Blueprint | 04 How To Demo Remotely

B L U E P R I N T HOW TO DEMO REMOTELY When you’re not face-to-face with people it’s harder to read the audience. You will learn some great techniques in how to structure the demo in order to maintain engagement and drive towards next steps. How do you lead to a consensus that leads you to the real meeting you’re striving for after a demo? The stakeholder meeting. How to Perform a Demo HOW TO STRUCTURE A PERFECT ONLINE DEMO Timeline of the conversation Prep Put together a slide deck. The first few slides are different from what you would show in-person. ● Start with the executive summary. What do you think they need based on your diagnosis and what you will prescribe to them? Make this summary concise enough for one slide but make sure it shows them what’s coming next. ACE Once everyone joins, the next step is to ACE the meeting. This is the transition from small talk to the meeting. A ppreciate - “I appreciate you taking the time to join this call” C onfirm end time - “We’re scheduled for 30 minutes. Does that time still work for You?” E nd goal - “At the end of today's call, if we can address your needs, we typically move forward with a proposal. Does that sound fair?” Agenda Your agenda needs to be aligned with their priorities instead of talking about what we love about our product.

B L U E P R I N T HOW TO DEMO REMOTELY Set the Review what was discussed on the previous call, and then point out the 3 business Context & challenges they are trying to solve. Summarize “Because you’re looking to solve XYZ, this is what we’re going to talk about today” When you start sharing your screen for the demo the first thing you need to do is orient them to what they’re looking at. You are very familiar with your product, but this is probably their first look at it so you need to help them understand. Introduce the first feature. Then, to keep engagement high, ask questions before moving onto the next feature. ● “Was that relevant?” ● “What impact would that have on your business?” ● Make it emotional - “Do you see yourself or your team actually using this? Connect the At the end of the call, Wagons make sure the end goal you went over at the beginning of the call was achieved. If they say no, then you have about 5 minutes to handle it. If they say yes, you can move on with the next steps. Ask “We agreed that the end goal of this meeting was to accomplish understanding what your requirements are and seeing if it’s a good fit to move forward. Did we achieve that today? HOW TO USE SLIDES IN AN ONLINE DEMO The reason we do a demo is to help the customer see how their problem and the solution you’re recommending align with what’s already existing in their infrastructure. A slide deck is great for navigating through a remote meeting, but you have to do it right. The first slide which we’ve talked about should be the executive summary - Explain the situation they have, the pain they’re looking to solve, and the impact they’re looking for. You can also give an estimated cost. It’s common for salespeople to try and sell by showing the success of their own company, but really what your customer cares about is how you can help them. Don’t fill up a slide with logos of customers you’ve worked with. Instead, build a rapport and let them come to the conclusion that you’re the right fit for them. Don’t overload a slide with text. Make sure each slide is limited to a couple of main points, or let them know you’ll send the file over after so they can take their time to read more in-depth The demo should be a conversation. Use it as a way to continue building out your diagnosis and don’t just make it about pitching what you want to show them.

B L U E P R I N T HOW TO DEMO REMOTELY By the end of the demo, make sure you’ve also shared a story. Take them on a simplified hero’s journey - What is their problem, how did someone else find the same solution, and what did it mean to them? You should always end the demo with one clear action item that you want everyone to take before the next meeting. HOW TO USE QUESTIONS TO BUILD CONSENSUS We talked about how to best do an online demo, and now we will discuss how to drive towards next steps, connecting the wagons. At the end of the meeting, connect it back to the seed you planted in the beginning, the goal of the call. - “At the beginning of the meeting we discussed achieving XYZ goals. Did we achieve that?” If you know you want our next meeting to be a stakeholder meeting, you need to get multiple executives in the room. Do that by saying “This is what I recommend for the next meeting, and this is the outcome you can expect from that meeting.” Knowing what to expect in the next meeting lets them be able to decide who should be on the call without you asking and potentially demeaning the people already on a call with you. ADVANCED TIPS FOR REMOTE DEMOS DO Be prepared with only the tabs you’re prepared to share so people aren’t distracted by other tabs. DO Only show the window you want to share and not your entire desktop DO Hide your bookmark bar - Just another thing that can distract people on the call, especially if some of the items are personal. DO Direct their focus to the part of the screen you want them to look at - “See here in the top left…” and then ask them if there’s anything on the page they want you to click on or further explain. TOP MISTAKES OF REMOTE DEMOS DON’T Give a generic pitch. Not every customer has the same problem, which means they don’t deserve the same demo. Make each demo specific to that customer. DON’T Forget to do your tech check before each call - don’t fumble around during the call and kill momentum. DON’T Share everything on your screen. I.e. notifications, bookmark bar, unused tabs, unused parts of your screen, open windows… especially emails.