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More Auto-Demo Hell – A “Customized” Recorded Demo?
Should a recorded or canned demo by “customized”? Interesting and tough challenge…!
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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
More Auto-Demo Hell - A "Customized" Recorded Demo?
Should a recorded or canned demo by "customized"? Interesting and tough challenge!
By definition, recorded demos are not customized for any specific customer. However, an
attempt to create a single recorded demo that embraces the needs and situations of a range
of prospects with different job titles in differing markets is likely doomed to fail.
Example: Consider CRM demos that try to cover the needs of salespeople, sales
management, and marketing. Sales management is most interested, typically, in forecast
accuracy and transparency - which relies upon data entry by salespeople. A demo that
shows a rep entering a pile of pipeline information (deal size, key players, likely close date,
probability, deal stage, etc.etc.) will likely please the VP of sales but annoy the sales reps.
Similarly, the above scenario does little to help a marketing manager charged with
executing lead generation campaigns - her demo needs to speak to the results and
processes of campaign execution and management.
In summary, recorded demos need to be "customized" at least to address relevant market-
and job-title specific situations. Recorded demos that show no apparent effort to customize
are likely to:
1. Be perceived as insulting by the customer ("we are not all alike")
2. Will result in more work for the vendor to get the same business ("I didn't see what
I needed in your demo - and it appeared to be inflexible")
3. Violates nearly every customer-centric principle (and certainly the core principles
of the Great Demo! method)
When I'm working with customers to help with their recorded demos (e.g., hosted on their
websites), I recommend a Menu Approach to lead each individual prospect to the specific,
generically-customized demo that matches that customer's industry and job-title. That
means, potentially, multiple recorded demos as opposed to a single demo that hopes to
somehow embrace everyone.
Does this mean that you need to generate recorded demos for every target job title and
market? Yes and no
Page 1 of 2 Copyright 2008 The Second Derivative. All Rights Reserved 4/8/2008Yes; in that the prospects should perceive that they have been led to a demo that is
specifically relevant for them. No; you should expect that the situations for many job titles
will be reasonably homogeneous across markets - providing the ability to leverage one
recorded demo across those markets. (You'll need to be careful/clever about what data is
used). Often, you can apply different voice-overs to one core demo to lend the appearance
of a recorded demo that has been customized for a specific target audience.
The perception that a recorded demo has been created specifically for an audience can truly
accelerate the sales cycle!
Copyright © 2008 The Second Derivative - All Rights Reserved.
For more articles 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 2 of 2 Copyright 2008 The Second Derivative. All Rights Reserved 4/8/2008
1538 Winding Way
Belmont, CA 94002
Phone: +1 650 631 3694
PCohan@SecondDerivative.com
www.SecondDerivative.com
www.DemoGurus.com
Peter E. Cohan, Principal
More Auto-Demo Hell - A "Customized" Recorded Demo?
Should a recorded or canned demo by "customized"? Interesting and tough challenge!
By definition, recorded demos are not customized for any specific customer. However, an
attempt to create a single recorded demo that embraces the needs and situations of a range
of prospects with different job titles in differing markets is likely doomed to fail.
Example: Consider CRM demos that try to cover the needs of salespeople, sales
management, and marketing. Sales management is most interested, typically, in forecast
accuracy and transparency - which relies upon data entry by salespeople. A demo that
shows a rep entering a pile of pipeline information (deal size, key players, likely close date,
probability, deal stage, etc.etc.) will likely please the VP of sales but annoy the sales reps.
Similarly, the above scenario does little to help a marketing manager charged with
executing lead generation campaigns - her demo needs to speak to the results and
processes of campaign execution and management.
In summary, recorded demos need to be "customized" at least to address relevant market-
and job-title specific situations. Recorded demos that show no apparent effort to customize
are likely to:
1. Be perceived as insulting by the customer ("we are not all alike")
2. Will result in more work for the vendor to get the same business ("I didn't see what
I needed in your demo - and it appeared to be inflexible")
3. Violates nearly every customer-centric principle (and certainly the core principles
of the Great Demo! method)
When I'm working with customers to help with their recorded demos (e.g., hosted on their
websites), I recommend a Menu Approach to lead each individual prospect to the specific,
generically-customized demo that matches that customer's industry and job-title. That
means, potentially, multiple recorded demos as opposed to a single demo that hopes to
somehow embrace everyone.
Does this mean that you need to generate recorded demos for every target job title and
market? Yes and no
Page 1 of 2 Copyright 2008 The Second Derivative. All Rights Reserved 4/8/2008Yes; in that the prospects should perceive that they have been led to a demo that is
specifically relevant for them. No; you should expect that the situations for many job titles
will be reasonably homogeneous across markets - providing the ability to leverage one
recorded demo across those markets. (You'll need to be careful/clever about what data is
used). Often, you can apply different voice-overs to one core demo to lend the appearance
of a recorded demo that has been customized for a specific target audience.
The perception that a recorded demo has been created specifically for an audience can truly
accelerate the sales cycle!
Copyright © 2008 The Second Derivative - All Rights Reserved.
For more articles 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 2 of 2 Copyright 2008 The Second Derivative. All Rights Reserved 4/8/2008
