Tech Demo Guy

Why is it that Sales Engineers do a great job for some Salespeople and not for others? What can a Salesperson do to get the best possible performance out of their Sales Engineers. Although the talent of the Sales Engineers you work with will vary (I will do another post on how to get the best Sales Engineers assigned to your deals) you can follow these tips to get the most out of what you have:

1. Treat them like they are special.

There are times when you may need a stellar performance in the demo to seal the deal. Or you may need a Sales Engineer to complete a long (but important) RFP. But even when the Sales Engineer is not critical to the deal (e.g. a deal where political connections are more important than product functionality) you still need to treat them as if they are special. Most Sales Engineers see themselves as the “talent” with a special set of skills and a role that requires ability to sell AND deep technical/product knowledge. They are typically well-connected in the company they work for (because they deal with so many different departments) and since they are on display at customers on a regular basis they are sensitive to their reputation. It may be annoying to ask them politely to take on work that you feel is just part of their job, but it will pay back dividends when you really need their help on a difficult deal.

2. Learn how to brief them before a demo

I have only encountered a handful of Salespeople who have mastered this skill; you will be among the very best if you can do it consistently. Briefing a Sales Engineer (or any team member) before a demonstration or presentation is a critical role for the Salesperson. You are the quarterback as well as the coach on the deal, and the team members will be looking to you to call the plays. A great briefing outlines the roles for every individual, what you need the Sales Engineer to accomplish, and what topics should be avoided during the demo or presentation. A briefing should also determine who takes on what questions and identify any key individuals that will be present from the prospect side.

3. Tell them what outcome you want, not what they should show

Although, as a Salesperson, you may think you know what the Sales Engineer should show in their demo, you should focus more on what you want to impress on the prospect and pass that advice on to the Sales Engineer (as part of your briefing). For example, rather than saying, “Let’s make sure to show them the scheduling administration screens” you could say, “There will be a couple of managers in the room that are going to want to know how easy it is to manage staff schedules. Let’s make sure they come away convinced it is easy and powerful”. This gives the Sales Engineer the information they need without boxing them in too much. This is part of the trust mentioned earlier: tell them the desired outcome and let them figure out how to get there.

4. Help them get set up for the demo or presentation

When a Sales Engineer arrives at a prospect site they often have a lot to deal with: setting up projectors, getting their demonstration equipment prepared, teleconference setup and arranging the room all require focus from the Sales Engineer. The more of these tasks you can handle, the better. Even if you can’t help with the task at hand, you can assist by keeping the prospect off of the Sales Engineer until they are completely set up. Getting them water, snacks or just asking what they need during this often stressful time will score you points for Rule #1.

5. Handle all non-technical tasks during the demo

Whether it is documenting the list of follow-up items, keeping track of time or writing down the names of attendees, if there is something you can do as a Salesperson that does not require the skills of the Sales Engineer, then you should do it. Although they may be menial tasks, they will free up the Sales Engineer to focus more on the thing that they do best: impressing the prospect with the value of your solutions.

6. Make sure they can work the room at the breaks

A good Sales Engineer will want to get feedback and inside information from the prospect during the breaks. As soon as there is a break you should ask the Sales Engineer if there is anything they need. Short of going to the bathroom for them, you should handle calls, water, taking notes, etc.. so that they can focus on interacting with the prospect. A good Sales Engineer can quickly build credibility with the prospect and they will want to talk honestly with them 1:1. Don’t let this great selling opportunity go by just because the Sales Engineer had to make a call that you could have handled for them.

7. Give them direct, honest feedback, but only after you have won them over.

My favorite Salespeople were those that gave me clear and direct feedback on how things went after a demonstration. They did not pull punches and gave me their perspective on what they saw in the presentation. But to accept that feedback I first had to have a sense of trust with the Salesperson, and understanding that the feedback was meant to be constructive and was about winning more deals. If the Salesperson was new (or new to me) and hammered me after a demo, I was unlikely to want to work with them in the future. So building that trust (by following rule #1) first allows you to give criticisms that will be heeded.

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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):

1. “Can you show that thing you did yesterday?”

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.

2. “Let me introduce Dave who is an expert in…”

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.

