Posts filed under 'Demos'
August 26th, 2010
We put the interview I did with Floyd Tucker of DreamSimplicity about a month ago but in the last two days I have had two people comment to me directly and one tweet about my “three equations and three unknowns” answer:
@dorait Sean: Startups are trying to solve 3 equations with three unknowns – http://bit.ly/dq7Sqd
Here is the relevant excerpt from the transcript:
FLOYD TUCKER: [...] Can you tell me a little bit about the early customer stage?
SEAN MURPHY: We just spend a lot of time on this. It’s a very different sales style than you’ll see later on. It’s a conversational sales style. It’s much more about understanding the problem.
You’re trying to solve three equations, three unknowns:
- Are you talking to the right people?
- Do you have the right features?
- Do those features translate into benefits that are going to be useful to them?
Here are three strategies that founders often use to answer these three interrelated questions, the likely results that ensue, and how we help them make key adjustments to get early customers and early revenue.
Current Strategy: Demo the product to anyone who will sit still. And by demo I mean explain how the product works.
- Likely Result: On a statistical basis you may ultimately encounter a visionary customer who can intuit the benefits and determine that it’s worth the risk to work with you. One symptom we often see for this is that we ask a team how they have found their customers and they say that the customers have found them.
- Our Fix: This is also why we are huge fans of Peter Cohan’s “Great Demo” methodology (see Great Demo Workshop Sept-15 2010) because he addresses the need to talk to the right target about a problem they are interested in solving in a way that they understand by stressing a few key features.
Current Strategy: Talk to a number of target customers, compile a large wish list of features, return to BatCave and start work on a one year roadmap.
- Likely Result: The one year roadmap takes much longer than anticipated. But the founders don’t leave the BatCave until they are within two weeks to two months of running out of money.
- Our Fix: Trim the feature set to a minimum set that firms will pay for. Possibly offer consulting mixed with product licensing to enable engagement with an immature product to address cash flow issues. Get out of the BatCave for further conversations to discover and validate potential customers an ongoing basis.
Current Strategy: Talk to a number of target customers about a challenge they face (e.g. saving money, increasing productivity, reducing certain kinds of errors).
- Likely Result: When the prospect agrees that they have the need be unable to explain specific features that can actually achieve it, or be unable to explain how the particular person you are talking to would be accomplished in particular for the person you are talking to. This is the GEICO “Would you like to save money on your car insurance?” pitch without the ability to offer a quote specific to their car, driving record, and other relevant particulars.
- Our Fix: Focus very specifically on what your product capabilities mean for who you should talk to and how it will make a measurable difference in a problem or challenge they are willing to spend money to address. Adjust your target and connect the dots very quickly and specifically to the benefit. This is component of compelling demos is also covered in Peter’s workshop.
April 13th, 2010
A baker’s dozen of common mistakes that I have seen founders make in preparing, delivering, and evaluating a new product presentation/demo.
- Don’t keep giving the same presentation if it’s not working. I am surprised when I ask teams who have presented to two or three dozen prospects, “How has the presentation changed since the first time you gave it?” and I am met with blank looks.
- If prospects don’t understand your presentation it’s possible that you are talking to the wrong people but just as likely that there are serious problems with your presentation.
- Do not keep giving the same presentation if it’s not working. That’s not a typo, it bears repeating. Working means that you are not only getting expressions of interest but your sale is actually advancing. I know that when you talk to experienced sales folks that they will tell you that “sales is a numbers game” and you just have to keep pitching until someone decides to buy. There is one very important qualifier to the “numbers game” approach, and that is that you are using a presentation and sales approach that has actually been proven to work in a repeatable fashion.
- Give the demo to people you trust who can act as proxies for your target prospects. Ask them how to improve it. If someone introduces you to a prospect, be sure to reconnect and ask them how the prospect felt and what could be done to improve the presentation. The prospect may be much more willing to be candid with a third party that they trust; most folks don’t want to give bad news to you directly.
- A lukewarm response is the worst of all. You can’t get any feedback on what to improve–unless you were introduced by a third party you can ask for help– and the sale is not advancing.
