This month’s title sounds like it comes straight from Buzzfeed as it is
time to stamp out bad habits. The intent is to make you sit up and take notice
if you or any of your colleagues are seeing any of these indicators in your
customer demos. I am focusing on visual and verbal signs – things customers may
see or hear, rather than anything particularly thought provoking and strategic.
The good news is that these 11VVI (Visual + Verbal Indicators) are easily
fixed.
Your pre-work is to take a recording of your next demo and to use that
as input to this document. It can be a live video recording or a webex-style
recording of a virtual pitch.
The 11VVI List
1. Kill The Browser Bars.
The customer doesn’t really want to see all your browser bars, search
engine aids and bookmarks. Not only are they distracting, but they also take up
valuable real estate on the screen. Either use F11 to go full-screen browser,
or use a browser skin if your company has developed one. You’ll also get about
an extra 10% of usable screen area which may make a difference between
scrolling or not.
2. You Get Navigational. Note when and where you use any navigational
terms such as “click” , “pull-down” , “selection-list”, “menu options”,
“drill-down” etc. Whenever you use these terms it is highly likely that you are
talking about a feature instead of a meaningful advantage or benefit. Remove these phrases from your customer pitch
unless you really are teaching someone how to use your product. Your goal as an
SE isn’t to teach the customer how to use your stuff, it’s to help them imagine
themselves using it and being happy.
3. “And Then”. Listen
for connective phrases such as “and then”, “also” and “next”. They usually
signal that you are chaining together a collection of features without much
focus on competitive advantages and benefits. Those phrases are also a sign
that you may want to work a story into your demo instead of showing speeds and
feeds
4. You Have Bad Data. Your demo data needs to support
the premise of your demo. You can’t show enterprise software and only have four
users, seven laptops and a single network. You need scale. You also need
up-to-date information. Four-year-old data will get noticed, especially by
detail oriented IT of financial folks. So will showing an empty screen and
saying “Now, if you actually had any alerts you can imagine that this is where
you would see..”
5. Pause And Take A Deep Breath. When the customer asks “Can you do/can you show me..” DO NOT say
“Yes, Let Me Show You How..” unless you know WHY they want that particular
capability. Many SE’s forget to ask the “Why?” and try to please the customer
by showing them the HOW first. Resolve to pause and think it through first.
(That’s really a verbal sign from the customer, but …)
6. The Invisible Mouse. Change your mouse
settings from the default small white mouse outline to a double sized black
solid mouse. Why? Because that way your customers can see the mouse and pay
attention to what you are doing instead of trying to figure out where the mouse
is! There are various “Mouse Enhancement”
programs like Mousepose and PointerFocus you can try.
7. Filler Words. Everyone uses filler
words in an ad-hoc, free-form situation. The key is minimize their use
otherwise your audience starts subconsciously counting them. This is where the
recording really helps you. As well as listening for “ums, errs and ahhs” you
should also note “so”, “you guys”, “right”, “basically” and all such words that
serve no purpose. The key to eliminating a filler word is understanding when
you use it. Once you figure that out life becomes much easier.
8. Clicks And Flicks. Count the
number of screens that you show the customer. That’s both unique screens and
screens in total. Pop-ups count! Also count the number of mouse-clicks and the number
of times you have to scroll up/down or left/right. You now have your base case.
Divide the total number by the length of your demo in minutes. Congratulations
– you have calculated your DEMOS – Demo Efficiency and Memory Observation
Score. Now what can you do to drop your DEMOS? There is no perfect objective
score – but the lower the better.
9. Throw Away The Product Names And
Releases. As a
customer I don’t really care what you call your product and what release level
you are talking about until I know it can help fix a problem I may have. Stop
talking about “new in version 5.2” or the “integration manager”. Instead, focus
on what the product does and the benefits.
10. Test It With A Projector. What you see isn’t always what
you get. When using a projector, test your pitch on the projector from at least
40 feet away. Colours (yellow/red) don’t always show up exactly as you would
expect. Don’t make the visuals too difficult for the customer. (More on that topic here)
11. Fiddle With The Font Size. Similarly, make sure your screens
are legible and easy to read. That may mean you increase the font size or the
browser magnification. Use CRTL-plus to increase browser size and CTRL-0 to
restore it. If your customer cannot read the screen they certainly will not
remember it.
Summary
Small
changes can make a big difference. Read through the list and pick two or three
bad habits (if you have any!) to change and start from there. Make them standard, get used
to them. Then fix the next two or three. Repeat as needed.
“The price of doing
the same old thing is far higher than the price of change.”
-
Bill
Clinton
(Yes - there is a typo in #4 for "detail-oriented IT folks")
