The Proof of the Pudding is in the Eating

Challenge: Turning Prospects into Active Buyers

Your prospects buy your solution to solve a problem. Nothing better demonstrates your solution’s key attributes and its ability to solve that problem than an actual demonstration. Think about late night infomercials. These programs show products being used and how they’ll enhance the lives of potential buyers. They quickly get to the point with a dramatic demonstration – the absorption power of some new patented cloths, the ease with which new mops pick up dirt and liquid, or the rapid pace at which one can lose weight using the diet pill or exercise program being pitched.

Demonstrate how your solution will make the lives of your prospective customers better. Remember that there are two slightly different, but related, value propositions. The first is the impact that your product will have on the prospect. How will your solution make their work day easier or better? What problem do you solve for them? The second value proposition is how you assist the prospect’s company overall. This proposition will assist them in making the case to their superiors.

Your demonstration must be delivered at a convenient time and in a suitable venue for your prospect. Most often, this venue is the Internet, and the demonstration is in the form of a web demonstration – live or recorded. The prospect can see the product in action and ask questions. The early stages of your lead development programs (e.g., initial email series) should be designed to drive prospects to these demonstrations. Ideally, these program components should demonstrate how your product will make your prospects’ lives easier and also pay dividends for their company. The combination of these two benefits will help start true sales engagement because now the prospect has personal motivation and a way to ‘sell’ your solution inside the company.

Finally, these demonstrations offer a way to scale your lead qualification efforts as this first step is an important step in driving sales accepted leads. If your lead development reps ensured that all prospects have already seen this introductory demonstration and then further qualified the prospects, imagine how much more productive your sales team will be throughout the rest of the sales process. Prospects will be highly qualified and they will be on a faster sales track, making your sales process more efficient.

Lesson: Online demonstrations qualify your prospects and excite them to take further sales actions making the entire sales process more efficient.

Author: Larry Stein at TechMarketingStrategies

For the last 20 years, I have led demand generation teams supporting high growth technology companies. Now working as an independent consultant, my responsibility is to apply best practices in the creation of these programs. My goal is to enable marketing teams to become self sufficient with a data driven culture of KPI's, test and measurement in service of achieving company revenue targets. My approach is to work with senior management identifying objectives and wildly important goals. With these in mind, we work together to build programs, processes and systems that will reach these goals along with the measurement KPI's to evaluate progress. Along the way we will enable the team to manage and maintain these systems so achieving these goals becomes a natural cadence of the marketing organization. View all posts by Larry Stein at TechMarketingStrategies