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 Friday, August 17, 2007 |
| Creating Demo Products/Services/Software |
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 My brother Michael is a musician and he explained a very interesting problem in his business. It stuck with me because I found it applicable to my work, and I think you might find this interesting as well.
For Michael to get a gig (work), from time to time he has to do a bridal showcase. The showcases are free to the brides and Mike has to expend his time, and money, to put these on in the hopes of getting some work. Caterers are also at these 'demos' and they provide food with the same intention, to get some work. Mike explained that the caterers have a conundrum. If they use cheap food the prospective customer will get a bad impression of their service, but good food on the other hand is very expensive. So do you go broke trying to get customers, or go broke because you have no customers?
I think there may not be any answer to this, but in any case when doing a demo do not take it lightly. You need to put your best foot forward. You don't want your demo to convince your customer they don't want your product or service. It should be accurate and appealing. Definitely don't blow it off because it's a 'freebie'. Then you will have expended your time, money AND alienated your customers.
Your ideal customer is after something you have (if you've done your marketing and product right). Let them have enough of what you do best, but not too much. Can you get them to invest their time, effort, and/or money into your demo? On the other hand you can't expect the customer to spend too much time on your product. If your lucky you got about 2 seconds to get their attention, and maybe 2 minutes more if you do. I call that the 2/2 rule.
Let the customer get comfortable, understand and feel they really 'know' your product. It is up to the salesperson as well to get the customer involved in the demo product/software or service. Give the customer a feeling they learned something. The demo should not scare the customer with too much wiz bang technical mumbo jumbo either. Measure exactly what you give them in the 2 minutes you might have them.
Don't fully satisfy the customers need(s), after all you have something to sell them [a free product to generate good will is a different topic]. Show them what their missing. What you want to do is, to take a cliche from the entertainment biz, "always leave them wanting more." |
dbruccoleri at 6:50 AM |
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