How to handle product demos gone wrong

If you're undertaking a selection of a WCXM or a DAM system, or any other piece of enterprise technology for that matter, at some point you'll want to see a demo, to witness first-hand all the bells and whistles.

If you have a good adviser on the project, you probably know to ask vendors to refrain from canned (or, even worse, recorded) demos, and instead have them address your narrative, testable use cases. Those use cases detail, step by step, sought-after processes and functions as they apply specifically to your organization.

The Case for Testable Scenarios

This is, of course, the case against checklist RFPs, and in favor of scenario-based RFPs.

The good news: I’ve been noticing lately at many industry events that vendors are becoming proponents of scenario-based RFPs, as they realize that check-lists of features and functions are not only painful to check off, but also not useful for either the vendor or the customer.

The bad news: Many vendors still struggle with a scenario-based RFP approach. Maybe it’s lack of time and preparation, or inability to operate outside of rehearsed marketing stories, or the simple effects of jetlag… None are valid excuses, by the way. 

When the Vendor Goes Astray

I’ll give you an example, a real story from a project where I'm advising one of our subscribers.

To make a long story short, one of the vendors slated to deliver a demo of use cases ended up shell-shocking the audience by deconstructing the carefully-crafted scenarios into a list of discrete features and functions. They listed the features on PowerPoint slides and then demoed each, one by one, outside of any business context. Well, they didn't actually demo all the features, only those where the presenter could tell a rehearsed story. When the customer asked questions outside the scope of the vendor's carefully controlled narrative, it resulted in blank stares and awkward sighs.

So what do you do in a situation like this? You did, after all, plan a good portion of the day for this exercise, you’ve rounded up stakeholder troops and invested time, you’re all in the same room, because you want to do due diligence and do it right.

One (admittedly radical) solution is to part ways right then and there, and not waste anyone’s time. If the vendor didn’t bother parsing your use cases, would they bother responding to, say, your support tickets?

Alternatively, I recommend put the vendor and their team in a “time-out.” As childish as it sounds, isolating them into a separate room for an hour -- to come up with a different approach and to re-architect the demo to focus on what you really need -- might also work. Some demos, even with the worst possible prologues, can be salvaged.

Taking Control

As a buyer, you want to give everyone an equal chance to present their solution, while also making sure they follow the protocol you've established. It's the vendor's job to put on their dog and pony show. It's your job to make sure that pony trots, canters, and lopes according to the business rules of your ring...


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Gil, Partner, Cancentric Solutions Inc.
iStudio Canada Inc.

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