Like any communication in a productive relationship, the demo should be a two-way street. Instead of me showing everything the product does, we can talk about how the product meets your expressed needs.

Or how it doesn’t. Where a demo becomes strategic is in the discovery of unmet needs.

Nice post. Demos are part of a conversation — or a relationship as you describe — and are important. And as they say, seeing is believing, particularly to the generally skeptical IT buyer.

My contribution to the Pragmatic blogfest can be found at:

http://onproductmanagement.wordpress.com/2007/08/28/whats-the-deal-with-tradeshow-demos-abridged-and-full-versions/

Saeed

Despite my aversion to demos, I would have to agree with your ideas about the differences between the good ones and the bad ones. Bad = canned. Good = personal & tailored to one buyer.

Its the same as PR pitches (I get a few hundred of these a week). THe bad ones (99 percent) are shotgun blasted spam. The very few good ones are PR people who have taken the time to read my stuff, understand what I write about and then send something personalized to me. Guess which companies I write about?

Cheers, David