To turn my attention to more tactical skills, here are 5 tips for giving killer demos.

1) Avoid Feature Blab. Feature feature feature feature feature feature feature feature feature feature feature feature feature feature feature get a drink of water feature feature feature feature feature feature feature feature feature feature feature. Pace your demo. The customer’s problem, the quantified impact of that problem on the customer’s operations or job, your feature that addresses the problem and its function, the quantified value or business impact your feature provides. Problem, impact, feature, function, value, problem, impact, feature, function, value, etc. Every 5 minutes or so, there is a new “Wow!” statement.

Remember, you are there to persuade them to choose your solution, not play with toys.

2) Use Flow Breakers. Don’t use the PC as a crutch. Get up and use the white board. Get up and move around, be animated. Change media now and then — Bring up a powerpoint, charts, graphs, customer video. Mix it up. Flow breakers help command attention.

3) Q&A. Leave 1/3 of your allotted time for questions. If they give you an hour, plan on 30-40 minutes for the demo, and 20-30 minutes for questions when you are done. The Q&A is when the real selling begins.

4) Get the Customer to Do Your Selling For You. When the time is right, ask your coach or sponsor, “Could you go to the white board and show us how this would apply to your environment?”. What they say will be 10 times more powerful than anything you could say. This works well in a web based demo too — Make them the presenter and have them use a drawing tool. AVOID CANNED DEMOS — When you can, use the customer’s data, and have a laser focus on features that will best benefit THAT customer.

5) Visually Imprint 3 Major Points. Using a white board or a pre-prepared single sheet of paper (that can be passed around the customer organization), write down the 3 major bullet points you want to leave them with. One of these points should be the customer’s quantified business problem and the quantified value your solution will provide them. Writing it down makes a visual imprint on the customer’s brain so it is easier to later recall and remember.