Demo Death
Last month I gave you some tips about demos, but one large company here in Redmond didn't pay attention. Yes, I'm talking about Bill and Steve's excellent adventure, AKA Microsoft. Recently some of the Workpump gang sat in on a truly painful demo by a 'softie on their new CRM product.
A lot has been written on how to do a great presentation; here's a different twist: how to commit demo death.
- Cram two hours of material into a 40 minute demo.
- Talk too fast, keep your hands in your pockets, speak in a monotone, use the word “uh” three or four times a minute, and don't forget to mumble.
- Show blank forms and reporting screens and then talk about them.
- When the demo crashes, be sure to tell people you only worked two days on it. After all, the customer isn't important, so why invest time in a demo?
- Show me all the ways you can customize the product, but don't show me what it actually does.
- Be sure to hide all the competitive advantages so I won't see any compelling reasons to switch from my current product.
- Make the pricing confusing.
- Choose an unreadably small font for the display.
