Demonstrating to Win!: The Indispensable Guide for Demonstrating Software [Paperback]

Robert Riefstahl (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2000

Demonstrating to Win!: The Indispensable Guide for Demonstrating Software by Robert Riefstahl

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

NOTE:  From the author.  This version of the book is out of date.  If your are interested in this book, please see the latest version ISBN-13: 978-0615477091

Product Details

• Paperback: 268 pages
• Publisher: Xlibris Corporation (December 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0738859176
• ISBN-13: 978-0738859170
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #308,900 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert (Bob) Riefstahl (1958- ) was born in Chicago, IL U.S.A. Bob is considered an expert by other sales and demonstration professionals because of his dedication to research and analysis of every aspect of complex solution demonstrations. He has sucessfully delivered motivational and tactical speeches and workshops in over 25 countries across the globe. Bob's firm 2WIN! Global is headquarted in Colorado Springs, Colorado U.S.A.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good advice on demos, but methodology is dated, November 30, 2004

By 

Roy Massie (Birmingham, AL United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Demonstrating to Win!: The Indispensable Guide for Demonstrating Software (Paperback)

Riefstahl 's book is all about doing demos; what works and what doesn't for doing software demos in front of prospects. You won't find a lot about the overall sales process found in so many other books, just giving good demos and closely related information.

The author is analytic, but is able to explain ideas in plain language. The compelling value behind this book is Riefstahl 's real world experience giving lots of demos, in different settings, with a few different products he's sold. He urges us to not think of great software demos as a mysterious art, but rather as the result of good preparation and smart tactics.

A recurring theme, and indeed the unwritten theme of the book, is to build a "bridge" for your prospect to cross over from their world of comfort (usually no change) to the one you are presenting. Things seeming trivial or obvious to us as demonstrators can be confusing or offensive to a prospect. The author fills the book with practical ways to put yourself in the clients' place, then design and execute a demo to show why the customer should trust you across the bridge they are so uncertain about. It's all about the prospects' needs, not just features the sales person likes to show.

The chapter called "Demo Crime Files" is about 20% of the book. This detailed list of 28 "what not to do's" such as bad PowerPoint slides, arguing with the prospect, how to make a boring/irrelevant demo, etc. helps make the book well worth the price.

Another 20% of the book is on "Discovery". Throughout the book, Riefstahl stresses the need to perform a deep and thorough discovery of your prospects' business, personnel, etc. before designing and presenting the demo for the buyers. He has successfully used this approach, but this is a topic where I have to get off his bandwagon somewhat. I don't disagree that at least some discovery is necessary, but my limited experience has been that the Discovery methodology of this book may not be feasible. I just don't think many customers today will give as much access to key personnel (and especially not executives) as the author assumes. Prospects will invest some personnel time (with a vendor they don't know very well) on the phone and some in person, but not a lot in either case. Riefstahl offers some good guidelines on how to get the most out of discovery and how to pitch it so it won't seem like an imposition. It's very important to him, so I should probably be more open-minded, but I am skeptical. What he advocates as a sunk cost Discovery could otherwise be billable as pre-sales professional consulting - it's that detailed. I think Riefstahl is tech savvy and experienced enough to pull this off for his deals, but I'm not sure it's a feasible approach for most of us.

One other assumption made is that the demo is very important to the prospect so they will give it a lot of their time. One and two day demonstrations just don't seem to happen anymore as far as I can tell, but the book is written as if they are common. In fairness to the author, I think the business climate has changed for software evaluation since this book was written. Today, the demo (especially an initial one) is just one more meeting in a process the prospects' key personnel have to work through (with multiple vendors) while trying to get their regular job done at the same time. My goal is for a product demo to be compelling enough to get a lot more of their time after they've first seen it; I can't assume this before they have.

I like the book and being relatively new to the sales field (as a tech sales engineer doing demos), I got quite a bit from it. There are several take-aways I can definitely improve upon. The book is an easy read and has a good index. I'm tempted to give it a higher rating, but I can't because of the assumptions about the initial demo being so long and important to the prospect (it's often not the case) and the access/skill required to do the full Discovery Riefstahl insists is vital. These assumptions are woven throughout the book and its method. Nevertheless, I have benefited from the book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just what my sales force needed, February 19, 2007

By 

Thomas L. La Fera "Tom" (Colorado Springs, CO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Demonstrating to Win!: The Indispensable Guide for Demonstrating Software (Hardcover)

I read Demo2Win and fell in love with the concept. After years of demonstrating software, I always felt like I could have done better if I had more tools. Robert's book gave me those tools. The tools I remember from the book were simple. Just be a little different than the other person or company. The Discovery Phase in the long run will save you and your customer time. You will find out if you can supply what the customer needs or leave it to someone else to fulfill their needs. Why waste time. The Demo Crimes made me cringe because I know I've committed a few of them over and over. Now I won't commit those crimes because it's been brought to my attention by Robert.
After I read the book I asked my boss to read it. He read it and ordered about 30 copies for all of our salesforce to read. Each and every person that read it then praised it. It was kind of like the lights went on in everybody's head.
I'd recommend this book to any salesperson. I've already read it more than three times. I take it on each flight I make and read at least a few pages each time.
Thanks, Robert.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The scenes you are about to read are TRUE!, February 11, 2002

By 

Randy D. Hughes (Colorado Springs, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Demonstrating to Win!: The Indispensable Guide for Demonstrating Software (Paperback)

After 17 years in the business of selling and demonstrating complex software solutions, I have never found a better, more practical book about both the art and science of the demonstration!