Sales Demonstration Training

Sales Demonstration Skills Training Workshops

A Proven Demo Skills Training Program


Who should attend this demo skills training seminar?

Sales managers, sales people, sales engineers, subject matter experts, and sales teams that sell software, hardware or system level products in the B2B marketplace would benefit from demo skills training

  • Position yourself as an expert and trusted advisor
  • Increase audience receptivity
  • Take your prospect on a Now to wow Journey (to a better place with your product)
  • Learn to adapt and excel in all real-world demo situations
  • Cover exactly and only what is important to win
  • Increase demo win rate
  • Reduce time to close
  • Turn your demonstration into a conversation that leads to the sale
  • Create a demo so memorable, the audience will be talking about it for days
  • Make your demos much more interesting, engaging and effective
  • Win the sale, even against tough competition
  • Structure their demo for maximum clarity and effectiveness
  • Avoid common demonstration issues

How the process works

It starts with a no obligation discussion of your needs, give us a call: 1-800-421-5824, or send us a message.
Our experts interview you and your team to find out what specific challenges you are facing. We then create a class that is specifically focused on making you more successful.

Based on our discussions with you and your team, we create fully customized tools, resources and demo skills training that can be delivered as self-paced e-learning on-site at your facility, on-line via the web or in an open class format. To help you with your unique demo challenges we create custom exercises, examples and training material based on your specific products and needs including:

  • The Winning Demo Process - A proven, easy to learn and easy to use process for creating great demos.
  • The Demo Planning Form - Streamlines the process of gathering pre-demo information.
  • The Demo Disaster Checklist - Lists common demo mistakes and how to avoid them.
  • The Must Answer Questions List - The most common questions that you will face and knock-out answers for them.
  • The Custom Field Coaching Manual - Helps managers to reinforce the material after the training.
  • Customized, Real-World Exercises and Role-Plays - Helps students master and retain the material.

Sample Class Outline: Two day Demo Skills Training Seminar

TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATION SKILLS TRAINING
2-DAY WORKSHOP

KEY OBJECTIVES

A fun interactive training session that helps attendees improve product demos.
To show the value of a strong demo and the negative impact of a poor one.
To provide the tools, the knowledge, and the skills needed to craft and deliver relevant, engaging and effective demonstrations of your products.


WORKSHOP AGENDA: Day One
9:00 9:30: Introduction/Objectives


9:30 - 10:45: How NOT to Do a Demo:

In this exercise, I do a disastrous  and funny demo of your product. Class members play the role of a prospect. I make all of the typical mistakes that should be avoided.
Class members receive a demo issue checklist and attempt to check off all the errors in the demo.

We follow the demo with an open discussion:

  • Analysis of the demo; what went wrong.
  • Open Discussion on  how can we improve on the demo

-Negative impact of poor demo organization
-Negative impact  of improper level of detail for your audience
-Negative impact of feature dumps on the demo
-Negative impact of improper jargon and terminology on the demo
-Negative impact of showing detail, when telling is all that is needed
-Negative impact of a long answer where a simple yes is all that is needed


10:45  11:00: Break


11:00  12:00: Sales/SE Teamwork
We outline the duties of the SE and sales person before, during and after the demo to make sure that communication is efficient and effective.

Using the Demo Qualification Form, we discuss  the information required to allow the FAE to translate the prospect issues into short effective demo scenarios using input from sales on the prospects needs.

The focus in on the best ways to work together to convey a message that progresses the sale.

Exercise:  We customize the Demo Qualification Form to meet our needs.


12:00  1:00: LUNCH


1:00  2:30: Customer Relevant Demos
In this section we cover the process, skills and techniques needed to create relevant and engaging demo segments. (The key is to Know your audience)
We discuss a typical demo request (using the Demo Qualification Form from the previous exercise) and map the specific needs  to specific demo scenarios.

We have an open discussion of the questions that must be answered in every successful demo and build a consensus list using the Demo Questions Form.

We end with an exercise where the FAE translates a specific prospect need to a demo scenario and then performs the short demo in class.

2:30  2:45: Break

2:45  3:45: Demo Script Creation Exercise
3:45  4:45: Demo Delivery (Live Demo Practice)
4:45  5:00: Day One Summary With Q and A


WORKSHOP AGENDA: Day Two
9:00  10:00: Questions and Answers: Tips and Techniques

We discuss specific tips on how best to answer  audience questions (including hostile questions) and how to probe for addition prospect needs. Topics include:

  • Using Q and A to enhance your credibility
  • How to verify that you understand the question and the intent
  • Confirming with the prospect that their question was answered
  • Choosing the proper level of detail for  your answers
  • Dealing with hostile questions
  • Dealing with objections
  • Handling competitive questions

10:00  10:45: Q&A Role Play Exercise


10:45- 11:00: Break


11:00  12:00: Establishing Credibility:
In this section we will cover proven methods for establishing credibility with both technical and executive level audience members. Specifically, we cover:

  • Establishing credibility with technical audiences
  • Establishing credibility with C-Level and executive audiences

Each FAE will perform a role play exercise to practice what they have learned.

12:00  1:00: LUNCH


1:00  2:00: Complex Demos:
In this section we cover the best way to craft and deliver demos for multiple products quickly and efficiently.
The instructor-led discussion will cover the special challenges encountered when crafting and delivering complex demos.


2:00  2:45: Dealing with Demo Issues
In this section we discuss techniques for dealing with the BAD THINGS that can happen in the demo. Topics include:

  • Product Crashes and Bugs
  • Time Management
  • Web Conference issues
  • Beta software and new features
  • Dealing with hostile or disinterested audiences

2:45  3:00: Break


3:00  4:15: Final Demo Exercise
In this section we allow each FAE to perform a final demo utilizing all that they have learned.
We will review each demo as a group and try to identify as many good techniques as possible, as well as areas for additional focus.


4:15  5:00: Summary, Q&A, Complete Satisfaction Review Forms.