15 Ways to Improve Software Demos

by Scott

Nothing is worse than a bad demo…

Even with a great product, a poorly executed sales demo can leave a permanent sour taste in your mouth about that company… and lots of aimless social media activity in the process.

My buddy Poya Osgouei who is a National Sales Manager at HackerRank put together a stacked list of best practices when it comes to preforming top notch Software demos.

Whether you’re a rookie or someone who wants a simple checklist, these 15 tips for improving demos serve as a great guide to make sure you’re dialed in. Enter Poya…

 

From leading and managing enterprise software sales teams at companies like Oracle and now HackerRank, I’ve learned a lot of lessons about what makes a strong demo.

Below are 15 suggestions that …
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Effective Cold Approaching and Follow Up At Conferences

by Scott

I was recently at Dreamforce, the largest enterprise software conference in the world. The goal was to connect with potential customers and future investors for Troops, as well as to get a better pulse on everything that is happening in the sales software ecosystem.

There’s a boatload of different tactics that can and should be employed at large conferences or events, and today I wanted to share two related to follow up and cold approaching busy people. 

Callback Humor

At conferences of this magnitude everyone is meeting a ton of people. Business cards are exchanged and sometimes you can meet 50 people in one day.

One challenge in these brief interactions is creating enough rapport that someone will want to hop on a call …
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Becoming High Performance and Building A Sales Machine

by Scott

Below you’ll find the first ever “guest re-post” on Life-LongLearner as well as a new podcast with my buddy Ryan Denehy. The post + podcast combo effectively  makes this a Denehy centerfold.

Ryan is a close friend who most recently co-founded Swarm Mobile which was acquired by Groupon. In the podcast episode, we riff on the mental and emotion journey of getting there. In the post, you’ll see all the things he learned building the local sales machine that fueled their growth.

Enter Sensai Denehy….

Listen On Itunes

“Building A Startup Sales Machine: 64 Things I Wish I Knew”

Newsflash: I had no idea what I was doing when I first started running sales and distribution teams almost 10 years ago. Some would argue that I still don’t. But the …
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Using Identity to Sell

by Scott

It’s been awhile since I’ve written anything, especially about BD/sales, but I’m going to start writing about things I’m learning and am being reminded of again more regularly .

One of the most interesting drivers for the people we try to sell and market to is identity. Specifically what type of person does the person you’re trying to influence say they are?

Example identities:

I’m a numbers driven executive.

I’m a doer.

I’m an early adopter of new tech that’s going to give me an edge.

Most people want to remain consistent with the identity they claim for themselves…especially when they declare it amongst their peers.

Smart marketers and sales people use this to their advantage when they communicate by linking the desired action they …
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The Most Undervalued Skill to Become More Persuasive

by Scott

In this post I want to highlight one skill that can help you become more more persuasive in life and business.

This skill has been pigeon-holed within one business discipline which has prevented throngs of people from accessing its power that could be taking advantage of it.

But first I want to ask you a simple question…

What is the difference between the two items pictured below?

If you’re having trouble seeing, the first photo is a cold email asking for a partnership I grabbed from google. The second photo is a pamphlet asking me to sign up for a credit card.

…wheels turning…pinky and the brain style…

Though these two items pictured may seem very different, their high level …
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The Most Important Document You Probably Aren’t Keeping

by Scott

Today I want to share a shockingly simply practice that has made me 10’s of thousands of dollars, allowed me to perform better at work, and created more time to do the things I love.

This practice is the secret to communicating better and how I develop online products that are allowing me to live my dream life right now.

Where We Worked Out On Friday

The practice…

Keep a document of every question people ask you.

Yep. It’s that simple.

Anytime someone asks me a question (especially over email), I file it away into a massive google docs spreadsheet that I call my “demand understanding document.”

Actually, now I forward it to my virtual assistant Josiah and he does it.

Why You Should Do This

Your …
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Break Into Biz Dev: The Do’s and Don’ts of Making Introductions

by Scott

Once upon a time, I was an introduction fool. I made every classic mistake in the book…and in the process probably pushed people away from me that I ultimately wanted to build a relationship with : (

Photo Credit: jo3design via Compfight cc

To demystify some of the mistakes I made, I’m sharing a 12 minute video on The Do’s and Don’ts of Making Introductions.

This is taken from the relationship building section of my new series on How to Land A Business Development Job and serves as a follow up to the last video I shared on the challenging realities of landing startup jobs.

Relationships are important for countless reasons, but within the context of landing a startup job, they’re incredibly value because they …
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Business Tactics They Don’t Teach in School

by Scott

A bunch of people that subscribe to my newsletter have told me that their favorite part is the business tactics I share in the “Tactic of the Month” section….

So I thought I’d share the first 5 on this here tablet in case you missed them.

Business Tactic 1: Good Cop / Bad Cop 

In business development you’re bound to encounter some situations where you’re not going to make the other party happy (i.e. you can’t accomodate a request, you need an update on where a deal stands that they’re not ready to give etc).

People like doing business with people they like.

Thus, it’s in your best interest to be likeable. This why playing good cop / bad cop can be such an effective …
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