When I first started doing demonstrations for bank software sales, I made the most common mistake there is. I spent my time in front of potential customers telling them all about the wonderful features my software could provide them. I had helped design many of the features, and I was quite proud of my software application. So proud, in fact, that I made it hard on myself to sell it.
Customers don’t buy features. They never have, and they never will. Customers buy benefits.
And that means three things for stressed out presales resources trying to survive a prospect demo:
1. You better know how your current customers are using your software. At any point in a demo, a potential customer may ask how a feature is being used in production at a real customer. You may have the best script and be polished like diamond. But a customer can put you totally off your game by challenging you to give real-world examples of how customers have turned your features into benefits. If you don’t really know, prospects will pick up on that immediately. That is why I try to always call on existing customers and spend as much time as possible working with my user community. I want to be prepared with working scenarios about how all my features are deployed in creative ways. Prospects seem to almost always spot inauthenticity.
2. You better know your industry. Customers buy software to solve problems and create competitive advantage. At various points in a presentation, customers will frequently talk about trends in the market place and demand to know how your current release will address them. Not keeping up with ongoing regulatory, commercial, and investment trends in your business space? Then expect the potential for embarrassment. Want to establish your cred as a trusted adviser and future business partner? Then be prepared to address how your software can address trends that are only starting to emerge.
3. You better know your prospect. Before I ever start a demo, I try to spend time as much time as I can getting to know my prospect. I ask about their current business processes, current goals, and perceived challenges. Before the meeting, I read their annual reports and Google them extensively. I comb through the RFP, if there is one. I examine any questions we got in advance. I pour over emails that contain business cases. Before I ever launch my first demo page, I want to know as much as I humanly can about the prospect’s pains, failures, successes, and goals. More than anything, I am looking for the many ways my software can elevate their daily lives, their competitive positions, and their bottom lines. I want to tell them a story that has meaning for them.
Your audience is full of unique people with their own hopes, needs, and dreams. Your demo is the time to connect buying your software to making good things happen. Standing in front of a prospect and doing the same step-through of features you did for every other prospect is unlikely to land you nearly as many deals. If you do your job right, your customers will buy the benefits, even if they never quite grasp the features.