- You can tell that the sale is advancing if you are learning more and more about the customer’s problem. The prospect gives you data to run a test. They ask for an evaluation license and can give you a timetable and a list of experiments that they want to run. If these things are not happening your presentation is not working.
- Before you give a demo, make sure that you can clearly state the prospect’s view of the problem they are hoping to solve with your software. Confirm this by stating it and asking you have understood their situation correctly. Don’t give a demo if you don’t understand the problem that they are trying to solve. A demo is not an opportunity to train someone on your software; it’s an opportunity to offer either a vision of a solution or proof that your software can solve their problem.
- If you have raised some money, perhaps in an angel round, do not take your investment presentation and use that to attempt to close business. I know it can be hard to believe that something that was so useful when talking to investors won’t have a similar powerful effect on prospects. But let me be clear: you need to throw your investment presentation away and start from scratch.
- Keep copies of each presentation that you give. Always have two people at a presentation. One to give it, the other to observe. They can trade off but one should always be watching the prospect(s) to determine what’s resonating and what isn’t. Take time after the presentation to de-brief and write your thoughts down. Save a copy of your notes with a copy the slide deck that you used.
- On the title page for your presentation you should include: key audience member(s), company name and date of presentation; these should also be burned into the footer of each page. Three benefits:
- It gives the impression of personalization and prior custom preparation. Doing this should force you to at least think through what’s needed for this particular audience.
- It’s the minimum information you will need to keep you various presentation distinct. This allows you to keep an archive of all of your presentation and watch how it evolves over time.
- If you are asked for a soft copy of the slide, provide a PDF version of the talk, instead of PPT, with this info burned into it then the audience is more careful about who they circulate it to.
- Include your company name, URL, and copyright on each slide. They may become detached from the deck.
- Probe for a date or impending event that may drive a decision. Be cautious of people who tell you that they need something “yesterday” since yesterday will never come.
- Always have an engagement checklist and implementation timetable (if only at a high level) ready. Rehearse presenting it but keep it in backup slides. Do not have the prospect ask you “what does it take to get started” and stammer out “I’m not sure, no one has ever asked that before.”
March 17th, 2010
Create and Deliver Surprisingly Compelling Software Demonstrations
“Do The Last Thing First” — the recipe for a Great Demo!
When: Friday, April 9, 2010
- 8:15 am – 5:00 pm
- Advanced Topics PM Session: 1 – 5pm (see below)
Where: Moorpark Hotel, 4241 Moorpark Ave, San Jose CA 95129
Cost: $560
This is an interactive workshop with Peter Cohan geared especially for you who demonstrate B-to-B software to your customer and channels. Bring a copy of your demo and be prepared to present it — we’ll help you turn it into a surprisingly compelling demo! AM Session Cost (includes breakfast, lunch, copy of Peter Cohan’s “Great Demo!” book):
This seminar outlines a framework for the creation and delivery of improved demos and presentations to enable increased success in the marketing, sale, and deployment of software and related products. Whether it’s face to face, in a webinar, as a screencast, or as a self-running demo the ability to present the key benefits of your software product is essential to generating prospect interest and ultimately revenue. Peter Cohan of The Second Derivative gives us the recipe for a Great Demo!
“I am confident that with the insights gained from your workshop we will land more customers in fewer iterations.”
Lav Pachuri, CEO, Xleron Inc.
“Peter Cohan’s Great Demo method really works. It helped us win DEMOgod, and it has allowed us to explain our offering much more clearly to prospects.”
Chaim Indig, CEO, Phreesia
(See “DEMOgod Winner Phreesia Praises Peter Cohan Training“)
ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Peter Cohan, Principal at Second Derivative
Community Web Site: www.DemoGurus.com
Peter Cohan is the founder and a principal of The Second Derivative, a consultancy focused on helping software organizations improve their sales and marketing results. In July 2004, he enabled and began moderating DemoGurus®, a community web exchange dedicated to helping sales and marketing teams improve their software demonstrations. In 2003, he authored Great Demo!, a book that provides methods to create and execute compelling demonstrations. The 2nd edition of Great Demo! was published March 2005.
