Demo Psychology: To Show Or Not To Show — THAT Is The Question!
Sales Engineers spend a lot of time thinking about how much to show in a demo. In my previous article — Demo Psychology: Why Less Is More — I write about how it can be helpful to stick to a Minimum Viable Demo. Focus on what the prospect wants. Don’t stray from the path. I even provide some scientific evidence conducted by a university professor to support the point.
And now, as with so many things related to the brain, I’m going to make what you might think is a contradictory argument. To be fair, it’s not completely contradictory. It’s more guidance. Something to consider. As with everything in life, there are no absolutes.
It’s commonly understood that the brain will jump to conclusions based on limited evidence. It is one of the things that makes human communication so complicated. If I don’t tell you enough, the conclusions you come to will most likely not be what I meant. If I attempt to tell you too much, you’ll tune out — because I’m taking too damn long — and you’ll just form your own conclusion. It is automatic. It happens every time you are provided information or stimulus. Your brain attempts to use what is available to piece together a likely explanation for what you’re seeing. Two things are true about this automatic judgement system:
- It works based only on the information that is immediately available. And it doesn’t really care about the amount or quality of that information. It does NOT, without some serious prompting, attempt to access any stored information about the new information, nor does it want to take time to do research. It decides based only on what is present — what the brain has seen.
- The minute it can create a story that appears to be the most likely explanation, it’s done. It accepts that story and doesn’t bother to consider other possibilities, including potentially overwhelming statistics that contradict the story.
Let me give you an example. Consider the phrase:
“Bill is at the bank.”
Your mind immediately creates a picture of a man (because Bill is traditionally a male name) walking into a building with some money or a checkbook or the like. UNLESS you’re a big outdoor enthusiast. And then maybe you pictured a man in hiking garb standing at the edge of a river. What you’re used to — what is available to you — is what you’ll use to build out the meaning of that statement. Those of us who grew up in suburubia think of bank as a building. Those who grew up more rurally think of the bank of a river.
What does this have to do with Less is More and what I show in a demo?
Consider this: As an SE, I experience, on more than one occasion during a demo, a situation where I was sure I clearly articulated how my product would do something a prospect asked about. We finished the demo, and I was confident we covered everything. Some days later, the prospect would decide not to pursue us. They didn’t believe we handled that capability they asked about. For which I provided a thorough explanation.
But they didn’t SEE it.
And true to its lazy nature, the prospect’s brain consumed what was immediately available — what it saw — and concluded that my product didn’t really do what it needed to. And didn’t believe my explanation, or perhaps did at the time and quickly forgot it. Or wasn’t really paying attention. This is called Cognitive Ease. Our beliefs aren’t usually based in facts or reality, but in how we FEEL. The brain likes Cognitive Ease — the nicely packaged explanation it automatically creates without any difficulty or thought. So, the brain will jump to conclusions to maintain Cognitive Ease.
“Less is More” just bit me in the ass.
After a couple of such experiences, I adopted a different approach. In preparing for a demo, I still followed the “Less is More” approach with the script. But I also made sure to have some stuff on standby. Then, when asked a question, if it was something I could quickly show without completely disrupting the demo, I did. I gave the prospects brain the information it needed. I helped the prospect maintain Cognitive Ease. This wasn’t always possible — and not always a good idea. I’ll discuss that in a coming post.
For now, take away that where possible, maintain the Cognitive Ease. Give the prospect’s brain what it needs to create the conclusion YOU want, not the one it will create on its own.
