Guide | Sales Stage 3: Demo

1. What is a Stage 3: Demo opportunity?

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.

Forecast Category	Most Likely
Deal Risks	Vendor of Choice, Budget allocation, Timing
Avg Days in S3:	XX
S3 conversion:	XX%

👤 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

EXECUTIVE OWNER	This is the internal Sponsor that will help align with the their executives and get the deal unstuck if the Champion or rep needs additional support
BUDGET STATUS	🐙 Executive Owner & 🐙  Decision Maker are willing AND able, and committed to buying a solution within 90 days or less.
MUTUAL ACTION PLAN	There should be an agreed upon Mutual Action Plan started (ending with an Implementation timeframe) and all key milestones from their 🐙  Decision Process & 🐙 Decision Criteria (Solution)
DECISION PROCESS	You are clear on the steps required to get this deal approved from Budget, to Security, to Legal.
PAID SPEKIT USERS	To understand scope of the implementation, you will need to uncover how many users they plan to go live with.
VENDOR OF CHOICE	Buyer is at least 70% confident that we are the 🐙 Vendor of Choice . The reasons backward we wouldn’t be the vendor of choice are clear.
TARGET IMPLEMENTATION DATE	The rep and champion need to uncover the implementation date to work backwards for the Mutual Action Plan.

Seller Activities

Custom Demos	You are multithreading to key stakeholders and demoing to ‘problem we are solving’ and speaking to the value we can bring (🐙 Use Cases Topic). Involve a SC, where necessary, to assist with custom demos.
Success Overview	You are giving them an overview of our success process, timeline, and needs. For example, will content services be helpful?
Differentiating from Competition	You need to help the prospect realize our 🐙 Defensible Differentiators to box out competition.  These are features unique to our company that we believe delivers on our ‘Just in Time’ methodology.
Building Mutual Action Plan	Buyer is willing to contribute 100% to the 🐙 Template | Mutual Action Plan and is willing to involve any additional parties needed to move the deal forward
Quantifying the Problem	Asking for their internal data points to map back to ROI.  You have quantifiable 🐙 Metrics that map back to revenue to build a solid 🐙 Business Case
Decision Process	You have a complete understanding of their decision process, timeline, and risks. You have outlined everyone who needs to see the product, and confirmed their understanding of the solution.
Plays	Send Videos by Use CaseFree TrialSet up a slack channel with the buyerBegin to schedule Custom WorkshopsCustomer References

2. Demo Methodology | Tell-Show-Tell Overview

What is the Tell-Show-Tell Method?

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:

1. A demo best-practice methodology
2. A clear roadmap for aligning our company’s value to the prospect’s needs
3. A way to use the demo to get soft closes from the prospect

What does Tell-Show-Tell Look Like?

Initial Tell	The first tell is where you are not doing anything on screen, just talking. Tell the viewers what functionality they are about to see and what need it fulfills. Don’t use internal jargon here. This is also a great place to ask a discovery question.
Show	This is the visual demo portion where you show a feature. The tip here is to avoid narrating what you are doing. Make it simple, and identify the functionality. Then explain how it works. Don’t narrate all of your clicks. The goal is to show how our product solves their business problem, not to explain everything about how everything works.
Closing Tell	This is where you explicitly tie the functionality to the value. You’re telling them (after you’ve shown them) that a specific feature will solve a particular business problem. This is a great place to ask a trap-set question that boxes out the competition or that gets the prospect to articulate their agreement that our product will solve their problems.

🔗 LinkedIn Article: Sales Engineer Show and Tell Time: The Tell-Show-Tell Overture by Gregory Hansen

3. Demo Rules of Engagement | Types of Sales 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.

End User	Goal: To provide a solution overview from the end user perspective.  Focus on ease of use, accessibility to resources, overall rep behavior	Lead: AE or SE (depending on ROE)	Best Practices: Keep it high level and focus on the solution, not the features.Always run discovery throughout the demo and ask engaging questionsPlan for next steps (admin demo, workshop, etc)
Admin	Goal: To provide an overview of our product from an Admin perspective.  Focus on ease of use, ease of deployment and overall behavior.	Lead: SE	Best Practices:Focus on core featuresHigh level overview of analytical features and attention to rep behavior
Solution Overview	Goal: To provide an overview of our company in 10-15 min that leads to an end user demo.	Lead: AE	Best Practices:Keep it high levelFocus on use case (adoption/enablement)
Custom Demo	Goal: To provide a demo of our product in a prospect’s sandbox environment.	Lead: SE	Best Practices:Get access to Sandbox ~48 hours in advance of demoPlan demo overview meeting with prospect and SE to understand needs for solution in Sandbox
Workshop (in lieu of trial)	Goal: To prove ease of use of our product to prospect with guided assistance	Lead: SE	Best Practices:Invite users to Workshop environment before call with instructionsHave single user share screen and walk them through our core functionality as others follow alongAvoid features that aren’t as user friendly

 

4. 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

Customize and surface your sales playbooks where reps are prospecting

All this content (and more) is available to import and surface in Salesforce, LinkedIn, or wherever your reps are prospecting. Give your revenue team the bite-sized training, coaching, and knowledge they need – where and when they need it.

See Spekit in Action

5. Sales Resources | 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

6. 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:

1. Reducing deal risk
2. Decreasing unnecessary work
3. Improving self-awareness
4. Understanding the scope of evaluation
5. 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.

Example: Using Spekit to reinforce your Mutual Action Plan (MAP)

7. 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:

• Top 3 Priorities:

1. Rolling out new methodology to drive AE attainment. CRO- Adam Tessan initiative
2. CPQ rollout in September for better cash collection. Head of RevOps Laura Smith initiative
3. 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:
  • Salesforce
  • Clari 
  • Outreach
     
• 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

8. 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:

1. Better qualify prospects – By asking smarter questions, it stops us from wasting time on bad deals.
    
2. Simplify the sales process – It makes sales about gathering information rather than using tired tricks.
    
3. Forecast better – By understanding the customer’s buying process, we can better predict when deals will close.
    
4. Coach to deal gaps – Managers can identify missing information and potential roadblocks to a deal.
    
5. Create a common language – By using a common framework, we reduce the subjectiveness of what makes a “good prospect or deal”.
    
6. Increase close rates – By working hand-in-hand with the buyer, we can control the deal to finish line.  

9. 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