What is a Stage 3. Demo Opportunity?
Showing a product DEMO to validate that we ARE the solution that will solve their specific 'Need/Business Problem'(s). Remember, they may have more than one core "need to fix issue", agreed-upon the continued discovery until you have the full scope of how we can help.
👤 BUYER IS DOING: Demos with all potential solutions (know who else is in the running), requesting budget to buy (not build), considering exec involvement
Exit Criteria
Seller Activities
Demo Methodology | Tell-Show-Tell Overview
This method provides meaningful context so an audience can envision themselves using our product, a concise delivery of the capability you are describing that is easy to follow, and relevant benefits that help your audience understand the improvements they will realize in using our product. Tell-Show-Tell is:
- A demo best-practice methodology
- A clear roadmap for aligning our company's value to the prospect's needs
- A way to use the demo to get soft closes from the prospect
What does Tell-Show-Tell Look Like?
🔗 LinkedIn Article: Sales Engineer Show and Tell Time: The Tell-Show-Tell Overture by Gregory Hansen
Demo Rules of Engagement | Types of Demos
Here are the types of demos we deliver to prospective client with details on the goal of the demo, who should be driving, and best practices to keep in mind for each.
Demo Type | Custom Demo Overview
Where does a Custom Demo happen in the Sales Cycle?
Stage 3+
- Business problem agreement
- Purchasing timeline agreement
- Budget alignment
- Executive alignment
- Key Metrics Identified- Business Case
What is a Custom Demo?
- This is where the prospect grants us sandbox access to their system(s). We then build out our product for them, and then demo our features back to the prospect.
- This should have a 30-45 min. demo planning meeting with the prospect followed by a one-hour demo a couple of days later.
How to Set Up your Custom Demo and Drive the Deal:
- AE and Manager aligned on why a custom demo is needed for this opportunity
- The next step after the Custom Demo is scheduled
- How To Conduct the Custom Demo
- 30-45 minute planning call
- Identify key use cases and resources needed.
- If possible, get the Prospect to share content that they want to see in Speks.
- Gain system access during or shortly after the planning call.
- Demo(s) Conducted
How To Conduct the Custom Demo
30-45 minute planning call
Identify key use cases and resources needed.
If possible, get the Prospect to share content that they want to see in Speks.
Gain system access during or shortly after the planning call.
Demo(s) Conducted
Sales Resource | Master Demo Deck
What is a Demo Deck and when should it be used?
Designed to follow deep discovery, the demo deck should be used for all stage 3 opportunities. After presenting the demo deck, you'll dive into the product demo.
The deck helps us walk the prospect through our point of view on:
😫 The problem we solve: Poor training/enablement, scattered resources/knowledge, and ineffective change management make it hard for companies to unlock the full potential of their people, processes, and tools. This internal complexity creates a lot of waste and frustration, costing companies valuable time and money.
🥴 The need: Identifying their pains and business problems and the impact of not changing
🥰 The solution: Our solution helps you make sure your people are equipped for success. With our product, you can say goodbye to the old way of scattered resources and inefficient communication, and say hello to making work simple yet spectacular for you and your employees.
Why is a Demo Deck important?
The demo deck serves a few key functions at this stage of the customer journey:
- Gives the prospect a cohesive understanding of the problem our product solves and the value our solution provides
- Helps us strongly connect the dots for the prospect between what we do (our solution) and how we do it (our platform)
- Provides you with a clear narrative to help you sell the value of our product -- not just features
- Prompts further discovery and gives you more opportunities to uncover what matters most to the prospect
Mutual Action Plan
What is a Mutual Action Plan or MAP?
A mutual action plan makes buying easier and speeds up the sales cycle and ensures the selling team is aligned with the customer on deal objectives and the major milestones required to accomplish that objective.
The Benefits of a Mutual Action Plan include:
- Reducing deal risk
- Decreasing unnecessary work
- Improving self-awareness
- Understanding the scope
- of evaluation
- Ensuring accountability
🟡 If the buyer understands and accepts the effort and actions to finish the deal, that deal is more likely to close.
🟢 If the buyer fulfills the commitments of each step, they’re signaling great intent. You’re less likely to lose momentum.
🛑 If the buyer isn’t willing to invest time in the mutual action plan, then disqualifying faster leads to a faster sales cycle, which means more time for fresh prospecting.
