveness skills and methods, visit
our website at www.SecondDerivative.com. For demo tips, best practices, tools and
techniques, join the DemoGurus Community Website at www.DemoGurus.com or explore
our blog at http://greatdemo.blogspot.com/.
Page 3 of 3 Copyright 2007 The Second Derivative. All Rights Reserved 2/28/2008
