How to make a compelling demo every time

Demos are one of the core competencies of being a Sales Engineer. Every customer-facing SE has done at least one demo in their career... most of us learned how the business works by doing them. But, like everything we have to do that's repetitive, it can get old over time. I can't even tell you how many phone screens I've done over the years with senior SEs who tell me "oh, no... I don't do demos anymore... you don't have junior SEs or sales people who take care of that part?" Erm... no.

I believe it takes great skill to learn something new and to master it, but it takes FAR more skill to keep the edge sharp on something you've already mastered. To me, calling yourself a great SE and not doing demos is like saying you are an excellent pastry chef but you don't make the batter. Sure, sometimes you'll have a sous chef, just like occasionally you'll have a junior SE do a demo, but if you don't enjoy doing it, you aren't practicing the craft in it's entirety. 

Far more often than this, I run into SEs who still do demos, but begrudgingly so. And I get it... you're at an early or mid-stage company that's trying to train junior salespeople on how to book activity... and you're on your 5th unqualified, woody demo of the day. Trust me, I've been there... it's rough. By the time 3 o'clock rolls around you're getting a bit snippy with your AEs and you're slugging back that last cup of coffee you always regret. You probably have Facebook and a few other time-wasters opened in a browser window on your other monitor, thinking about your commute, wondering what your friends are doing... you're BORED. 

If you're at this point, chances are your demos have been fairly shitty for awhile now. Usually the first indication that you're heading in this direction happens shortly after you memorize your demo script and find your own spin on it that works (around 3 mos in, usually). Once you've found your groove, you start to get lazy and go on autopilot... then it's an avalanche of mediocrity from there. When you're lazy, you're not paying attention or asking the right questions. If you're not asking the questions, the prospect isn't engaged. If the prospect isn't engaged, chances are they're probably doing the exact same fucking thing you're doing right now... looking at a slideshow of the 10 worst child-star celebrity train-wrecks on buzzfeed or something. It goes without saying this is a MASSIVE waste of time for everyone involved, but how do you beat the boredom? How do you get excited about something you've already done hundreds of times and will probably do thousands more of before you're done?

The hard truth is, if you're bored doing demos it's your own damn fault... period. 

Some of the biggest mistakes I see SEs make are reading slides, not asking questions, and regurgitating the same content over and over again the exact same way. Don't get me wrong, the demo script is there for a reason, let it be known one of the keys to becoming a great SE is to read and memorize what others have built before you BEFORE you add your own spin to it. The reason for this is not so you can just chug thru the script verbatim for every demo you do, it's so you can nail down the CONTENT, then build variations on it to make it more compelling for the prospect. It's like riding a bike... you shouldn't do wheelies until you can ride in a straight line for a bit. 

So reading slides... I'm not going to belabor the point of how sleep-inducing this is, but if you have to read your own slides or say things like "as you can see on this slide", you may as well just put down your headset and go take a nap because that's what your prospect is doing. Instead of reading, ask questions about the slides. Pick a talking point on the slide and ask "do you ever deal with <insert point here> in your day to day?" It's a win-win for getting more information. If they say yes, then dig into it; if they say no, then you can respond "interesting, most folks I talk to in your shoes deal with that all the time. What does your day-to-day look like?" Worst case scenario, you get them talking and you learn something. 

This feeds right into my next point... not asking questions. I actually call this out on my demos before I even start presenting. I'll say something like: 

"my intention is to figure out whether or not my product is a fit for your environment. If it is, that's excellent; we'll figure out a package and I'll help you deploy it. If it's not, that's ok too; I wouldn't sell you anything you don't need. In order to keep my comments relevant to what's going on in your world, I like to have an open dialogue so feel free to ask me any questions you have and I'll do the same. Does that sound good?" 

If I don't get a verbal "yes" in one form or another, I will say "No problem. We have a huge library of videos on the website you can sift through and our marketing team runs a great webinar every Wednesday. My AE will reach out in a few weeks to check and see how that goes... if you like what you see we can try this again at a later date." and kick it back to sales.

This probably seems like a dick-move, but in actuality it's really not. If the prospect doesn't want to talk to me, having me pepper in questions and them feeling uncomfortable answering is an unproductive use of time. They will be much more engaged watching a non-interactive video than sitting there biting their fingernails hoping I won't talk at them. There's also a right and a wrong way to ask questions, which I will get to in a future post. 