Mutual Action Plan Email Template
Example MAP Email:
Hi Cindy,
Thank you for the time to discuss your interest in my company. I wanted to quickly outline my key takeaways to keep alignment with you as we further your evaluation and make sure we are aligned on how our product helps solve your current problems:
- Rolling out new methodology to drive AE attainment. CRO- Adam Tessan initiative
- CPQ rollout in September for better cash collection. Head of RevOps Laura Smith initiative
- Sales Process standardization in SF for increase deal velocity. Head of RevOps Laura Smith initiative
- Pains:
- Training over zoom is not working because AEs are frustrated and asking a lot of questions
- Google drive is hard to find information
- Lot of continue change is hard to keep up with for the AEs and communication is breaking down
- Current Tech Stack:
- Timeline:
- Looking to make a decision on vendor by end of October
- Next Steps:
- Pre demo call plan - SE to review demo 8/13 at 4:00 PM
- Demo for the enablement team on Thursday 8/15 at 2:00 PM
I wanted to share some additional resources for you to review and share with your team. Looking forward to our next call on 8/13 at 4:00 PM.
-Your Name
Sales Formula | MEDDIC Framework
MEDDIC is our philosophy or formula of WHAT the key elements are that make up a ‘real deal’.
Reps & their managers use these CORE elements to identify risk & drive urgency within each stage of a deal...
🤷🏿 Why do we use a process like MEDDIC:
- Better qualify prospects - By asking smarter questions, it stops us from wasting time on bad deals.
- Simplify the sales process - It makes sales about gathering information rather than using tired tricks.
- Forecast better - By understanding the customer’s buying process, we can better predict when deals will close.
- Coach to deal gaps - Managers can identify missing information and potential roadblocks to a deal.
- Create a common language - By using a common framework, we reduce the subjectiveness of what makes a "good prospect or deal".
- Increase close rates - By working hand-in-hand with the buyer, we can control the deal to finish line.
MEDDIC - Metrics
MEDDIC: M stands for Metrics
WORDS are not METRICS
Metrics measure the potential gain leading to the economic benefit of your solution vs. the status quo. This is where you really dive deep to understand how they will create a business case and quantify the value of investing in a solution.
Good Example: Make sure that the Metric is quantifiable. It should have a [Number] and [Timeframe] attached to it. See below differences:
- Reduce Ramp time from 6 months to 4 months
- Reduce Churn that's at 15-20%
- Increase our close rate by 15%
- Reduction in average handling time per support case by 20%
- Get to 100% activation and adoption of Salesforce by November
🗣️ Sample Discovery Questions
- If you purchase a solution like "our product", how will you justify this purchase in 6 months?
- What success outputs are you trying to achieve by purchasing a solution?
- How is your team measured today and how would a solution like this improve or enhance those?
- How will you track or measure the success of this priority or project 6 months down the line?
- What key metric are you trying to improve or are tasked with improving?
- What are some of the key metrics that you discuss internally that you think we should be aware of?
- What's getting in the way of (you, the team, or the company) in hitting these metrics?
- What metrics do you think are most important to (insert boss name)?
- What happens if you don't hit these metrics?
MEDDIC METRICS
MEDDIC - Executive Buyer
MEDDIC: E stands for Economic Buyer.
Find out who has the POWER to spend the appropriate budget. Who makes the financial decisions as they pertain to the solution you are selling?
This person may not be the point of contact you have established at the company, but they are important nonetheless are the ultimate decision maker or have VERY heavy influence over if your deal closes.
If you can not speak directly to them, work with your Champion to understand their mindset, expectations, priorities, decision-making process so that you can appeal your pitch to their motivations. If the Champion, can not articulate WHO this will be or refuses to give you access/share information is a 🚩 red flag.
MEDDIC - Decision Criteria (Solution)
MEDDICC: D stands for Decision Criteria.
🤷🏿 Why do I need to know the Decision Criteria?
These are the non-negotiables or the features/values that our company needs to provide or prove that it is the right solution to move the deal forward. Sometimes the Decision Criteria exist in a physical form where the customer has taken time to construct the specification of their requirements on paper. However, more frequently the Decision Criteria will be in an informal understanding across stakeholders.
An exception to this is, of course, if the customer has created criteria set out in an RFI or RFP process where the Decision Criteria play a large part in the specification to which the seller will be asked to respond to. ⛔️ We do not respond to RFI, RFP, or RFQs unless we have been involved in the building process.
What could be included in a prospect's Decision Criteria?
