The Sales Engineer

Does Anyone Have Any Questions?!?

Darrin Mourer — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 14:38:57 +0000

Does this sound familiar: You’re going through your presentation or demo, you get to a transition point, you pause, and… crickets. So you ask “does anyone have any questions?”. Nothing, or maybe an uncomfortable “not right now”, comes back. So you try that again, this time maybe you don’t wait so long until asking again. Same response. Rinse and repeat this cycle 5 to 7 times and you have a very common affliction that affects many of us.

Before we come back to the underlying cause, let’s get the tactics out of way. Please stop doing this. It makes the customer uncomfortable. It makes you look nervous or not in control. And it waters down your presentation.

Now, there are two reasons we tend to do this. We either want to gauge our audience or we want to see if they are engaged with us. Unfortunately, no measure of questioning is going to fix a boring pitch. If your message is not resonating, you already knew that, or you wouldn’t have begun interrogating your subjects. So here is what I recommend in terms of gauging your audience:

Segment your talk – Have clear breakpoints that divide it into sections. Make sure the audience always understands where the transitions will be in advance so if you’re going to leave a topic, they know they can/should speak up
Go slow – The faster you talk, the less interactions there will be. Always pause slightly longer than you think you should between key points. It’s amazing how strong a vacuum a bit of silence creates
Have plants – Have prepared questions FOR THEM at specific transitions in your talk. They should be relevant, thought provoking, and open ended
Work as a team – Your rep should be asking some of these questions. Having more than one person speaking naturally induces others to speak
Don’t wait – The longer someone goes without talking, the less likely they are to break that momentum. Start early with general qualification questions and keep them rolling at regular intervals getting more specific as you go
Aim at a target – You can direct your questions to specific individuals. It shows greater awareness of the customer’s make-up and it necessarily guarantees a response
As a last resort, stop – If nothing really is working, just stop the presentation. Communicate that you think you’re missing the mark and that you should back up. Either they’ll be embarrassed and insist you keep going, or they’ll agree and you can reset expectations

The moral of the story here is preparation. Approach audience engagement as a strategy, complete with contingency plans.

Alternatives to PowerPoint

Darrin Mourer — Thu, 02 May 2013 20:38:57 +0000

I happen to like PowerPoint and there is certainly nothing wrong with using it when done correctly. However, for those looking to experiment with some alternatives, David Cannon posted a quick list of alternatives. Though I’ve tried all of them, I was very impressed with the Google Docs presentation (worth the click); maybe I need to give that another shot… Check it out.

The Inside Job

Darrin Mourer — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 18:10:29 +0000

I’ve been catching up on some past seasons of a pretty good crime show called White Collar. It’s got a lot of Thomas Crowne overtones to it. One of which is that while external heists are some of the flashiest of crimes, the inside job is less dashing yet often more elegant and effective. It got me thinking about some of my bigger successes and what separated them from lesser performances. In almost every case I could point to having a good inside man with the customer. In most circles they are known as Champions (as in they champion your cause). As SEs we should be especially mindful of creating, nurturing, and enabling ours to be successful. So in this article we’ll look at some processes and best practices around doing so.

What makes a good champion?

Sadly, they are not all the same. It helps if you can search out the right type of candidate for the job. There are some consistent traits to be cognizant of:

They are leaders – This goes far beyond formal authority (though that isn’t bad either). These are the guys to whom everyone turns and listens to when they speak
They’re smart – They often are the smartest people in the room. Do not mistake that as being the most technical (often they are not)
They are fast movers – They have risen quickly in the organization. Minimally they will bring a lot energy to the conversation
They make stuff happen – There is a low tolerance for bureaucracy. Committee is a four-letter word

So how do you find them?

Leadership

Be aware of social behavior in the group. Who is mandatory at strategic meetings. Who takes center stage at critical decision points. Who seems to cast the deciding vote when disagreement arises. Who does upper
management defer to.

Smarts

You can have the most gifted technical wizard in the room, but if he can’t choose a matching outfit to save his life, you may have just discovered that this intelligence is very one dimensional. In those cases be aware that this person will not exhibit the other characteristics mentioned here. You’re looking for the guy that asks a very intelligent question, is very articulate, that my not appear to be listening until he looks up and spouts off a brilliant insight. This person will exhibit very pragmatic and big picture thinking.

Fast Movers

They are clearly on a fast track to growth in their own careers. They’re young for their position. They have a great track record but may not have been in their position very long. Above all they will be politically minded (not necessarily in a bad way) and will understand relationship dynamics at play.

Doers

Folks who play it safe don’t rise all that quickly. Doers set their sites on an end result and are relentless in their focus. You’re looking for the people who don’t play it safe. In meetings, they will handle or knock down objections for you. They devise workaround strategies quickly. They find reasons to say Yes instead of No.

How can you develop and help them?

While there is a initiation dance up front, you should feel comfortable in being plain with your desire to partner up. While it is ill-advised to attempt to “buy off” your contact, there’s nothing wrong with having them join you at a nice restaurant alone to convey a sense of exclusivity to the arrangement. Once the basic relationship is cultivated, you have to ask yourself a very specific question: What do I have to offer to him or her? Just what is it that s/he gets out of the arrangement? Here is a short list of items to consider:

Access to internal material such as market and competitive collateral. Remember that these folks are competing against internal rivals. Help them get the upper hand on intelligence
Private contact with your executives. Help them demonstrate clout and seniority to their peers. It also helps them build their own list of industry contacts
Access to your existing customer base. For all the reasons above
Invitations to events. Obvious yes, but in last place for a reason

Just by being cognizant of growing your champion base, as well as always keeping the WIIFM in mind, you will find your sales cycles shored up, and in most cases shortened.