High Octane Product Management

MARCH 10, 2017

In a perfect world, you’ll always understand big picture business objectives before a product demo and you’ll invest your time on prospects that give you the best chance making the sale. If you need to make the shift from selling tactical products to strategic business solutions, contact Proficientz to discuss how our Product Demo Training Courses can help you shorten sales cycles, improve win rates and expand the deal size.

Demo 9

Demo Positioning Blog B2B 9

Product Beautiful

JUNE 8, 2014

We did a “lunch-and-learn” where we fed the team pizza and spaghetti, while one of our product managers did a demo of the product and talked about how it was complimentary to the products they were already selling into their accounts.

Demo 35

Demo Sales Training Roadmap Events 35

High Octane Product Management

MAY 24, 2017

Product demo objections are a staple of the sales process in the B2B software business. Successful demos require that you master the art of making certain product deficiencies seem trivial in the grand scheme of the overall solution. The Playbook: The single biggest factor to overcoming product demo objections is to understand very early in the sales cycle the strategic goals of the executive buyers.

Demo 2

Demo Positioning Differentiation B2B 2

High Octane Product Management

FEBRUARY 25, 2017

When it comes to product demo techniques, there are two styles: telling and selling. The “telling” demo (stop me when you see a feature you like) won’t energize your buyers or set you apart from the competition. The “selling” demo energizes your buyers with a vision because it’s more about their business than it is your products. The “Telling” Demo. It’s more or less a rewind and replay for each demo.

Demo 2

Demo Positioning Blog Vision 2

Under10 Playbook

NOVEMBER 2, 2016

In some cases, it’s clear that the person doing the demo hasn’t prepared and is just following a canned script. In others, you can tell that they put a lot of time into tailoring the demo specifically for the client, but even then, the demo can often miss the target.

Demo 2

Demo Product Management Product Manager Management 2

Roman Pichler

JANUARY 25, 2017

Note that this approach still assumes that you can collect the relevant feedback in the sprint review meeting, for instance, by carrying out a product demo, usability test, or solution interview. Option 1: In the Sprint Review Meeting.

Workshop 121

Workshop Demo Testing Presentation 121

High Octane Product Management

MARCH 9, 2017

In this issue we cover everything from obsessing over customer success to demo techniques to improving your website lead generation and conversion. We also throw in a few tips for improving feature adoption, product demos, product planning and win-loss analysis. Web Demos: Engaging An Audience You Can’t See. Product Demo Techniques: Telling Versus Selling. The B2B Product Manager Magazine March 2017 is now available.

Magazine 2

Magazine Demo B2B Blog 2

High Octane Product Management

MARCH 9, 2017

In this issue we cover everything from obsessing over customer success to demo techniques to improving your website lead generation and conversion. We also throw in a few tips for improving feature adoption, product demos, product planning and win-loss analysis. Web Demos: Engaging An Audience You Can’t See. Product Demo Techniques: Telling Versus Selling. The March 2017 Issue of The B2B Product Manager Magazine is now available.

Magazine 2

Magazine Demo B2B Blog 2

Under10 Playbook

NOVEMBER 10, 2016

For many, this means supporting sales people on individual deals—such as doing presentations and demos or authoring RFPs. How often does a custom demo outperform a standard one? Could demos be put online in a video format? Should we set up a demo center?

Demo 74

Demo Engineering Product Management Product Manager 74

Mind the Product

JULY 21, 2017

But just as importantly they are mindful about knowledge transfer, ensuring that the other product teams and the go-to-market teams like sales and marketing get the same customer and market insights, demos of work-in-progress, and more.

Vision 81

Vision Demo Strategy Engineering 81

Mironov Consulting

MAY 1, 2017

We know that Sales wants Product on every demo and customer call; Engineering has a full calendar of agile ceremonies; Marketing expects web-ready success stories and lots of booth duty; Support escalates dozens of hot customer issues.

Leadership 51

Leadership Product Management Product Manager Management 51

Product Powers

APRIL 4, 2015

She’d uncovered an opportunity to partner with a local firm that would distribute our free demo to a few thousand of their customers and she was convinced it would be an easy way to generate a lot of new business quickly. Printing demo discs was cheap and she just wanted my ok to get some co-branded materials made to package them with, and maybe we could do a seminar together, and dedicate some telesales resources to following up on the leads.

Seminar 29

Seminar Demo Product Management Product Manager 29

Mind the Product

NOVEMBER 18, 2016

Get people to practise things like stand-ups, demo days, progress reports, anything that exposes the work you’re doing. Coach, lean advocate and author Jeff Gothelf talked about scaling Lean principles at this year’s London #mtpcon.

