Can We Demo Now?
Recently, I learned a fascinating lesson from a friend who’s building a B2B company - his take was that while a great product is important, what he really wished he’d learned much earlier was how to sell. In fact, he was so committed to getting better at sales that he’d hired a sales coach. And he shared an anecdote about how he utilizes the methods the coach has taught him to date. Which I’ve turned into this stylized narrative, written from the perspective of a prospective C-level buyer who’s been talked into taking a meeting with some small software vendor as a favor to an investor friend, thinking he’s going to get a quick demo and hopefully cut the 1 hour session short…
Hey! I’m your buyer! Can we demo now?
You’re not selling anything? Hmm, our mutual investor friend told me you were going to pitch your product.
You don’t know what you’d even demo? Haha, you’re not very prepared! What does your company even do?
You optimize productivity for <insert-tech-buzz-word>? Yeah, we have some <insert-tech-buzz-word> in our stack, I think. It’s not really something I spend too much time on…
How’s our <insert-tech-buzz-word> deployment going? I mean, it’s fine. Like I said, I have more critical infrastructure to worry about.
How do we go from fine to amazing? Like I said, I don’t spend too many cycles on <insert-tech-buzz-word> - I have a team that handles it. I guess if I really think about it, amazing would look like that team being 80% smaller. But that’s not likely…
Why is it unlikely? I mean, that’s just the way <insert-tech-buzz-word> goes, right? It takes a huge team to manage.
Yeah, I did say I don’t spend too many cycles on it. But we’ve always had a huge team on <insert-tech-buzz-word> since Day 1. I don’t see that changing…
What do you mean whose decision is that? I guess it’s my decision…but I don’t see a reason to distract my team with an evaluation. They’re so swamped right now…
Why are they so swamped? You know, I’m not really in the weeds on <insert-tech-buzz-word>, so I don’t know why the team is always under water…
Who would know? Bob is my lead for the area - he would definitely know what his team is up to on <insert-tech-buzz-word>...
Can we call Bob now? Yeah, you know…yeah, we can. Even I’m curious now as to what this whole team is up to around <insert-tech-buzz-word>...
Put him on speaker? Yeah, yeah - sure. Hey Bob! No, no - no issue. Just sitting here with this guy who runs a company focused on <insert-tech-buzz-word>.
Yeah, exactly. I told him you were our expert on <insert-tech-buzz-word>. So lemme ask you Bob…why do we need a team of X people on this right now?
Yeah, yeah - exactly. It’s always been that way since Day 1. Just takes X people to run it. That’s exactly what I was saying earlier. But Bob…if the team was 80% leaner, what do we lose? We could put those folks to work on higher priority stuff for our business instead of <insert-tech-buzz-word> maintenance…
I hear you, lots of surface to cover. Yeah, so much “keep the lights on” work. No, your team is under-water, I get it Bob. Just wanted to get a pulse…
What’s that now? You know, that’s a great question! What is all the surface your team is covering on <insert-tech-buzz-word>?
Oh I gotcha. Yeah it probably is a lot to explain on the phone. Maybe we can do a session on it sometime…
What’s that now? You know, that’s a great idea! Could you come into my office right now and walk me through it? I have the whole hour blocked off…
You’ll need time to prepare a slide deck? Hmm, yeah, I get that…
What’s that now? I love it! This guy is full of helpful suggestions! Just show us the product! Can we demo our product to this guy over Zoom right now?
Hmm, it takes X people to run this? Seems kind of like a lot…
Yeah, I hear you Bob. We do have to improve the initial setup.
No, no, I get it. I definitely heard folks want a faster experience.
Really, I know Bob. You’ve always told me about this limitation with <insert-tech-buzz-word>.
What’s that now? You’ve built your product with a super-simple setup flow? With a much faster experience. And your key innovation is that you overcame the limitation around <insert-tech-buzz-word>? I’d love to see that…that would free up 80% of the X people on Bob’s team!
What do you mean our hour is up? Yeah, no, we can definitely follow up. I’m going to make sure Bob connects with you. This is going to be his #1 priority….
Don’t thank me for my time! Now I really want to see your product in action - and I don’t want to wait another week! If you can stay a little longer, I can skip my next meeting…
I understand you want to be respectful of my time, but…
Hey! I’m your buyer! Can we demo now?
As always, I’d also love to hear from readers about their experiences telling the story of their product - please chime in via comments👇 or join the chat via the Substack app.
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further reading / references
the buyer in this story is someone who spends more time tapping vs typing
most executive buyers in the enterprise resonate with cutting taxes
remember, all B2B products have to connect to revenue ultimately
this post showcases multiple instances of enterprise SaaS truisms
this essay includes one example of B2B telephone - here is another
I’ve written before about the importance of pitching your point of view, and this anecdote provides techniques for tailoring that pitch per prospect
If you enjoyed the narrative style of this post, check out Savior Syndrome and The Ineffective Executive
childish drawing / interpretation