3. “I just heard from Product Management yesterday that we are going to add that feature in the next release…”

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”…

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The most obvious selling opportunity for a Sales Engineer is during a demonstration. But I have consistently found that talking to individuals during the breaks of a demonstration day is the most effective time to sell your product. Although we spend a tremendous amount of time preparing for demos, we often miss this real selling opportunity.
How can you use the breaks more effectively for selling? First off make sure to plan for several breaks during a demonstration, making sure to have one especially early in the schedule. For example if you have a 3 hour demonstration, plan to take at least two breaks of 10 minutes, one after an hour and another after two hours. Always plan to have a break (even a short one) within the first hour, no matter how long or short your presentation might be (okay, if you have a 1/2 hour presentation, you might not get a break into it).
Secondly you should use that break to get feedback from audience members. Ask your sales representative or other team members to do the same. The first question I always ask once I introduce myself during a break is:

“What do you think so far?”

This typically does not elicit much of a response unless they have a really strong opinion. Next you can move on with:

“Is there anything you saw that surprised you?”

This is a fairly neutral question because you are leaving open to whether it was a positive or negative surprise. A third question for the first break can be:

“What else do you want to be sure to see before the end of the day?”

This can help the presenter understand what areas they should focus on in the rest of the presentation. This certainly is not a replacement for doing good discovery, but often audience members may want to see specific things on the day of the demo.
Before the end of the break the sales team should regroup and deliver any critical feedback to the presenter. The presenter should then use that feedback to address the concerns of the audience members.
I often start up after the break with:

“During the break I heard something interesting from X that I would like to show you now in our product”

This shows that you were engaging with the prospect and want to incorporate their concerns. You should also take into account any other comments that you heard during the break, such as “it’s going too fast”. Rather than just slowing down, you might ask the audience whether they agree:
“I heard from a couple of you during the break that things were going a little fast. Do we all agree that I should slow things down a little?”
Remember that you don’t want to take just one person’s opinion as representing the group (unless you have identified that person as the key influencer). Always validate what you heard during the break with the entire audience if at all possible.
During later breaks you can be more forward in your discussions. For example during later breaks I would often ask:

“Was there something you saw from our competitor that you really liked/did not like?”

Talking about the competition is always a little risky, so doing it during the break limits the risks.
Another important use of later breaks is to understand the divisions and politics in the prospect. For instance, you could ask a business user:

“The IT Manager seemed concerned that we did not support Unix. Do you think that is a critical factor in deciding what software to buy?”

Although the obvious answer for a business user would be “I have no idea”, but it is more likely that they will give you some insights into the politics of the company (“Unix would be nice, but IT is going to support whatever we decide will meet our business needs”).
The other major benefit of using the breaks in this way is that it “humanizes” the Sales Engineer. Because we are often focused on building credibility and being seen as an authority (rather than a salesperson) SE’s can sometimes come off as matter-of-fact or aloof. By taking the time to talk to individuals during the break you can create a one-to-one contact that will be beneficial during the demonstration.
Later breaks can be used to validate next steps and identify key players. You can also use later breaks (once you have built up some credibility) to set traps for the competition.
The next time that you are preparing for a demonstration, make sure you strategize on how to handle the breaks. I always say that it’s the time when the real selling occurs.

dsohigian Demo Prep, Demo Skills, Selling demo, demonstration, sales engineer

As a Sales Engineer you depend on Sales Representatives for your success. Sometimes they are a great help during a demonstration, but sometimes they say some pretty dumb things. My first example is when a Sales Rep says to a Sales Engineer:

“Can you show that thing you did yesterday?”

Although your Sales Engineer may have done a spectacular demo yesterday and really wowed the customer, but that does not mean they can do the same thing again today. Your demo guy/gal may not want to show that thing because it is going to blow up today! Or, just as likely, they don’t think it will add to the demonstration (perhaps it is a feature that detracts from what the prospect is really looking for).
So what should you do if you saw a great demo yesterday that your SE seems to be forgetting? Your first choice should be talking to your SE before the demo and going over what they are going to show. Second choice would be to wait until a break to ask them or slip them a note during a lull in the presentation. And if you have to ask during the middle of the demo, then be prepared to be the cause of a disaster you will need to clean up later.