Agile 132

Agile Leadership Product Management Product Manager 132

Tyner Blain

MAY 24, 2017

It was more than just incremental delivery, we really did incorporate agile principles like pairing and demoing, and engineering practices like automated build and test processes, code-reads, design for testing.

Agile 51

Agile Development Product Strategy Strategy 51

Under10 Playbook

MAY 24, 2017

” He is contacted directly by potential buyers—they don’t want a sales demo, they want advice. By the time the average customer reaches out to a company or is contacted by a sales rep, that customer's purchase decision is almost over. Matt Dixon, author, The Challenger Sale.

Demo 59

Demo Engineering Technology Product Management 59

Mind the Product

NOVEMBER 22, 2016

In the enterprise world visiting some sales demos can be an eye-opener too. The one spontaneous ovation at this year’s London MTPCon was when Drift CEO David Cancel muttered “I hate agile” as an aside while he was on stage.

UX 88

UX Development Product Management Product Manager 88

Mind the Product

APRIL 3, 2017

With an agreed vision and delivery plan and with the first members of the team on board, we did was what all good bands do: make a demo. The Demo. Some years ago, I wrote a blog post noting that small teams are more creative and productive than big teams.

Leadership 94

Leadership Agile Product Management Product Manager 94

Product Beautiful

FEBRUARY 24, 2014

Demo of our solution. What if we demoed the wrong solution for their needs? Nearly every product manager I speak to desires to be a leader in his or her organization.

Product Marketing 30

Product Marketing Marketing Seminar Product Management 30

Product Talk

JANUARY 27, 2016

38:40 The value of weekly demos across self-organizing teams. A few months ago, I sat down with Hope Gurion, Chief Product Officer at CareerBuilder , to talk about her team, how they work, and how she stays current in the fast-moving world of product management.

Product Management 22

Product Management Product Manager Management Management 22

Mind the Product

JUNE 13, 2017

Find other ways to engage that fit in with their constraints whether it’s personal demos, one off emails or quick conversations around the office — they’re hard work, but worth their weight in pigeon poop.

Leadership 38

Leadership Product Management Product Manager Management 38

Mironov Consulting

APRIL 19, 2017

Sales should do most product demos (not Product); Engineering should do QA testing (not Product); Marketing should design customer collateral (not Product). I’ve known Cliff Gilley, The Clever PM , for years — and follow his blog/Quora activity/social posts.

Events 10

Events Leadership Product Management Product Manager 10

Mind the Product

NOVEMBER 9, 2016

At the end of the week, demo the idea to the larger team, run user feedback studies, revise your experiments, and repeat. After years of false starts and incremental improvements, 2016 is the year where virtual reality (VR) has finally arrived.

Development 78

Development Product Management Product Manager Entertainment 78

Product Beautiful

AUGUST 24, 2016

So often, we see our role at a trade show as one of doing demos and talking up our product’s features. When you begin a demo, talk about the problem first. If they don’t, then demo the solution to a different problem.). By prefacing your demo with a conversation about problems (rather than leading with your product), you increase the likelihood of people being more open about their pain points. Events. It’s natural to dread them.

Events 4

Events Strategy Product Strategy Market Research 4

Under10 Playbook

NOVEMBER 2, 2016

You’ll want to tailor all of your sales materials—the web site, demo, presentation, ebooks—around this ideal customer profile. Analyzing past results to drive future successes may be the most important goal for today’s product leaders.

Automotive 69

Automotive Healthcare Demo Finance 69

Mind the Product

JANUARY 19, 2017

Whether your team is motivated by competitive pressure, pushing out a new feature before a big event or demo, or making a positive impact in the lives of your users, working both quickly and efficiently helps you to meet those goals.

Product Management 39

Product Management Product Manager Strategy Leadership 39

bpma ProductHub

DECEMBER 12, 2016

And with so many new innovations coming to the fore each month, Boston Innovators Group , Mass Innovation Nights , Boston New Technology meetup , and other groups offer monthly or quarterly innovation demo gatherings. Contributed by Steve Robins.

Product Management 11

Product Management Product Manager Management Management 11

Under10 Playbook

NOVEMBER 2, 2016

Every deal the company won had one thing in common: the buyer participated in a non-customized demo in the company briefing center. The solution was to standardize the selling process around a standard demo. Have it always ready for a standard demo.”

Product Marketing 2

Product Marketing Marketing Demo Document 2

Under10 Playbook

NOVEMBER 2, 2016

The product managers certainly need to be there to make sure nobody makes any claims that must be supported elsewhere—such as the demo or on the ever-changing product roadmap; you need to make sure nobody is making any promises the products can’t keep. “A Day at Corporate” Analyzing the win and loss patterns at one company revealed that many deals were being lost during the software demo. 13:00 product demo by the corporate demo team.

