He did indeed touch type: He just used two fingers.


 


“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”


– Leonardo da Vinci


 


I once worked for a wonderful head of sales named Tom Jones.


No, not Tom Jones the singer. This Tom was an ex-Marine,


ex-hardware salesperson who ascended the ladder and


joined our software company as the Global VP of Sales.


 


He was highly skilled in sales practices,


but woeful at actually using software.


 


For example, all his email messages were short


and drafted in ALL CAPS.


 


We were never sure if he had hit the Caps Lock key


accidentally and never turned it off,


or if he really wanted it to appear that he was yelling!


 


To set the stage, we were in the process of


evaluating new sales forecasting systems.


 


While I felt one product had what we needed and


was far superior to the other options under consideration,


there were concerns from the sales team


that this offering might be too difficult to use.


 


A demo had been scheduled to address this concern.


 


I met with the vendor salesperson and suggested


that we ask Tom to drive a short portion of the demo


to really prove how easy it was to use.


 


The rep was reluctant but agreed.


 


And so, very early in the demo, the vendor rep


invited Tom to take the mouse and execute a few tasks,


including accessing reports for the current forecast


and next two quarters’ pipeline.


 


Tom managed it without error and immediately


several of our team members exclaimed,


“Well, if Tom can do it, we can do it!”


 


Done deal.


 


Moral: That’s a very effective way to prove ease of use!


 


This is a great example of “Let Your Prospect Drive” in demos


– see the section starting on page 197 in Great Demo!


here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C9SNKC2Y/


 


And here’s some great winter reading: “Suspending Disbelief”


offers 35 fun, bitesize, engaging stories and lessons learned


like the one above. Enjoy!


https://tinyurl.com/yc7rsrmy