Before The Second Derivative, Peter founded the Discovery Tools® business unit at Symyx Technologies, Inc., where he grew the business from an empty spreadsheet into a $30 million operation. Prior to Symyx, Peter served in marketing, sales, and management positions at MDL Information Systems, a leading provider of scientific information management software. Peter currently serves on the Board of Directors for Collaborative Drug Discovery, Inc. and the board of advisors for Excellin, Inc. He holds a degree in chemistry.
Peter has experience as an individual contributor, manage and senior management in marketing, sales, and business development. He has also been, and continues to be, a customer.
Agenda:
- 8:15 AM Breakfast & Registration
- 8:30 AM Workshop begins
- Noon Lunch & De-brief
- 1 PM Wrap up
Seating is Limited These are intensive sessions and we ask that you arrive at least 15 minutes before 8:30AM start time to ensure you will have a seat and won’t disrupt the session once it is underway.
PM Session: Advanced Topics
In response to requests for assistance on demo delivery we have added an afternoon session to our Great Demos workshop. If this is your first exposure to the Great Demo come for the morning and get a great overview of the methodology and stay for the afternoon if you would like an opportunity for more interactive training on advanced topics such as multi-solution, multi-player demonstrations, and vision generation demonstrations. The advanced topic session as covers real life issues like handling bugs, crashes, and time challenges.
This is an interactive workshop with Peter Cohan is only available to people who have already attended the morning session or a previous Great Demo session.
When: Wednesday March 17, 2010 1:00 – 5:00 pm
Where: Moorpark Hotel, 4241 Moorpark Ave, San Jose CA 95129
Cost $200 Register for the Advanced Topics
Advanced Topics Agenda:
- 1 PM Advanced Topics
- multiple solution demos
- presenting to a mixed audience with different needs or information requirements
- vision generation demonstrations
- handling bugs, crashes, and time challenges.
- 5 PM Wrap up
For more information: Theresa Shafer 408-252-9676 events@skmurphy.com
February 5th, 2010
Rescheduled due to illness to April 9, 2010 8:15 – 5:00opm
Special Offer for Groups and Organization Members
Discounts are available for members of Bootstrappers Breakfast, Business Marketing Association, Women In Consulting, and organizations sending three or more employees: please contact us for discount codes.
Create and Deliver Surprisingly Compelling Software Demonstrations
“Do The Last Thing First” — the recipe for a Great Demo!
When: Wednesday March 17, 2010 8:15 am – 5:00 pm
Rescheduled due to illness to April 9, 2010 8:15 – 5:00opm
Where: Moorpark Hotel, 4241 Moorpark Ave, San Jose CA 95129
This is an interactive workshop with Peter Cohan geared especially for you who demonstrate B-to-B software to your customer and channels. Bring a copy of your demo and be prepared to present it — we’ll help you turn it into a surprisingly compelling demo!
Cost (includes breakfast, lunch, copy of Peter Cohan’s “Great Demo!” book):
- Early Registration: $536
- After March 4: $560
This seminar outlines a framework for the creation and delivery of improved demos and presentations to enable increased success in the marketing, sale, and deployment of software and related products. Whether it’s face to face, in a webinar, as a screencast, or as a self-running demo the ability to present the key benefits of your software product is essential to generating prospect interest and ultimately revenue. Peter Cohan of The Second Derivative gives us the recipe for a Great Demo!
“I am confident that with the insights gained from your workshop we will land more customers in fewer iterations.”
Lav Pachuri, CEO, Xleron Inc.
“Peter Cohan’s Great Demo method really works. It helped us win DEMOgod, and it has allowed us to explain our offering much more clearly to prospects.”
Chaim Indig, CEO, Phreesia
(See “DEMOgod Winner Phreesia Praises Peter Cohan Training“)
|
About The Speaker: Peter Cohan, Principal at Second Derivative
Community Web Site: www.DemoGurus.com
Peter Cohan is the founder and a principal of The Second Derivative, a consultancy focused on helping software organizations improve their sales and marketing results. In July 2004, he enabled and began moderating DemoGurus®, a community web exchange dedicated to helping sales and marketing teams improve their software demonstrations. In 2003, he authored Great Demo!, a book that provides methods to create and execute compelling demonstrations. The 2nd edition of Great Demo! was published March 2005.
