Some takeaways I learnt attending a demo workshop with a Demo2Win coach

Last week I attended an interesting and inspiring demo class animated by Cheryl Reisdorff (from 2WIN!® Global) who is one of the most enthusiast and engaging demo trainer I ever met. What we had to do each of us during this workshop was to prepare and to perform a 15 minute demo scene from our own experience. ( and all of that was filmed and recorded !) After each participant's demo scene, Cheryl gave her feedback with the things we did right and the things we could improve for the next time. The theme of this workshop was "the 2% factor", the idea behind it is that if we only improve 2% the way we used to do our software demonstration, this 2% could probably make all the difference between a won deal and a lost deal !

Watching back at the video (the image above) of me while I was demoing my software, I didn't see me as too awful in many ways as I did my best applying the demo techniques ( using the limbic effect, using the Tell Show Tell ...) and as I got it out all the irrelevant stuff from the slides. Unfortunately this video informed me about 2 bad news : The first bad news is that I am already an old guy because I actually though that I looked younger ! ( eh Cheryl do you have any tips for that, I would be interested in it) and the second bad news is that I realized that I had less impact than I though on my audience and that I was not enough engaging.
Anyway, let's me share with you some of the the feedback points and takeaways Cheryl gave me in order to improve my demo skill and my impact on the audience.

• Never read your slides : I know that I gave this recommendation in this blog but unfortunately it turned out watching the video that I didn't follow enough my own advice. And no only I read the slide (even though they were very simple) but sometimes I was not engaged with the audience as I seemed to be lost in my thoughts seeking my English words. The next time, I will stare at my audience without disruption ( because if you lose your audience be sure that your audience will lose you)
  
• Prepare in advance the flipchart : For instance prepare the framework of the flipchart so that the only thing you will have to do during the presentation will be to add significant writing or figures.
  
• Never diminish your benefits or the relevancy of your references : Underestimate our value is something Cheryl told me French people are good at it, in my demo scene I picked up a reference for my customer and I said "of course this reference is not exactly like you" whereas the right thing would have been to say "I have chosen this reference, let me explain why this company that have got many benefits with our software, is like you"

What do you think about this ? what are the main takeaways you learnt from the last demo you did or from the last training session you attended ? I am looking forward to reading your comments