Focus Research Insight: 20% of buyers differentiate vendors by their DEMO, Why?

Just about anything can look good on paper, can’t it? Why would you make a five, six or even seven figure investment in technology, when you haven’t even seen it run in your environment? Demos are helpful because they translate the often grandiose proclamations made in vendor marketing materials (after all, some of the folks writing those items are aspiring fiction writers) into the realm of tangible features and functions. Line them up, and you can actually see which vendors’ product works the fastest.

In addition, every company is different. The vendors carve out a large stake by focusing on a product’s most common functions, but chances are that your firm may operate in a slightly different manner than the last corporation that bought the product. Once your users start to dabble with a product, they can give you a better feel for how well or not so well, it might mesh with their workflow.

Demos also help you understand what tweaks your company may need in order to make a product function effectively in your organization. It is always good to find that out early in the process, so you can negotiate the cost of make the changes. You do not want to buy the package and then find yourself with a significant add-on cost later in the cycle. Management tends to frown on signing off on such investments.

For major purchase, companies should always include a demo of the different products. You wouldn’t buy a car without taking it for a test ride, would you?

Product demos are huge for us. We've actually tracked our close results between those prospects who come to our facility for an in-house demo vs those for whom we do an on-site demo.

Our close percentage is at least 50% higher when we do an in house. We believe there are a number of reasons for this. One is that it establishes immediate credibility when a prospect sees our system in a 'show room' atmosphere.

It also gives us a chance to highlight other areas of our business such as our in house Technical Assistance Center. It gives the prospect a chance to meet and become comfortable with our Project Managers and Field Technicians as well.

So to sum up we put a high priority on getting the prospect onto our 'home field' so we can use that as a differentiator between us and our competition.

Terry,

I'll admit it is more difficult to get prospects in house but we try to do it in a way that is as low pressure as possible. We'll position it as a working lunch for the key DM's and users in the prospect's organization.

We'll tell them quite honestly that while we do have a mobile demonstration unit available they'll be able to see the integrated applications demonstrated in a much more real world situation if they come to us.

We've also come to believe that in most cases if the prospect isn't willing to come to us then we can't really consider them a viable prospect. In some cases these companies and organizations are considering investing well over 100K in a communications solution. If they're not willing to take a couple of hours to visit us as a vendor it leads us to believe that we're not being seriously considered as a business partner.

It may seem a bit harsh but we think the numbers back that opinion up.

Great question, exceptional answers. Having sold enterprise software for some 20 years I can honestly say that the demo is the key point for a seller to create their most important impression.

One thing that I have noticed is that vendors are typically challenged during this portion of the buying cycle because, well let's face it, software applications can be pretty boring.

If the demo becomes a basic description of buttons, drop downs and selections then progresses to screen flip after screen flip there is a good chance you will confuse the audience and likely lose the opportunity to create the impression necessary to move forward in the deal.
If you are doing a demo, specific to software, and you find your self saying, "ignore these areas because I am logged in as an administrator" it is likely that you are already confusing the audience (unless they too are administrators) with too much functionality.

If on the other hand the vendor does their homework and can paint a story with a few simple screens for the various users as they would use the application in a clear start to finish method - you have a great chance to win their approval.

I have always practiced the following - every touch point during a selling/buying transaction is a chance to create a positive memorable event. String together enough positive memorable events and you will have created for yourself an opportunity to prove value.

Thanks for the question and the opportunity to contribute.

Good Luck and Great Selling!

In the telephony business Cisco and ShoreTel have built their entire business by providing stellar demos. And, if the client is willing to set-up a lab, companies like Cisco and Avaya will actually loan a system to a business to play around with for 30-60 days or so.

Cisco has made it a point to set-up strategic demo centers around the country and around the world to bring clients into. They have some very impressive demo centers where they can control the environment and demo their full suite of products.

And, Bruce, I agree with you. If the client isn't willing to drive a short distance and take a couple hours of their time out of the day to demo a six or seven figure purchase, then they are not seriously considering you.

Demos can make or break your business. JMO.

Smart of your company to track the close rates per demo style Bruce! Do you find that buyers are generally more hesitant to come in house? In the past I have found that it can be tough to get apprehensive prospects to actually come on our turf, and that generally people are more open to us coming to them to demo, or just downloading a demo online (on-demand). How do you go about getting buyers to come to you in-house?

Time is very Limited for Service Providers too, in current trend to decide and implement a Technology, and that too EOL, Support Contract, Cost & Maintenance Factors, Expertise of Field Personnel and How the Product Mends into the current Infrastructure and Process culture of a Service Provider becomes key factors.

DEMO becomes a major platform where maximum 2-way interaction between the Service Provider and Vendor happens, and its in this short time, where an Impression is made by Vendor (First Impression is the Best Impression)

At the time of DEMO - Every Illustration, Interaction, Showcase of Expertise, Industry/product/Deployment Experience, Leadership/Sole Play, Statistics, Level of Understanding, Furturistic View, etc make the Service provider to decide his Go-No-Go decision against the Vendor

1. The Person who provides the DEMO represents the Product quality, Expertise, Capability - For the Vendor as a whole.
2. His/Her Level of Understanding, quickly attending to Service provider's questions in the Crisp, Correct sense and Apt Solution - is what gives the opinion/trust/confidence - both on the product and the support
3. His/Her capability to understand the Target audience of Service provider and provide what is apt, is what decides the customer experience
4. If the Product does not do well in DEMO, Can it do well in Live environment? - definitely not.
5. The DEMO clearly outlines the amount of Ground work and Preparation level of the Product Management.
6. It clearly also Maps the Service provider's Roadmap into Vendor's product roadmap.

I am sure due to the above governing factors, Service Provider's are even prepared to take up a Higher cost - as QoS, robustness, ease-of-use, ease-of-deployment & upgrade, of the product can be well judged during the DEMO.

In short "If I as a experienced Service Provider, does not Understand the product fully from the DEMO and dont feel it fit, then how can I provide my end customer's the fruit of experiencing and using it?"

The most successful technology acquisition tactics revolve around a carefully planned demonstration process. As I learned by working for several years with business & IT decision makers, those who rely solely on RFP responses and T&C negotiations to select tech solutions really put themselves at a disadvantage. If you don't do a properly designed demonstration of solution capabilities against your exact business requirements, and a proper evaluation of that demonstration in the context of other key factors related to the decision, you pretty much guarantee yourself a rough go.

My colleagues Paul Hamerman and Ray Wang at Forrester developed a simple but comprehensive technology selection methodology that often could be accomplished in about 6 to 8 weeks, without an elaborate and misleading RFP process. They didn't dispense with written requirements entirely, but had clients use a streamlined RFI to screen and select final candidates for a demo. That was way faster and much more likely to lead to an effective demo process.

For me when I want to buy a product for my company, I do get a list of all the similar products and read the data sheets then select the top 5 of it, than i contact the supplier asking for demo and asking him for a demo and ask him to demonstrate business cases for me, finally I buy the best product of this top 5.
Regards,
Hassen Houssein