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This is something I learned a long time ago from the folks at Corporate Visions. Often we get really tough questions that can trip us up during a demo or presentation. By using a technique known as “Re-framing” (it comes from NLP) you can take the edge off of tough questions and often turn them in your favor. The core of the concept is to carefully consider the point of view of the question before you answer it. Then, during that pause, you can make sure to frame your response in a way that better addresses the question.

For example, let’s say you get the following question,”I did not see any way to extend your application using Java. Can you use Java to extend your application?”. You could answer this question with a straight technical response (“Yes, we provide several Java APIs as well as Web Services…”) or you could take it as an opportunity to reframe the question. By first pausing for a moment to think about your response and then asking a clarifying question such as,”Can you give me an example of how you might want to use Java to extend our application?”) you can make sure you are using the right frame-of-reference in your response. API’s and Integration may not be the answer they are looking for. Perhaps they are a Java junkie and just want to know their skills will be of use. Perhaps they have been told your application is Java dependent and prefer a .NET approach. But if you don’t clarify the question you won’t know their frame-of-reference.

After you ask for clarification you need to decide how you will frame your response. If the original question sounded technical (“Java?”) but really was emotional (“Java vs. .NET”) then you need to frame your response accordingly. You can turn potential pitfalls into benefits as long as you understand where the prospect is coming from. Stepping outside of your gut reaction to the question (“Oh no, not that question!”) and making sure you fully understand the prospects frame of reference can make all the difference.

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There are lots of mistakes that a Sales Engineer can make in a demo, but these, in my opinion, are the worst:

1. Show up and throw up:

This is a common mistake of experienced Sales Engineers. If you have done a lot of demos of your product you may be tempted to just show up at the demo without knowing much about what the prospect is looking for in your product. You may not have been given the chance to do proper discovery (see below). You might just be in too much of a hurry to slam out the demo and get on to more important things. But if you don’t customize your presentation and demo to each prospect then you might as well not do the demo to start with. I have also heard this called the “Stop me when you see something you like” approach to demonstrations and I know Sales Engineers that have made a career of it. You can win deals with this approach, but you will win more if you know exactly what the prospect values and can demonstrate your product’s ability to meet their needs.

2. Prepare too much

Lots of Sales Engineers seem to think that it is impossible to prepare too much for a demo, but I disagree. You can definitely go overboard when it comes to preparation, especially if you either focus too much on one feature/function or try to meet ALL the prospects stated needs. A demonstration should be proof of your applications ability to meet the needs of the prospect. If you try to cover all the requirements outlined in an RFP or demo script rather than focusing on some key items first, you will probably spend way too much time preparing. And if you do an equally mediocre job on all the sections of a demo script you will be judged much more harshly than if you knock it out of the park on several and miss entirely on a couple. Focus your attention to limit the required preparation.

3. Fail to dry run

I already have a post on the importance of dry runs, but I am always amazed at how often sales teams skip them. They win demos and you should do them!

4. Get too little sleep

This goes along with “prepare too much”. Being well rested and ready to present on demo day is more important than tweaking that last slide or changing the color of that button. Know when to say when and get a full night of sleep before your demo.

5. Skip discovery

Although this is often not under the control of the Sales Engineer, experienced pre-sales people know how to push for discovery. Preparing your presentation based on what you hear from a sales rep, or worse, from your educated guesses based on previous customers, is a mistake. Good discovery reduces the amount of preparation required (see above) AND often results in fewer demos because you show them just the stuff they are interested in (avoiding the “show up and throw up” problem).

6. Take too long to show product

This ties in with my post on the 30 second demo. People who come do a demo want to see product. If the sales rep stands up and talks about your company for 1/2 an hour and then you get up and discuss the demo scenarios, requirements, etc.. for another 1/2 hour, then the prospect is left squirming in their seats for an hour. Do yourself a favor and show something, anything, in your product as early in the demo as possible.

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I use the term “Sales Engineer” on this blog and thought that a clearer definition of the job would be in order. There are many names for Sales Engineers (more on that in a minute) but the basic job definition is (from wikipedia):

The role serves to bridge the gap between sales acumen and engineering expertise.

Software and hardware are often complex products that often require a great deal of technical knowledge to understand. Sales Engineers have the technical knowledge to explain technology while still helping to sell the product.

