I have attended many many hours of software demos the last couple of months. Some have been great but unfortunately most have been mediocre. So, I thought I would write up some quick software demo tips for the Vendors out there. Most of these seem OBVIOUS to me but if they were obvious to the vendors, I guess I would not be posting these tips.
Do’s:
- Show up early and get your equipment up and running in time for the start of the demo. My time is valuable.
- Make sure you have appropriate network connectivity at the customer site before you agree to come onsite and demo your software.
- Have a backup plan in case the customer network connectivity abruptly ends for no apparent reason (Hint: An AT&T, Verizon or Sprint 3G data card would probably be handy).
- Make sure you know the data in your demo system. If you are trying to demo a particular feature, know the demo data needed to show the feature.
- Practice your demo and then lock down the demo environment so no one can change your data (surprise!!) until after the customer demo.
- If this is an HR application demo and you have employee pictures in your demo database, make sure the pictures and the gender match.
- If you have bugs in your software, know about them and own them.
- Be professional. You can have fun but don’t poke fun at the customer. Wow, I can’t believe I have to list this as a tip but there you have it.
- Know your audience. If you demoing salary planning to the compensation department don’t start by explaining the purpose of salary planning.
- Did I mention that you should practice your demo? Well, it bears mentioning again. Practice your demo, again and then again. When you think you have it down, do it one more time.
Don’ts:
- Don’t fall back to a previous version of the application because you forgot to configure a feature you need to demo in the new version of the software. Make sure you have everything configured and ready to go before the demo (see tip above on practicing).
- If part of the demo audience is in a remote location using Web Conferencing software, don’t do part of your demo on a whiteboard if it can’t be seen by part of your audience. Really.
- If part of the demo audience is in a remote location, don’t make them ask you every 5 minutes to speak up because they can’t hear you. Make sure a microphone is near you, use you conference call voice and speak clearly.
- If your product is missing functionality requested by the potential customer, don’t blame the product strategy department. In fact don’t blame anyone, just take some notes.
- If you have bugs in your software don’t try to cover it up or blame the developers.
- Don’t forget to practice your demo. Really, I mean it this time.
I’m sure you have some great tips as well so leave them in the comments. Any Vendors out there want to leave some demo tips for the customers?
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