Don't Demo
Yourself Out of a Sale
Using the product demo to help close a sale
Last
month in
"got sales?" I wrote an article about turning the
meeting around so you are in control, not the
prospect (click
HERE to see
"Who's Asking The
Questions Here Anyway?"). In that article I mentioned a
recent sales call I was on where the prospect, the
President of a large mortgage company, asked me
what I thought of the product his IT department
developed, a product in which he was obviously
very proud. To me this sounded like a "loaded"
question and could be used as a set-up to make me
fail. If you read the article, you already know
that I turned the question around so that he
started telling me what he thought was lacking
and, and therefore needed, to complete his vision.
At that point, he invited me back to do a demo of
my product to show them if it could help
solve the problems he just described to me.
Perfect! I thought you'd like to know what
happened in that next meeting and how I handled
the demo. So here's the sequel to "Who's Asking
The Questions Here Anyway?"
A product demonstration can be the killer of a
sales opportunity. I've seen many a sales call go
down in flames because the demo did not address
the prospect's main issues and pains. This usually
happens when the Sales Process is either out of
whack or non-existent. Now most of you who've been
reading "got sales?" for a while, or some of my
other articles, blogs, or what have you, know that
Sales Processes are like a religion to me. Without
one, sales are inconsistent, unpredictable, and
frequently unsuccessful.
What often happens with the demo is that the sales rep
tries to show what their product can do too soon.
They try to show off their wonderful product and
all it's glorious features before they know what
the prospect needs. And it doesn't matter if
you're demonstrating a software product or
decorator window coverings. The results are the
same. The prospect ends up hearing about a bunch
of features and functions that don't interest them
nor solve their specific problems. This is the
same thing as talking too much or too soon.
A sales rep needs to ask the right questions
first, then listen carefully to the answers BEFORE
explaining their products and the benefits, so
there's a good fit (see my article on Listening
Skills by clicking
HERE). It's equally bad with the
demonstration, sometimes even worse, because when
the sales rep has the opportunity to "show his
wares", he can take this as a sign of interest on
the part of the prospect. Sometimes it is, but
frequently it is not. It is only a sign that the
prospect wants to see how your product might help
them. But if you haven't asked them what specific
problems they are having, then what exactly will
you be demonstrating? The answer -- A whole lot of what
they don't need and possibly some of what they do
need.
In the story of my mortgage company prospect, I
spent a lot of time during the first meeting
learning and understanding what my prospect's
pains were. This takes patience. I could have
easily tried demonstrating my product at our first
meeting, but it would have been premature. Given
what I learned in my first meeting, I customized
the demo to perform some of the functions my
prospect would relate to. These small
customizations demonstrated exactly how my product
could solve his problems. Needless to say, the
demo went extremely well and we are now onto the
next step of the sales process. This is where we
will start planning what my product will do,
versus his internally developed product, and
specify each product's exact role. Notice I said
"what" my product will do, not "if" it will do it.
The demo made him clearly see that there are no
more "ifs" involved. It's now just a matter of
what functions it will do versus his product. So
there is a role for my product. Period.
One more point. Sometimes you are forced to show
your product or do a demo before you've had a
chance to ask the questions you'd like. The
prospect gets right to the point - "Show me what
you've got!" or "I can only make a decision if I
see what it is I'm buying!" In these cases, I
always cause some sort of a "hidden" stall or
delay. In my business, if I'm demo'ing a CRM
product, I have the perfect built-in delay. It's
called "boot time". Yes, that's the time it takes my
laptop to boot up. I also add in there the time
involved with pulling it out of my bag, hooking up
the projector and associated wires, plugging it
in, and anything else I can think of to buy me
more time, and I take my darn sweet time doing it
too.
What do I do with this extra time? Ask a million
questions! Sometimes I say, while hooking things
up and booting up my laptop, "I can give you a demo
that will last for days because there's so much I
can show you. But I don't think you'd go for that.
So in order for me to focus on the specific
functionality that will help you make a decision,
would you mind if I ask you some questions while
I'm setting up?" They ALWAYS agree to this, even
if it's simply to prevent an awkward silence while
I'm on my knees plugging in the hardware. You have
to be good at asking questions and listening while
juggling other things. So this may take you some
practice. But I can assure you that it is
extremely effective. You just have to do it and
not get tempted to just jump into a demo showing
them everything that YOU think is important,
instead of what's important to your prospect. One
time I actually got so engaged in conversation
with a prospect about their needs that I never
ended up doing the demo after all, and I won the
deal!
So what have we learned? A product demo can make
or break a sale, depending on it's timing.
We have to get the prospect to tell us where it
hurts so we know exactly what to demonstrate and
good listening skills are needed here. We
learned that patience is a virtue and to not get tempted by showing our product too soon,
before we know what they need. We also learned to
customize the product so the demonstration
closely resembles the ultimate solution or so the
prospect can easily visualize how it will help
their unique problems. Finally, we learned how to
create natural delays to stall the demo
when the prospect wants it before you are ready to
give it, so you can use that time to learn more
about their needs. So don't demo yourself out of a
sale. Use the demo as a closing tool.
Good Luck & Good Selling!
Russ Lombardo
(702)655-5652
russ@PeakSalesConsulting.com |
