3 Things salespeople should NEVER say during a demo
If you have worked for a while in pre-sales, supporting salespeople by showing a prospect your software applications, then you know there are times when salespeople will say the darnedest things. Here is my partial list of “never say this during a demo” for the salespeople I have worked with (and I am sure they have a list of “never do this!” for me as well):
- “Can you show that thing you did yesterday?”
- “Let me introduce Dave who is an expert in…”
- “I just heard from Product Management yesterday that we are going to add that feature in the next release…”
I will could do an entire post on why this one is a bad idea, but the short explanation is that your demo guy/gal may not want to show that thing because it is going to blow up today! If you want to see a demo of something, ask before the presentation.
Most Sales Engineers I know don’t like the word expert and all that it implies. It is just setting us up for our credibility being knocked out later in the presentation. Better to talk about experience, years with the company, or just let us introduce ourselves.
For a Salesperson to be effective they have to build trust. For a Sales Engineer to be effective they need to build credibility. Undermining a Sales Engineer’s credibility during a demonstration by pointing out a mistake they made is counter-productive. It’s not an ego thing – Sales Engineers are wrong all the time and need to learn from their mistakes. A better approach is to wait until the break and discuss it directly with the Sales Engineer. Besides, you may have misunderstood what the Product Manager meant by “new feature”…
Great Post Dave,
I have seen many demos go up in flames with the: “show them this” line!
Here are 3 things that FAEs should never say:
The price is…
The deliver is…
You are doing it wrong, how did your process get so messed up
Thanks
pat
@Pat – Agreed on all three suggestions for SE’s (what does FAE stand for? I assume it is yet another name for the role of Sales Engineer). I have managed to avoid saying the first two because I have tried my best to stay clueless about price and delivery! The third one I have done more than once, much to my detriment (as well as the deal’s). BTW, I am subscribed to your blog – great stuff!
Hi Dave,
Thank for following my blog!I am subscribed to yours as well.
FAE stands for Field Applications Engineer.
It can get crazy, for example: Is SE for Sales Engineer or Sales Exec! I have seen both used.
Thanks
pat
Very true and thanks for posting. As a sales person and sales engineer, I have definitely been asked to show the “thing” and sometimes you are just not prepared to show it due to some legite reason. I come back with, I will be glad to schedule a webinar or come back to show you the “thing”..:-) Usually this works…
Keep it coming Dave. I enjoy reading your blogs.
@Carmen – That’s a useful tip for when you are caught in that situation. It accomplishes two things: diverts attention from the “thing” AND puts the sales person on notice that they need to watch what they say (because they may have just forced having yet another demo…).