#163 A Tactical Presales Guide to Prepare for a Powerful Demo

Notes:

Chris Colburn is the co-founder of Demostory.io, a browser built for Sales Engineers for doing live sales demos. Chris started out doing live demos for high 6 and 7 figure deals and has been giving large live enterprise software sales demos.

In this episode, Chris discusses how to prepare for a demo – from the discovery to setting up the right systems, practice, and figuring out which areas to focus on. Discover how to go from a demo jockey to giving skilled, engaging presentations focused on helping customers with their technical challenges and solving problems.

Key Takeaways:

What drew Chris the most into demo preparation
How long it takes to prepare for a demo
The first thing Chris does when a demo is scheduled or blocked off the calendar
Building out scenarios after uncovering all the necessary data from discovery
How to approach a situation when a feature or specific function cannot be done
Setting limitations and working with your AE
How to build trust with your customers via the qualified no
Cutting the fat, eliminating unnecessary details that don’t take you from point A to B
How to come up with great stories to tell
Practicing saying the demo out loud
What prompted him to co-found Demostory.io

Quotes:

07:19 “It’s hard to be an expert in everything but as you go through that process of building it out and making sure it works just right, you’re also kind of refreshing your skillset on that. A big part of your demo is gonna be the questions you get asked and being able to freestyle a little bit, so if you get in there, configuring for those scenarios ahead of time gives you a very fresh perspective on exactly how those features work.” – Chris Colburn

08:28 “Getting on the same page with the AEs around the stuff you can’t do is really important.” – Chris Colburn

09:31 “You don’t wanna get too work-around heavy because you could start going down that solution rabbit hole, which is a big no-no.” – Chris Colburn

09:47 “There isn’t one product that can do everything that you want. Because then you’d buy one software for the entire company… It’s our job to highlight how we can do this better, how we can actually help them bypass those other aspects.” – Ramzi Marjaba

15:50 “Part of this just comes down to being a storyteller and understanding what details matter and what don’t.” – Chris Colburn

16:11 “It’s going back to what is the problem you’re solving, and the details that don’t matter as much in solving those problems, you need to show less.” – Chris Colburn

16:31 “Sometimes I like to even over-demo the first or second feature I’m showing so I can build credibility, so later in the demo, a yes is enough.” – Chris Colburn

23:40 “You just gotta find one thing you can relate with someone on, and then it’s very easy to build that human connection, whether that’s sales or internally.” – Chris Colburn

42:15 “Figure out what makes you the best demo-er, we’re all different. Even if we were given the same piece of software, we’d do it in different ways, different styles and mannerisms. So figure out what makes you really good and put that in your process.” – Chris Colburn

44:43 “Every successful person I know is overprepared, they make it look easy but they’re just overprepared, she could’ve written that about SEs.” – Chris Colburn

47:45 “My number 1 job is to kill that demo.” – Chris Colburn