Demo Crime: Teaching vs Demonstrating

Demo Crimes for Modern Times: 2Win Demo Detectives Uncover Fresh Insights on Old Crimes

In a sales and presales function, certain demo crimes are considered especially heinous. The dedicated demo detectives who investigate these presentation felonies are an elite squad of facilitators, executives, and presales leaders. These are their stories. 

Cold Case: Teaching Instead of Demonstrating

"Teaching Instead of Demonstrating" is Demo2Win 101. It's one of the most misunderstood and common crimes. This happens when someone shows software by trying to teach how it works instead of showing what it can do. When you demo software, you're not training people to use it. You're there to sell it. Your job is to show relevant features that solve customers' most pressing problems.

Repeat Offenders

We see this crime happen again and again. Buyers of technical solutions, like Cloud Computing, AI Platforms, Software Development tools, and Data Analytics Solutions, might think they want to know HOW something works. But what they really need is to understand how your solution will IMPACT their goals and objectives.

Here's what happens: A person shows the back-end setup of software for 30 minutes. But the customer just wants to make onboarding new clients easier. The audience becomes lost and bored quickly when they only hear about the tools' capabilities, not how these tools help them.

Show what your software can do through real examples. Don't do a technical deep dive or go through every single feature. Many presales professionals know a great deal about their software. They feel like they should share all their knowledge. But they shouldn't.

Scene of the Crime

Let's say you're showing software to Michaela. She buys materials for a furniture company. Your software helps predict how long it takes to build furniture. But Michaela told you she likes simple methods. She thinks the computer should just look at the last time they built something and use that time again.

Michaela asks, "Do you track how long it takes to build a new set of coffee tables?"

The wrong way to answer: "You bet! Let me show you where we do this." Then you jump to a new screen and start a long explanation about lead-time calculations. You talk about "exponential smoothing" and "alpha factors" and draw formulas on a whiteboard.

What's wrong with this? Michaela might not know what "exponential smoothing" means. She might feel embarrassed to ask. She might think, "Wow, you need to be super smart to use this software." Even if she does understand, she might disagree with your method.

The right way: "Michaela, we keep track of lead time for every item you make. This helps you plan for future orders. Your new system will use the lead time from the last time you made an item just like you wanted. You can switch to more complex methods if you need to, but your current way works great, so why change?"

Rates of Recidivism

Sellers keep making this mistake for several reasons:

1. They think it's part of their job. Many demonstrators believe they need to show ALL of their solution for the demo to be valuable. But that isn't what buyers need to understand to move forward. Focus on building the bridge between what your software does and what your customer needs by focusing the demo on their business impacts.
2. They think more features win deals. Have you ever lost a deal to someone with worse software that had fewer features? Most people have. Demos aren't about having more features. They're about delivering more relevant impacts.
   
   Think about buying tomatoes. You need six good ones for a recipe. The store has 500 tomatoes. You're having trouble finding the right ones. The store manager helps you pick out six perfect tomatoes. Are you happy? Yes! You don't care about the other 494 tomatoes because you got exactly what you needed.
3. They worry about competition. What if your competitor has the same features? Don't try to match them feature for feature. That just makes you look like everyone else. Focus on what matters to your customer.
4. The customer asked for it. Sometimes customers ask to be taught. They might send you a long list of requirements and say, "Teach us everything about how your solution handles these." But doing what's right is more important than doing what they asked. Most customers haven't bought software like yours in years. They don't need to know how it works...yet. They need to know what it can do and why it will make their work easier.

Department of Corrections

To fix the "Teaching versus Demonstrating" crime, focus on the relevant features that solve your prospect's real needs. That's it.

Many of our clients have a significant mindset shift when they go through Demo2Win. They used to think their job was to share all their knowledge about their solution. But really, demos are about persuasion. Sharing too much can slow down deals.

Remember what the demo detectives say: "We aren't here to teach them how the software works - we are here to show them how it helps them."

Bonus Tip:

Change your mindset from "teaching" to "guiding." You're not there to train them on every part of the software. You're there to show them how it makes their lives easier and solves meaningful business challenges.

Final Verdict

The "Teaching versus Demonstrating" crime won't help you close deals. Focus on showing value, not sharing everything you know. When your audience can see themselves using the software, that's when you win.

To do this, build your demos around solving their specific problems. Use stories to show how your product addresses their real concerns. Ask questions during the demo to build strong use cases that matter to them.

If you want to learn how we put all this together and train sales teams, contact 2Win!