Ian Altman discusses why demos in B2B sales often fail to generate revenue despite positive feedback. He argues that reps too often focus on the demo as the goal, neglecting the importance of understanding the client's problem and business case. Altman suggests that sellers should first ensure the client has a problem worth solving and that the seller can deliver the desired outcome. He advises tailoring demos to show only the necessary features that address the client's specific needs, rather than overwhelming them with every capability. This approach aligns the demo with the client's definition of success and increases the likelihood of closing a deal.
Ian Altman 0:02
Welcome to the Same Side Selling Podcast. I'm your host Ian Altman. On this episode, I want to talk about demos and why, specifically in B 2b companies, they don't often lead to revenue. In fact, one of the most common questions I get is why is it that we have these amazing demos, and in the end, the client just sticks with the status quo. It's not like they bought from one of our competitors; they just didn't do anything at all, and they loved our demo. Man, they thought our demo was the best thing ever. In fact, they couldn't stop giving us great feedback during the demo. They could barely contain themselves, yet in the end, nothing happened. So let me give you insight into why this happens. See, many reps feel like the demo is the goal. If you ask them, "Hey, I've got an initial prospect for you. What what do you think should be the goal? They go, "Well, I want to show them a demo because then they're going to fall in love with the product. In old school sales, they used to call this the puppy dog clothes. The idea of the puppy dog clothes was, you show somebody a puppy, you let them play with the puppy, the puppy licks them, they have a great time, their kids engage with the puppy, and then they tell them it's a really expensive puppy. But they've already fallen in love with a puppy, so now they're kind of stuck and committed, and it's a great theory in the consumer world, but not a great practice when it comes to the B2B world. See, B2B customers need a business case, and even if you're talking to the CEO of a mid-sized company, and they're excited about it. Ultimately, they're usually going to want to get buy-in from other members of their team. So the idea of just getting someone excited about your product isn't enough. So what instead we need to do is we need to spend more time early on, making sure that the client is convincing us and themselves that they have a problem that's worth solving, and what that means is that I'm not focused initially on our product or our solution. In fact, if the client said, "I'd love to see a demo, we should be saying to them, "I don't yet know enough about what it is you're trying to solve to know whether or not our product could actually do what you need, and so I don't want to waste either of our time talking about product features if I don't know if it's ultimately going to solve your problem. I think you and I would agree that it doesn't make a lot of sense for you to get something just because it's cool if it's not going to actually make things better for your business. Fair. And now, what the client realizes is, oh, this person actually is placing an emphasis on our success and our results, not just whether or not they make a sale. See, what we should be asking ourselves during the sales process is, have they convinced us that they have a problem that's worth solving that we're good at solving, and do we feel confident that together we can deliver the outcome that they need? And if we can't deliver those things, then the last thing we should be talking about is a demo, because the demo at that point would be useless. So, you might ask somebody, "Well, gee, so you're having this problem. If you if you had to guess, what's that costing you? And one of the most common pushbacks that I get from sellers is they say, "Well, the client doesn't know what it's costing them, so we just skip to the next step. And instead, what I would suggest is what you might say to them is, "Well, you know, we get that. It's not uncommon. Here's how other clients calculate what that's costing them. How do we need to modify that so that's realistic in your business? So what you're doing is you're demonstrating that you have expertise and experience working with other people in their field, and now you're giving them a baseline that they can compare against.
Ian Altman 3:59
See, if I share what it's what that problem is costing other people and why it's costing them that, then they can say, "Oh, well, here's what's different for us, or here's how that's similar for us. So you might be wondering, "Well, then then when when do I give a demo? Well, the idea of the demo is something that often is elusive for a lot of organizations. See, sometimes we feel like our job is to demonstrate every capability the product has, but instead, I want you to focus on the three or four things that your client or prospect needs to see to be comfortable knowing that your product can help deliver the results that they need, and now you might be wondering, well, how do I know what that is? And the the reality is, you ask, so you say to them, well, so here's what we're trying to solve, and here's what success needs to look like. What are the three or four things you would need to see in a demo? So that you would be comfortable that this is actually going to deliver what it is that we just agreed you need to accomplish. And now the client might share with you, well, here are three things, and if you know there are one or two other key differentiators that would really stand out for you, you can say a lot of people also find this capability or that capability helpful. Is that something we should include? See, the idea is I don't need to show them every feature and every capability because I might actually overwhelm them and make it sound too complicated. I just want the client to, together with us, define what success looks like, what they need to see, and then I can show them just that. It's like in the same side selling academy. I could give somebody a demo for four hours, or we could say, "What are the three things you need to see? We can show them those things, and then they're comfortable that, "Oh yeah, this is going to do what we need. Everything else is just a bonus on top of that. So next time you're dealing with a prospect, and you're thinking about the demo. Instead, what I want you to think about is: Is this problem worth solving? Have they convinced us that this is worth solving, and we're good at solving it? And once we have that business case, then we can work together to define what success looks like, and make sure that we're demoing only the things that will move the needle for them. If there are topics you'd like me to cover, just drop me a note to [email protected]. I'll see you on the next episode of the Same Side Selling Podcast. So long.
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