Claudio Sennhauser

Peter E. Cohan is the author of Great Demo!, one of the few books specifically written for product demonstrators. As of today, he is also the author of the first ever Christmas Story for product demonstrators:

‘Twas the Night Before The Big Demo
(with apologies to Clement Clarke Moore):

‘Twas the night ‘fore the demo and all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, ‘cept my SC and his mouse;
I’d proposed a big licensing deal with great care
In hopes a big order soon would be there;

Management was restless and not in their beds
As visions of bonuses danced in their heads;
And my VP with his forecast and me with my own,
Had just started a long EOQ roam,

When out from my mobile there came a great ring-tone,
I sprang from my chair to answer my phone,
What could it be? Was it good news or no?
A last-minute order? A contract? PO?

Greetings, said my assistant, who spoke on the line,
It was someone to see me, offering help at this time!
Who could it be at this late eleventh-hour,
To make the deal sweet and avoid something sour?

Away to the door I flew in a flash,
And swept it open in my quest for fast cash,
When who to my wondering eyes should appear,
The DemoGuru! And standing so near!

He came in my office and, while dusting off snow,
Said, “I have some news that you’ll want to know.”

You will want to know too… So head over to Peter’s blog to read the rest of this entertaining story.

Whenever you are introducing a new product or idea, you are proposing change. Change, however, is often met with skepticism.

You have to invoke strong mental images in your audience to which they can relate to in a good way, or otherwise your proposed change may not be perceived as positive change at all. Facts and figures may only get you so far here… But once an audience sees your message in a context that translates into a sensory experience, it will literally make sense. As a result, you are bound to get the necessary emotional response that will lead to action.

“People don’t really buy
your product, solution, or idea,
they buy the stories that are attached to it.”

Michael Margolis, author of Believe Me

So storytelling is important and stories can be useful in all aspects of communication, not just presentations and product demonstrations.

How to become a better storyteller in your presentations?

• Actively Listen to Good Stories
  You will find them everywhere… Great stories are what makes the world go around and they are found in large scale as well as on a very small scale. The key is to become a good storylistener. A listener who has a good ear for the words and ways in which a story is delivered. What is the plot? How are the characters described? How is the story chunked and sequenced? Those are all aspects that will make a difference in how a story is being received. Start to tune into those finer details in other people’s stories and your own storytelling will automatically improve.
• Hang Out with Storytellers
  The world wide web is a fabulous place for people of like minds to gather. Drop in to some of the places that cater specifically to storytellers. Places like the International Storytelling Center, the National Storytelling Network, and the Society for Storytelling are great places to find inspiration and information to make you a better storyteller.
• Join a local theater group
  Great storytellers often have a theatrical way in which they deliver their stories. I’m not proposing you should present your next product demonstration in the ways of Othello. What joining a theater group will give you is a greater appreciation for the elements of your voice (volume, intonation, pitch, modulation) as well as the knowledge and skills to better use these elements.

Where to find your stories?

• If you are in a large company, ask your co-workers to tell you the stories they know that relate to your business or industry. If you have access to the founder of the company, even better – ask him or her what made them so passionate to end up starting their company. Look out for those stories that people tell with passion, laughter, and enthusiasm.
• If you are the founder of your own company, take a trip down memory lane. What were the stories that led to the company in the first place? I’m convinced there are many neglected stories worth telling in there…
• Ask your customers and prospects about their issues. What are some of the stories around your field of activity that they are passionate about?
• Look at any area of your business and then chunk up and chunk down. What do you see when you look at the bigger picture? What do you find in the details? Taking different perspectives will often lead you to discover some interesting facts just waiting to be told as a story.

The power of stories doesn’t end with the presentation or product demonstration. There is room for great stories at every step of the sales cycle. I worked for a few companies that provided high quality products that came with an appropriate price tag. As a result, I often had to deal with discussions about the price of our products. I never did it in a direct way. I rather told a story:

What stories are working well for you? Can you find even more to add real life context to your demos and presentations? I bet you can.

The above presentation was created with Prezi – my favorite new slide show alternative.

Jonathan Altfeld is an internationally known trainer of communication skills. He recently released his latest creation, the 4-CD set “Creating the Automatic YES”. In this program, Jonathan teaches how to elicit and influence emotional states in elegant and natural ways. Although the program focuses on one-on-one communication, all of the skills and knowledge taught can be applied to product demonstrations and group presentations as well.

The program starts out with the two modules The Power of Context and People Only Take Action in Action States. The listener will quickly understand why emotional states in communication are key to getting a message across. The course then continues to educate the listener about the importance of emotional awareness in all of our communication — and especially in our persuasive communication.

Listen to this sample track from CD 1, Our Ability to Influence is Proportional to EQ. In it, you will hear Jonathan say: “Lead your audience to an Action State in a way that aligns with their values and beliefs.” With that sentence, Jonathan sums up what you will get from the program: the ability to elicit and influence emotional states in your audience.

“Creating the Automatic YES,” not surprisingly, is all about emotional states. You will learn how to lead someone from an Encounter State to an Action State — not in one big step, but through the chaining of smaller state changes in between. This is a skill that will set you apart from other presenters. Thinking about how your audience will feel when they watch your product demo will most certainly help you add great stories — and sequence them for maximum impact — when preparing your demo script.

Although I didn’t plan on it, I listened to the entire course in one sitting. It takes a little under four hours and the quality and logical order of information, bundled with Jonathan’s entertaining presentation style, makes this program seem shorter than it actually is.

For me, this program is a keeper! I recommend it to any product demonstrator as a secret weapon. Armed with it, you will be able to elicit and change the emotional states of your audience with elegance. I consider this the main ingredient that will lead to truly memorable demos. Here’s a link to Jonathan’s product page.

This morning I came across the blog post “From Telegraph to Twitter: The Language of the Short Form“ by Roy Peter Clark, the author of the book ”Writing Tools” and producer of the hit podcast by the same name.

In his post, Clark writes about the impact Twitter has on language. As a late adopter, Clark just recently joined Twitter and in his article, he thoughtfully discusses the value Twitter offers to language, despite (or perhaps because of) its 140 character limit.

Clark’s main message is that

The brevity of an e-mail message, a blog post, a text message,
even a tweet, is no obstacle to powerful information,
a persuasive argument, a literary moment, a zinger, a joke.

This made me think of presentations and product demonstrations…and how they could benefit from this long known, but too often overlooked, understanding: less is often more.

Did you know, the book Giving Memorable Product Demos, written by Nathan Gold and yours truly, is now available on Amazon.com? Although local Amazon stores do not carry the title, people abroad can order it on Amazon.com for worldwide delivery.

I am especially proud of the feedback we have received from our early readers. Here are a few of the kind words we were sent:

If you have read the book already, I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to comment below.

Some projects just take a while to finish. The book Giving Memorable Product Demos was one of those projects. The hard work and careful attention to detail was worth it though. I’m very proud of this book and tickled to see it now listed at Amazon.com.

Check it out. It’s a great gift for your friends!