Before The Second Derivative, Peter founded the Discovery Tools® business unit at Symyx Technologies, Inc., where he grew the business from an empty spreadsheet into a $30 million operation. Prior to Symyx, Peter served in marketing, sales, and management positions at MDL Information Systems, a leading provider of scientific information management software. Peter currently serves on the Board of Directors for Collaborative Drug Discovery, Inc. and the board of advisors for Excellin, Inc. He holds a degree in chemistry.
Peter has experience as an individual contributor, manage and senior management in marketing, sales, and business development. He has also been, and continues to be, a customer.
Agenda:
- 8:15 AM Breakfast & Registration
- 8:30 AM Workshop begins
- Noon Lunch & De-brief
- 1 PM Advanced Topics
- multiple solution demos
- presenting to a mixed audience with different needs or information requirements
- vision generation demonstrations
- handling bugs, crashes, and time challenges.
- 5 PM Wrap up
Seating is Limited These are intensive sessions and we ask that you arrive at least 15 minutes before 8:30AM start time to ensure you will have a seat and won’t disrupt the session once it is underway.
For more information: Theresa Shafer 408-252-9676 events@skmurphy.com
January 18th, 2010
Create and Deliver Surprisingly Compelling Software Demonstrations
“Do The Last Thing First” — the recipe for a Great Demo!
When: Wednesday March 17, 2010
- AM Session: 8:15 am – 1:00 pm
- PM Session: 1 – 5pm Advanced Topics (see below)
Where: Moorpark Hotel, 4241 Moorpark Ave, San Jose CA 95129
This is an interactive workshop with Peter Cohan geared especially for you who demonstrate B-to-B software to your customer and channels. Bring a copy of your demo and be prepared to present it — we’ll help you turn it into a surprisingly compelling demo! AM Session Cost (includes breakfast, lunch, copy of Peter Cohan’s “Great Demo!” book):
Early Registration: $336
After March 4: $360
See also Feb 5 Announcement, Group Discounts Available for All Day Sessions
Update March 16: Rescheduled due to illness to April 9, 2010 8:15 – 5:00opm
This seminar outlines a framework for the creation and delivery of improved demos and presentations to enable increased success in the marketing, sale, and deployment of software and related products. Whether it’s face to face, in a webinar, as a screencast, or as a self-running demo the ability to present the key benefits of your software product is essential to generating prospect interest and ultimately revenue. Peter Cohan of The Second Derivative gives us the recipe for a Great Demo!
“I am confident that with the insights gained from your workshop we will land more customers in fewer iterations.”
Lav Pachuri, CEO, Xleron Inc.
“Peter Cohan’s Great Demo method really works. It helped us win DEMOgod, and it has allowed us to explain our offering much more clearly to prospects.”
Chaim Indig, CEO, Phreesia
(See “DEMOgod Winner Phreesia Praises Peter Cohan Training“)
ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Peter Cohan, Principal at Second Derivative
Community Web Site: www.DemoGurus.com
Peter Cohan is the founder and a principal of The Second Derivative, a consultancy focused on helping software organizations improve their sales and marketing results. In July 2004, he enabled and began moderating DemoGurus®, a community web exchange dedicated to helping sales and marketing teams improve their software demonstrations. In 2003, he authored Great Demo!, a book that provides methods to create and execute compelling demonstrations. The 2nd edition of Great Demo! was published March 2005.
Before The Second Derivative, Peter founded the Discovery Tools® business unit at Symyx Technologies, Inc., where he grew the business from an empty spreadsheet into a $30 million operation. Prior to Symyx, Peter served in marketing, sales, and management positions at MDL Information Systems, a leading provider of scientific information management software. Peter currently serves on the Board of Directors for Collaborative Drug Discovery, Inc. and the board of advisors for Excellin, Inc. He holds a degree in chemistry.
Peter has experience as an individual contributor, manage and senior management in marketing, sales, and business development. He has also been, and continues to be, a customer.
