Bottom-Line Targeted Demo Skills Workshop

The ability to deliver an exceptional software demonstration (or sales presentation) embodies one of the most important skills Sales Engineers (Applications Engineers, Systems Engineers, etc.) can develop. It is usually the first look your prospect has at your solution and first impressions are vital. Without a proficient demo, you're destined for a lengthy sales cycle that includes a resource and time consuming product evaluation or benchmark. Or worse, a suboptimal demo can result in millions of dollars of lost business. And you often don't get a second chance.

All too commonly Sales Engineers (Applications Engineers, Systems Engineers, etc.) are under the misperception that the objective of the demo is to inform the customer about the capabilities of your product. Wrong While that approach may lead to some new business, it will often lead to lengthy sales cycles driving up your cost of sales or worse, lost business you should have won.

There is a much better way. You'll learn the true purpose of a demo is to leave your prospect with the belief that your solution resolves their needs, does it better than your competition, and provides desirable business value to motivate them to become a customer.

An effective demo requires the proficient use of sales skills. For this reason, this workshop also teaches the sales skills included in the full Bottom-Line Boosting Sales Skills Workshop. The difference is that the focus is more on the demo and less on sales skills in the Demo Skills Workshop.

If you have already run your organization through a generic sales skills training program, the option exists to customize the program to use the same language that has already been learned. This enables this workshop to supplement any program you already have in place.

• How to win over your prospect with a targeted, skillful demo or presentation
• To articulate how your solution solves the customer's challenges in ways that help your customer understand the compelling value of buying your solution now
• Proficient demo/presentation techniques compelling presentation skills, effective handling of questions and objections, how to deal with a crash, and more
• How to differentiate your solution and beat your competition
• The importance of focusing on your customer's needs before talking about your products to get buy in and commitment on a new and better way of selling
• Questioning methods to fully identify the customer's needs, uncover previously unknown needs, and develop those needs into a motivation to take action
• Repeatable techniques to organize your thought process throughout the sales cycle to help ensure each customer interaction advances you towards a business relationship
• How to navigate your customer's organization - understand your customer roles, identify and involve decision makers, and cultivate relationships to develop customer allies
• Five sales strategies and how and when to apply each of them to defeat your competition
• How you might convince your customer to purchase your solution without the need for a costly and lengthy evaluation (or proof on concept) of your products
• When to engage in an evaluation and procedures to plan, manage, and execute evaluations to improve your rate of success and shorten time to win new business

What is the impact of losing one business opportunity due to a suboptimal demo? It is usually hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars of lost business opportunity. And you often don t get a second chance.

The instructor ensures learning through engaging the participation of all students with very interactive presentations and exercises.

The last day of the workshop is dedicated to giving the SEs the opportunity to exercise and internalize the skills they learned in the class by presenting a demo (or presentation) to their peers who pose as their customer. This course has a pre-work assignment where each attendee is required to prepare a short demo or presentation. They will present that demo during the workshop and receive honest, constructive feedback on how they might improve. Teaching is one of the best forms of learning and students will also fortify their skills by providing feedback to others. Learning is further reinforced by providing each student a videotape of their demo and feedback for their personal review.

The workshop caters to all sales engineers including marketing representatives who are involved in the sales process. Technical content is not a focus so engineers involved in any technical discipline will learn valuable skills. Since everyone has room to improve on and polish their demo and sales skills, the course has been very highly regarded by both new SEs and experienced SEs.

The standard class is 2 days or we can create a custom program tailored to your needs. The recommended class size is 8 to 16 people. Small class sizes provide a more personal and valuable learning experience by increasing the participation and interactivity of the class.

The class is usually taught on-site at your facility. This provides several advantages:

• The course can be customized as needed to meet your specific requirements
• Facilitated discussions are more valuable as they can contain proprietary information such as high level details about how to differentiate your products and company, or job responsibilities in your organization and how to get things done
• Save travel expenses since local students don't have to travel
• Students use your facilities during the demo/presentation exercise giving them a more realistic and valuable learning experience