37 Steps to Screw up a Product Demo as a Sales Engineer
September 9, 2019•323 words
- Arrive a little late, blame it on starbucks
- No need to introduce yourself, be straight to the point
- Avoid setting the agenda, they might question it
- Don’t do discovery, it’s not about them, it’s about you
- Take out your laptop, make sure it doesn’t have a lot of battery
- Bonus point if you actually forget your computer
- No need for wifi, tethering is fine
- Spend 10 minutes to find the demo, say a few jokes meanwhile
- Remember you didn’t prepare anything, so look a little confused
- Much better if there’s no TV to present, you want that intimacy feeling
- Make sure you don’t know the audience, your pitch is solid as is
- Ok, take a deep breath, it’s your moment
- Speak fast
- Make sure it’s very loud so that people in other meetings hear you and join
- Use a lot of filler words
- Don’t know the product
- Forget story telling
- Say “micro-service” at least twice
- Forget your battery charger
- Explain one feature at a time
- Your computer is dead, ask to use someone’s computer
- Always explain what, but not why
- Make sure it’s long and a little boring, if it’s too exciting it’s suspicious
- Receive email confirmation from dubious amazon orders
- Have slack open
- Do not take notes, you don’t want to be distracted
- Monotonic voice, it will hypnotize them
- Do not ask question, keep it a one-way discussion
- Forget to breath and keep speaking
- Wait 3 seconds between each word you say. It’s more dramatic like that.
- Did I mention not to leave room for questions?
- In doubt, say “yes”
- Actually, just say “yes” as much as possible
- Avoid next steps at all cost
- Make sure the meeting run over a little, it means it was good