Agenda:
- 8:15 AM Breakfast & Registration
- 8:30 AM Workshop begins
- Noon Lunch & De-brief
- 1 PM Wrap up
Seating is Limited These are intensive sessions and we ask that you arrive at least 15 minutes before 8:30AM start time to ensure you will have a seat and won’t disrupt the session once it is underway.
PM Session: Advanced Topics
In response to requests for assistance on demo delivery we have added an afternoon session to our Great Demos workshop. If this is your first exposure to the Great Demo come for the morning and get a great overview of the methodology and stay for the afternoon if you would like an opportunity for more interactive training on advanced topics such as multi-solution, multi-player demonstrations, and vision generation demonstrations. The advanced topic session as covers real life issues like handling bugs, crashes, and time challenges.
This is an interactive workshop with Peter Cohan is only available to people who have already attended the morning session or a previous Great Demo session.
When: Wednesday March 17, 2010 1:00 – 5:00 pm
Where: Moorpark Hotel, 4241 Moorpark Ave, San Jose CA 95129
Cost $200 Register for the Advanced Topics
Advanced Topics Agenda:
- 1 PM Advanced Topics
- multiple solution demos
- presenting to a mixed audience with different needs or information requirements
- vision generation demonstrations
- handling bugs, crashes, and time challenges.
- 5 PM Wrap up
For more information: Theresa Shafer 408-252-9676 events@skmurphy.com
April 23rd, 2009
Some output formats to consider your application, they each have different properties and affordances and are not easily substituted for each other :
- Screen
- E-Mail
- Projector
- Print
- Fax
Screen
- Most common way that users will interact in everyday use.
- This is how many prospects will view the product.
E-mail output options
- Simple hypertext (e.g. URLs as footnotes)
- Text in monospace Font with 60 character line limit
Projector / PowerPoint or HTML that drives presentation at lower resolution
- The developers typically design and develop on high resolution monitors, most of your demos will be given at a lower resolution on a projector. Make sure both look good.
- Your users may want to run your application on the projector during a group meeting, test this.
Print – color or gray scale
- Many senior managers are most concerned with how this looks, as it is the way that they are used to consuming information.
Fax – true black and white
- Test this, some patterns create problems, many shades are indistinguishable when printed in black and white.
January 5th, 2009
- Focus on establishing your team as trustworthy and dependable. The biggest question in a prospect’s mind is how your team will you perform when things go wrong.
- Stress earlier engagements with the problem you help your customers solve. Make this “phase two” of efforts to solve these problems, building on earlier relevant experience and accomplishments. Early customers want to know that you have an affinity for the problem domain.
- Don’t stress how smart they are or how many merit badges your team has accumulated (e.g. degrees and certificates) or your collective years of experience the team has–what does it mean when a team has collectively 60 year of experience, much less than you might think. Focus on projects that you have delivered and value they have created for former partners, customers, etc..
- If you have a backgrounder or presentation that is being used to raise investment–e.g a fund-raising pitch–don’t start from it as a basis for your prospect oriented backgrounder. Investors and prospects are two fundamentally different audiences with very different needs and distinct questions about your team and your offering.
- Keep it to between one and two pages: put it on your website and print it double-sided if it runs over one page when you include it in proposals or as part of a leave-behind package from a demo or presentation.
November 21st, 2008
Interesting web site demo at http://nextgenerationelectronicsdesign.com/ by the folks at Altium. Unlike any PCB demo I have ever seen and an interesting use of self-deprecating humor to talk about the challenges of linking FPGA, Board, and Mechanical design. Two time coded remarks
- at 2:25 “We did what any traditional EDA company would do, we denied and avoided the problem.”
- at 2:50 “After offering the same thing as everyone else for a while, we decided to grow some bollocks and actually solve this properly.”
- Followed by a sequence of 3D views of PCB design–not the traditional a birds eye view–that allow you to more easily judge height interaction issues.
Altium is an Australian company–you may know them as Protel–that does about US$50M in revenue. I caught this link on the Mentor communities site in the comments by “pcb_man” on a post by John Isaac “Collaboration Across the Product Development Process.”