An analogy might help. Imagine you are going into a purchase a new set of speakers for your stereo. You walk into a retail store and tell one of the sales representatives that you are looking for some bookshelf speakers to put up in your living room. He shows you several options but it quickly becomes clear as you ask more technical questions (how big are the drivers? What is the average max watts these can take?) that the sales rep is fairly new and does not know how to answer your questions. Instead, he turns to one of the more experienced reps and she is able to answer all your technical questions in detail. At the same time she subtly sells the benefits of one system based on the needs you have stated. When it comes time to make the purchase she hands it back over to the first sales rep who takes care of getting your equipment, trying to sign you up for a warranty and getting your checked out.

The role of the Sales Engineer is similar to the second, more knowledgeable sales rep (although they don’t actually have a division of roles in retail sales). She did not “make the sale” but she assisted by providing technical knowledge applied to describe the benefits of the speakers. I don’t mean to imply that all sales reps are inexperienced (they are not) but they often don’t have the technical knowledge to deal with many of the questions that come up in high-tech sales.

There are many varieties of Sales Engineers and the role is often defined by the types of products being sold. Most of my work has been in what is known as “Enterprise Software Sales” (bullspeak for selling software used by big companies) which has several roles in Sales. My titles have included:

• Sales Consultant
• Solution Consultant
• Pre-Sales Consultant
• Technical Evangelist
• Technical Sales Consultant
• Functional Sales Consultant

These titles (also a form of bullspeak, IMO) are just a small sample of the job titles that fall loosely under Sales Engineering. I would say that “Pre-Sales” is the term that is the best umbrella for the work of Sales Engineers. The term “consultant” is often used when selling business software (such as ERP, CRM, and other “Back Office” software) while “Engineer” is more common when selling IT-based hardware or software.

There is another division of labor amongst Sales Consultants in particular: Functional vs. Technical. I have worked as both in my career (which is a little unusual), but the jobs are very different in the background required. A “Functional” or “Business” Sales Consultant is responsible for describing what the product does, while a “Technical” Sales Consultant describes how it does it.

An example: when selling Human Resources (ugh, more bullspeak) software, there might be people from HR wondering how they can screen job applicants using the software. The Functional Sales Consultant would show the HR staff how applicants would enter their information and what the results would be for HR (i.e. online application results in screened applicant based on keywords). But if the IT staff at the prospect wanted to know how that screening was accomplished, they would probably turn to the Technical Sales Consultant for the answer (i.e. “we use google’s search algorithm to find your specified search terms”).

On a really complex sale you can get a lot of different sales consultants. Companies selling ERP software (like Oracle and SAP) are often described as “pulling up in a bus” when they show up for a sales call because of the number of people required to explain their products. Often there are many sales consultants on these deals, each with a different specialization.

Sales Engineering requires a unique blend of technical (or product) knowledge along with the “soft skills” to help in making a sale. Like many other Sales Engineers I love how the job requires both technical aptitude and sales ability.

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One of my signatures in product demonstrations is to start with a “30 second demo”. In most cases this is a demonstration of a key feature of the software, such as a simple configuration, that I do right at the start of my presentation. There are a lot of good reasons to start a presentation in this way.
When I say, “the start of my presentation”, I really mean at the very beginning, even before I introduce myself. Studies have shown that people are most focused at the start and end of an activity, including a presentation. The first few minutes of a presentation are critical, and often wasted on introductions of both individuals and companies. To take advantage of this phenomena, the first words out of my mouth once I am introduced are:

“Hi, before I get started, I wanted to show you something quickly”

Then I dive right into the application and show a 30-second demo of one key feature that I want to highlight. Immediately after that, without pausing to allow for questions:

“My name is Dave Sohigian, and that is just one quick example of the power of our applications. We’ll refer back to what you just saw in that demo as we go through these topics…”

Here is an example (actually about 45 seconds) showing how to add a plugin to WordPress:

Where you go from here is up to you, but the point is to get the product in front of the prospect as early as possible. In the example above I could refer back to this quick “demo” whenever there were gaps in WordPress functionality that required a plugin (“you already saw how easy it would be to add a plugin…”).