The last piece is keeping your material fresh. This piece is different, because it's as much for you than it is for your prospect. Sure, they'll benefit from topical anecdotes and new feature release information about your product, but you will benefit arguably even more because you will draw energy from new content. This can be anything, to be honest. Maybe you inject a story about a previous call you had with a different prospect that will lay up a value-add for your product:

"I was just on a call with another guy earlier this week who was scanning all 8000 devices in his network BY HAND. "

 then try a question

"How big is your network? Does it take you that long to scan your devices?" 

Blogs are also a great place to get fresh material. If your company has a blog, grab a quote or an idea from one of the thought-leaders in your company and find an appropriate place to inject in your demo cadence. I have a plethora of blogs and news sites I check every morning to start my day with new hotness.

Lastly, on the other end of that phone is a person. Just TALK to them. Some of the best demos I've ever given were ones where I never shared a single slide. They're expecting to see your product, but the dirty little secret is there's probably lots of products that do what yours does. Customers don't buy products just because of the product, they buy the product because they like the people who are selling it to them. Don't be a demo donkey.

The SE Spectrum (A philosophical quandary)

Sales Engineering is a fence, I've always said it. On the one side, you have the sales side of the job... The other obviously engineering. Every SE I've ever worked with falls on one side or the other, but never all the way in one direction, and that's the way it's supposed to be. Inherent in being a SE is you can't be a Tea or Green Party candidate, you have to fall somewhere in the middle (otherwise you' d just be a sales person or an engineer).

The good news is there's no right or wrong way to be a SE. Some of the best SEs I've known are more backend-focused and fall very far on the engineering side of the spectrum. Others, (like many of my mentors) love being on the phone with customers and are more on the sales side. It all depends on what you want in your career. I find that that most of the "architect" level SEs are further on the engineering side and a majority of the "evangelist" type SEs are more on the sales side. The key is to figure out what you want and start making decisions to help you head further in that direction. Most of you that are younger in the game probably aren't quite sure what you want yet. I can tell you that early in my career I flip-flopped quite a bit with my decision.

Many of you know my first gig was in a vulnerability assessment company, which in the beginning gave me topical access to network infrastructure data and I could do basic scans and tell network engineers what patches they needed to apply. It wasn't exactly lighsaber duels, but as I learned the SE craft it was the perfect amount of technical for me to practice my technique and build confidence. Then one day that company bought an open-source penetration testing tool, and I was gobsmacked. All of a sudden I had access to something that could do really cool shit. Rather than telling someone they needed a Microsoft hotfix or something, I could break into vulnerable machines and screenshot their desktop! Huzzah! 

I became so enamored with this tool, I decided I wanted to make it my core competency. I studied it, developed an entire demo and trial process for it, I even designed marketing material and a presentation cadence for trade shows. It was awesome... Until I got my paycheck. In my exuberance for this new product I had completely overlooked the fact that the average sale price of my new toy was $16k a pop, vs close to $100k for the VA solution. Don't get me wrong, the time I spent was definitely worth it. Because of the time I spent with the new product I increased my technical chops 10-fold, got face-time with some far more technical folks, and was able to attend some far more interesting conferences.

I was at an inflection point with my career. I could continue down the technical path and potentially get really good with the new product and enjoy the new and interesting world that came with it... Or I could go back to the other side and help out my bank account. I spoke with my friends and colleagues about it, and my mentor at the time gave me some advice that impacts my career decisions to this day. He told me:

"Ask yourself, what it is about this new product that has you so enamored? Is it the new product and technology, or is it learning something new and developing a new process around it?"

It was then I realized I had my first point of reference on the SE spectrum... And it was on the sales side of the divide. I thought the new product was cool, but what I really enjoyed was the ability to analyze the market, figure out the audience, and develop a new way to engineer the sale. The big divining rod I gained from this experience was:

Don't let any one product dictate your direction as a SE.

We all work for labels, and unless you plan on staying at one company for the rest of your life, it bodes well not to focus all of your energies on one particular product. Widgets will come and go... Figure out your relative place on the spectrum and hone your craft.