Based on a number of efforts to foster collaboration between Mechanical and PCB design teams in the past, I suspect that there will be significant cultural issues to be worked out to enable real time MCAD/ECAD integration and it’s attendant quality and time to market benefits. Loosely coupled toolsets in both domains allow groups to work more autonomously, even if the schedule impact is negative. Anytime you see a new tool that can redraw decision making and political boundaries, the barriers to adoption have more to do with changes in perceived level of control than shortcomings in the actual solution.
I have developed a rule of thumb for introducing new systems: the difficulty is proportional to the cube of the number of “silos” or distinct team/administrative boundaries you had to cross to get to an initially viable solution. For example
- 0 boundaries crossed: only adjust the workflow within a singe team or work group, leaving external inputs and outputs unchanged (except that you hope they have fewer errors or lower latency or can handle more complexity).
- 1 boundary: both sides have to want to change or one group has to be convinced to either supply a new input or accept a different output. This gets attempted unilaterally a lot in the form of
- “if you will only give us this new input our jobs will be easier” If the two groups don’t share a common reward structure there is always a sense of “What’s in it for me?”
- “You have to use our new form/system to make requests” You mean I can’t pick up the phone or send e-mail? Let’s see what kinds of crises get manufactured.
- “We can no longer give you this data or output, our new system doesn’t support it” Well then you may be spending a lot of time doing manual work-arounds until you get that fixed.
- 2 boundaries: 23 = 8 times harder. There are several different ways that three groups can merge together. If you can turn this into two pairwise transactions it’s much easier. Only possible if all three unhappy and willing to change.
- 3 boundaries: 33 = 27 times harder. I have only seen four groups come together in response to things like a corporate commitment to pass an ISO 9000 audit or satisfy SOX. Even then it’s much easier to focus on pairwise changes in the context of an overall plan for evolution.
November 8th, 2008
The closing slide in our Idea to Revenue Workshop says
In The Beginning…
The Founders Are The Business.
To Keep The Business Viable,
Learn Faster Than the Competition.
Successful Entrepreneurship
Is a Self-Improvement Project.
When it’s your idea you have to act as if you believe in it and avoid continually seeking validation. Instead ask for criticism and suggestions for how to make it more useful, more valuable, less painful or cumbersome. The hallmark of a serious commitment to a product or service is an active and ongoing search for ways that it could be improved to create more value for a prospect or an existing customer.
As founders you normally select the features and then personally develop the first product. In addition–in early days in particular–you may need to wrap your product in a thick protective coating of personal service to prevent your customers from cutting themselves on “the rough edges of tomorrow” (believe me they can leave some jagged cuts as well as a few dents in a customer’s career).
Either of these situations, whether it’s hearing that your baby is ugly or that you performed unsatisfactorily, can make it difficult to appreciate criticism and ask for more detail. If you can, mentally “stand next to yourself” and pretend that the customer is talking about your twin brother’s mistakes or your co-founder’s product. This may allow you to avoid the trap of explaining to the customer why they have mis-assessed–how many times have you left a demo wondering “I don’t understand, we won the argument: how come we didn’t get their business?“– before you have encouraged more feedback and fully understood their critique.
September 1st, 2008
I checked out some software demos on Youtube. There are all types. But here are a couple I want to talk about.
First the bad … Nokia N800 Internet Tablet … Reggie Suplido of Internet Tablet Talk takes a look at the software that comes pre-installed on the new Nokia N800 Internet Tablet
Next the good … Bling! It Photography Software … A quick look at how to use Bling It to remove unwanted backgrounds in your photographs by Cindy Shebley.
A couple of difference worth talking about.
- The bad–even worse than the video quality–is the litany of features. Reggie starts at one end and just goes with no thought to his viewers. Also, while the side by side comparison was interesting, instead of holding the tablet, why not down lay it flat and get the focus fixed and steady.
- The good: Cindy spends time up front on who should watch the video and why. Then she walks you through how you would use her product to get something done. She does not list product features because she understands that customers are buying her product to get something done.
Before you make a software demo for YouTube, check out Peter Cohan’s Great Demo Webinar If you are interested in an interactive class with him, space is still available for the class on Saturday September 13, 2008.