As a born-and-raised Missourian, I am very familiar with the state motto, “Show me.”
To be clear, this is the Midwest ─ so unfortunately we’re not talking about “Show me the money” riches or even some Kid Ink/Chris Brown level romance lyrics here. Just some plain-talking, put-up-or-shut-up expectations that if you’re going to take up part of my time on this planet, it had better be real. This motto also roots itself in the HR Technology portion of my life. It’s no secret that every vendor is trying to sell their systems and services. But when I am watching a vendor presentation, you better be able to show me what you just tried to sell me.
I have sat through hundreds of vendor presentations, some of them good and some… not so much. After recently having the honor to view a demo gone stale, I was inspired to come up with the list of dos and don’ts regarding vendor demos and presentations. Here they are:
Do maintain professionalism. Dress to impress. Even if your office tends to be more business casual, the client might be used to business professional. In everything you do, put your best foot forward.
Do show off your system. Make sure to show the overall system and other important features like reporting, the employee experience, configurability and customization. This might include non-system differentiators like service, implementation quality or referenceable customers.
Do respect the client’s time. If you were given two hours, you have to be done within your allotted time, as difficult as that may be. Leave the prospect wanting more instead of proving you have nothing more to offer.
Do prepare in advance. You should know your role going in to the presentation and have practiced a little in advance. Practice transitions between speakers and technical changes in demo material.
Do have an updated agenda for the presentation. Make sure to cover everything that the client was expecting. I believe in starting off meetings with questions to make sure you prepared well. It’s always better to know where there might be concern up front than wonder about it for weeks afterwards while you’re waiting to hear if you got the contract.
Do have fun with the presentation. You can still be professional and fun. Keep in mind that most clients will be looking or have looked at other systems. Make your presentation stand out.
Do share your company’s culture (Assuming you have one, right?) Be memorable and you’ve given your audience something precious in exchange for the time of their lives they’ve just invested in you.
Don’t forget to introduce yourself. Let the client know who is talking to them. It doesn’t have to be long but it is nice to know names, location and roles within the company. Don’t be coy. If you’re new, tell why you joined the firm. What made you seek them out for a job.
Don’t forget about the client! Make sure to do your research prior to the presentation. You should know what they are wanting and what is important to them and cater your presentation around that. Employer clients are so vast in what they want, cookie cutter presentations just won’t fit! Also, don’t forget to change the logo that appears on your demo screen to that of the client’s!
Don’t speak in sales lingo or tech jargon. We get it. You want to sell your system. But as I mentioned before, we want to see your system and get into the functional side of things. Don’t alienate unnecessarily.
Don’t make up an answer to satisfy a question. If you don’t know the answer, just say so! Please don’t make something up or promise to deliver something that can’t be fulfilled in the implementation end of the process.
Don’t focus too much on future state or Roadmap items. Although it will come up and future features might be important to the client, focus on the current state of the system. Focusing on the Roadmap items can lead to overpromising when things don’t always go as planned and functionalities are delayed.
I know most of these seem like such common sense things, but you’d be surprised at how many vendors have committed one or more of these presentation sins! An effective demo is so important in the decision process for new technology systems, that even just one of these mistakes could make it or break it for a vendor.