There are 2 categories in the decision criteria: ⚙️ Technical and 👔 Business
How do I uncover a prospect's Decision Criteria? Ask!
- Do you have a formal document outlining the criteria for selecting a solution?
- What are the most important criteria for you when making this decision?
- What/Which problems are being addressed by these required capabilities?
- Is the criteria being used to justify this purchase?
- Why are these criteria important to you and your organization?
- Who cares about these criteria within the organization?
MEDDIC - Decision Process
MEDDICC: D stands for Decision Process.
🤷🏿 Why do I need to know the Decision Process?
This is where you really dive deep to understand the STEPS in the process of HOW to move forward with the deal. It is the sellers' job to uncover the Decision Process as soon as they possibly can and then to consistently work with trying to advance their deal against each stage of it.
What all is involved in a Decision Process?
Things could include any of the below, but any good sales rep will ASK this directly to the Champion they are working with or others that emerge in the deal cycle.
- MSA, NDA, or other internal paperwork
- People & Approvals
- Reviews (security, legal, board)
- Vendor paperwork
HOW: Questions to uncover their Decision Process:
- How do you see these types of evaluations run internally?
- How have you made these types of decisions in the past?
- What hiccups have you seen happen in the process?
- This is how I work with companies evaluating Spekit ---- how does that sound to you? Anything to add?
- What do you foresee as the biggest concerns being raised when you bring up the conversation internally? Cost? Implementation time?
- Who from your IT team would need to be involved?
- Is there a vendor or security process that needs to be followed?
- Who from the business would have high influence on the decision? What would they need to see to be convinced?
- Do you have a legal or procurement team that needs to be involved?
- What is your $ threshold to buy a solution like Spekit?
⭐ ProTips:
📝 Use their process to guide a Mutual Action Plan
🚩 If the Champion can't answer or doesn't know the above, you need to find someone who does or help them navigate internally.
When do I validate the Decision Process?
It rarely stays the same as it started and different stakeholders will reveal different perspectives and requirements within the Decision Process. Therefore, the most elite sellers will constantly be on their toes checking for progress and updates against the Decision Process with every stakeholder they encounter.
MEDDIC - Identifying Pains
MEDDIC: I stand for Identifying Pains
🤷🏿 Why do I need to Identify Pain?
Uncovering & discussing TRUE business pain drives deals forward. Elite sellers know that finding pain is only the beginning of the process and that to gain the full benefit of any pains your customer may be feeling to progress your deal will require you to dig in deep to fully implicate the pain.
What is a 'Customer Pain'?
Pain is the driver, the ultimate reason why customers will act and buy your solution in the end. There are 3 types of Pain:
- Financial
- Efficiency
- People
It may not be obvious in the beginning, but there is always a trigger that gets decision makers to buy. It could be something that they need to solve, grow, improve, or reduce.
Questions to ask to uncover 'Pains':
- What's your biggest strategic priority for this year and what challenges might you run into along the way?
- Can you help me understand your biggest challenge as a [persona, title, or role]?
- What's causing you to prioritize as an initiative over other things on your list?
- Can you tell me about [PAIN] and why you think it's happening? Have you attempted to solve it?
- Who is involved in solving this pain and why do they care?
- What do you want to achieve by implementing this kind of solution?
- What would be the impact to your organization if this problem solved?
So you have uncovered pain, but is it deep enough? 🧅 Peel back the 'onion layers' to find pain. Which of the following three scenarios best describes the pain identified in this field:
Unless you are at Level 3 you should feel like you have some work to do.
MEDDIC PAINS
⭐ProTips:
- Curiosity wins: Always follow-up their response with Tell me more, or WHY?
- Talking about product features is a losing strategy, don't dive into "we can solve that with X" instead focus on VALUE -BASED topics to uncover their pain points and challenges
MEDDIC - Champion
MEDDIC: C stands for Champion.
🤷🏿 WHY do I need to develop a Champion
Your 'Champion' is the person with influence in the buying organization. They have...
- They have a passion for change
- They believe in what our company believes
- Have both personal and professional investments in your solution being selected
- Helping you sell internally to other Influencers within the organization
- Will be the one who can help you get executive alignment with the Executive Buyer
How to IDENTIFY and 🧱build a 🏆CHAMPION
Identifying & understanding your champion's motivations can help you both sell together. They are your seller when you are not in the room, so the better you can partner with them - the quicker and potentially LARGER deal you will have!
