Posts about: discovery

Part 1 and Part 2 of this series revealed our secret ingredients for successful SKO keynote speakers and SKO soft-skills training sessions. We discussed vetting and aligning your keynotes to your strategic initiatives and the importance of coaching your executives for impact and effectiveness. We also covered why an SKO is strategically the best time to upskill your sales organization and the importance of not being overrun by breakout session requests from departmental leaders. But, informative breakout sessions are crucial to the knowledge transfer of departmental initiatives. In this final segment of our three-part series on Sales Kickoff Success, you will learn how to maximize the effectiveness of every breakout session speaker.

In Part 1 of this series, we focused on how you can ensure the success of your Keynote speakers. In part two of this series, we will explore why an SKO is a perfect time to up-skill your presales and sales teams in your virtual kickoff.

What do the modern Olympic games and winning sales demos have in common? 2% That is the statistical difference between the average Gold Medal and Silver Medal in the Olympics. The same holds true for the decision a group of stakeholders makes between staying with their current solution, switching to yours or choosing a competitor. The reality is that any judged event will have a similar bias. Why is that?

Congratulations! Your navigation through countless virtual demos and presentations is now 2020 hindsight as you've grown comfortable with whatever online tool your company utilizes (Teams, Zoom, GoToMeeting, Webex, etc.). You've probably set your achievement goals for 2021, but with all of the focus on how to best execute your demo and present in a virtual setting, do remember how to best CONNECT your demo to your audience using Discovery techniques in a virtual world. I've noticed a lack of blog attention to this crucial skill, so I've dedicated this article to describe some of the best tips and techniques for Discovery in today's reality.

Ever Have a Runaway Demo?

Your salesperson, Emma, has a “hot lead.” Kristian, the prospect and a company executive, wants to make a decision quickly and needs a demo “right away.” Emma presses Kristian to provide time to perform a formal discovery so she can get input from other stakeholders. Kristian asserts, “You don’t need to do that. I have a list of requirements from them, and we don’t have time for a bunch of interviews. That would take weeks. Why don’t you get your demo expert to provide us with an overview and we will guide him or her from there?” Emma accepts Kristian’s request, convinces her to send the list of requirements, and sets up the demo for the next business day.