Gone are the days where software demos would start with an architectural diagram of the solution stack, leading into showcasing the general ledger, posting a transaction, and finally demonstrating the net result (which was all usually followed by a yawn, stretch, snore, or thoughts of lunch). Current industry trends suggest that, for the most part, business management solutions at the backend have essentially become commoditized—meaning that there’s not much differentiation between solutions with regards to their core accounting processes and functions.
Enter the world of insights, visualizations, KPI’s, dashboards and alerts!
Leading with these showstoppers, your demo will sizzle and enable you to take your prospects on a journey that will illustrate how this visual information simplifies decision making, and helps them succeed at business. This can and often is the difference between no decision versus a closed deal.
So, what am I actually trying to say?
Well, having worked in the Business Intelligence and reporting industry alongside business management solution vendors and their channels for over 13 years, one of the highest priority pain points that customers have is getting access to data to support decision making—be that a report, dashboard, KPI etc. This challenge is further complicated by the fact that data volumes are growing 56 percent year on year (according to a recent Aberdeen Group study), and so customers are faced with more information to disseminate and make sense of.
Recent studies with SMB customers reveal the following:
- 70 percent still manually export data to Excel
- 98 percent believe that they would drive value from an integrated Excel based reporting solution
- 86 percent believe that a high level dashboard across the entire business would be valuable
- 51 percent believe that getting info in a timely manner is their #1 challenge
My suggestion is that you address, head-on, one of the most pervasive challenges that we all know customers face every day, by leading with the solution in all your demos and bringing back the sizzle, and not boring your prospects with outdated demo techniques and showcasing essentially what every other vendor has on offer.
Differentiate yourself and your solution by beginning with the end in mind, for example; demonstrate to your customers how they can have their business health check dashboard delivered straight to their mobile devices for on-the-go analysis, or how the financial controller in their organisation can have their financials delivered at the click of a button into the format of their choice and distributed across the business on a predefined schedule.
Now you have their attention and are showcasing value.
So, the next time you’re preparing for a demo, be sure to lead with the sizzle of insights, visualisations, KPI’s, dashboards, alerts and reporting—being confident that you will be showcasing a solution to an existing problem, and ensuring that you and your solution are remembered for the right reasons!