Demo 2

Demo Travel Naming Workshop 2

High Octane Product Management

APRIL 18, 2017

Product Demos: Selling Value in Spite of Product Deficiencies. The B2B Product Manager Magazine April 2017 is now available. In this issue we cover everything from selling value in spite of your product’s deficiencies to what makes a rock star product manager to the criticality of the functional designer role. Plus tips for hiring the right product manager and getting unbiased customer feedback. View the April 2017 Issue. In This Issue: Blog: High-Octane Product Management.

Positioning 2

Positioning Product Management Product Manager Blog 2

High Octane Product Management

APRIL 18, 2017

Product Demos: Selling Value in Spite of Product Deficiencies. The B2B Product Manager Magazine April 2017 is now available. In this issue we cover everything from selling value in spite of your product’s deficiencies to what makes a rock star product manager to the criticality of the functional designer role. Plus tips for hiring the right product manager and getting unbiased customer feedback. View the April 2017 Issue. In This Issue: Blog: High-Octane Product Management.

Positioning 2

Positioning Product Management Product Manager Blog 2

High Octane Product Management

MARCH 14, 2017

The Body Part: Product Demos. In many companies, product demos are a second string job for anyone with product expertise. The injury: poor problem discovery and poor preparation make for “show up and throw up” feature demos that bore prospects to tears and delay buying decisions. There’s a good reason why athletes in contact sports wear protective pads.

Product Management 2

Product Management Product Manager Blog Management 2

Under10 Playbook

NOVEMBER 2, 2016

When working with development, we have a set of requirements, we collaborate on the design of the solution, and then we accept completion of the features based on seeing them in a demo.

Product launches 2

Product launches Demo Product Marketing Development 2

Under10 Playbook

JUNE 21, 2017

” He is contacted directly by potential buyers—they don’t want a sales demo, they want advice. By the time the average customer reaches out to a company or is contacted by a sales rep, that customer's purchase decision is almost over. Matt Dixon, author, The Challenger Sale.

Demo 2

Demo Engineering Technology Product Management 2

High Octane Product Management

JUNE 20, 2017

Do it early in the sales process and your presentations and demos will flat out “nail it.”. If you’re going to dominate your market, you have to make the customer organization measurably better at their business, from the top down. Products and services are the means to the end, but every customer-facing function in your organization plays a role in delivering customer value. It’s like relay race.

Marketing 2

Marketing Positioning Blog Development 2

Under10 Playbook

NOVEMBER 2, 2016

That’s why many product managers get involved with roadmap discussions, technical demos, and answering RFP/RFIs. Product Demo Center. If your enterprise clients require a product demo, then treat it like a marketing program. Set up one or more demo centers with all the necessary equipment ready to go. Put some time into developing the most common scenarios and make it a great demo. Sales teams often need access to deep product knowledge.

Demo 2

Demo Enterprise Product Management Product Manager 2

High Octane Product Management

FEBRUARY 14, 2017

This concept also holds true for salespeople who do product demos, with the understanding that a further level of product training is required. Wealth made simple: news and articles from IRC Wealth. Product training for sales is one of the more daunting tasks for product managers and marketers and one of the biggest product rollout challenges in high-tech companies. You’ve created textbook sales and marketing materials.

Positioning 2

Positioning Blog Demo Differentiation 2

Under10 Playbook

NOVEMBER 2, 2016

Maybe you show a "before and after" image as a demo. A product marketing manager wonders what he should be doing while development is working on the product. It'll be six months until the first release is available. Six months? Before you worry about go-to-market, get a concept in front of some customers. Test your product idea. MVP is the smallest amount of coding that can be used to test your product hypothesis.”

Demo 2

Demo Testing Information Product Marketing 2

Under10 Playbook

NOVEMBER 2, 2016

They learned their customers’ decisions were tied directly to the effectiveness of the product demo. To make sure the product was shown in its best light, the firm developed a “ Day at Corporate ” program with a dedicated demo facility and staff.

Demo 2

Demo Workshop Definition Roadmap 2

Under10 Playbook

NOVEMBER 2, 2016

I like supporting sales people; I like doing demos. Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.—Sun —Sun Tzu, philosopher, author, The Art of War. “Strategy.” ” What a word. If I say “these activities are tactical,” people responsible for those activities get upset. If I say, “this is strategic,” people relax and feel better about themselves.

Strategy 2

Strategy Vision Demo Reference 2

Under10 Playbook

NOVEMBER 2, 2016

In between meetings, Meghan developed a presentation and demo and then trained the sales force—at least the ones who attended—on the product. Meghan was hired a few weeks before an initial product launch.

Demo 2

Demo Product launches Messaging Marketing 2