The 30-second demo accomplishes many things:

• Shows them product while their attention is very high at the start of the presentation
• Gives them comfort that they will see your product before the end of the demonstration
• Many people that attend a demo are itching to see how the product performs. Although it is very useful to give them a context for your demonstration and you need to build your credibility with an effective introduction, there will be people in the audience getting impatient right from the start. “Would you just do the demo?” you can almost hear them saying during the obligatory company introduction and list of key features. By doing a demo, even a ridiculously short one, you can put these people at ease so that they are more likely to hear your initial message.
• Ensures that everyone sees the product, at least a little.
• Often people come and go during a demonstration, but most try to at least make it to the beginning. By doing a quick and effective demo you can ensure that everyone will have a chance to see something powerful about the application.
• Avoids starting at the beginning This post from Kathy Sierra at Passionate Users outlines how you should start “after chapter one” in your presentation, and doing a quick demo does just that. You get to the compelling stuff first and add a bit of mystery about where you are going right from the start.

So instead of making your audience squirm in their seats while they “wait” through your introduction and setup slides, why not just give them a quick taste of what is to come. Try it in your next demo!

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Developers love to write code. Testers love to break stuff. And Sales Engineers love to demo. But sometimes more code is not the answer, further testing won’t help and a demo can be a bad idea. In fact, avoiding a demo of your product is probably the best thing you could ever do in a sales cycle.
Coming from a Sales Engineer this probably sounds like heresy. Don’t demo’s make or break a sale? Aren’t Sales Engineers heavily trained and well paid so that they can perform this critical duty? Yes, and yes, but the fact remains that demos are more often a liability than an asset in the sales cycle. In 7 years of watching and doing demonstrations, I have been to only a small handful where I feel that they had a dramatically positive effect on the sale. Don’t get me wrong, I have seen some great demos, and even done one or two that I am proud of myself. But a great demo will NEVER get a prospect to sign a contract. And, unfortunately, a bad demo can definitely get them to change their mind about a product. That is probably the best reason to get highly-trained Sales Engineers and pay them well: bad ones can sink a lot of deals.
In my career I can only think of one deal where a demo I delivered got the prospect to the point of wanting to sign a contract. I was showing integration of PeopleSoft to a VB application using Microsoft .NET. Sounds boring, but since the prospect was Microsoft, and they were stunned that we could do such a thing at the time, it had an amazing effect on the audience. I was told that one of the architects from Microsoft was literally bouncing in his seat during the demo. Before that demo we were an also-ran in the deal. After we were moving quickly towards contract negotiations.
But here is why I say that demo’s don’t win deals: even after delivering an incredible demo, we did not end up closing the deal. Things got hung up in contract negotiations and we ended up walking away from the deal. There are so many factors that go into a successful sales cycle, and the demo is often just a footnote that takes a lot of preparation and work.
One of the best salesman I ever worked with came from Sales Engineering. He had risen through the ranks of Pre-Sales and eventually decided he wanted to carry a bag. You might think that he would tend to focus on the demo, since that was his background. But he took the opposite approach, using his knowledge of the product to fully describe its benefits during client meetings. During his first 6 months as a sales rep, he didn’t set up a single demo but closed enough business to be the Rookie of the Year at the company.
That salesman realized an important reality about demos: they carry high risk and little upside. Although they are often required during a sales cycle (like RFP’s) salespeople who make them the focus are taking unnecessary risks. It can be tempting to push the customer to see a demo, especially when you have great Sales Engineers, but the best sales people avoid them whenever possible. The only thing riskier than a demo is a “conference-room pilot”, which I will talk about in another post.

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Often during a competitive sales cycle there is the opportunity to decide whether you want to go before or after your competition. Although I have heard no end of theories from sales reps on this one, my experience is that you need to answer some questions before you decide which position you want to be in.

Does your prospect understand the functionality/technology of your application space?

Are there specific traps you can set up for your competition?

Is the prospect open to talking about the competition?

Some customers, as you know, are rigorous about their selection process and won’t talk about the competition at all during the sales cycle, while others are an open book. If they are willing to talk, then going later is a good choice because you can get the dirt on what your competition blew. This is the opposite of setting traps: overcoming the obstacles that thwarted your competition.

Are they using a rating scale?

Do you need more time?

Is the time of day of the presentation affected by your decision?

Is your product better than the competition?

Are there LOTS of other vendors?

dsohigian Selling competitive, demonstration, presenetation, Selling