Presales leaders need to objectively understand their sales engineers’ demo performance and to identify what presales KPIs are valid benchmarks and note what areas need improvement to maximize team success.

Showing product often has the biggest impact on vendor selection: demos, POCs and workshops are critically important to the overall success or failure of most opportunities, so it’s imperative to measure how well Sales Engineers perform at their most critical function to determine how best to impact success.

The challenge is most Sales Engineers aren’t evaluated on their demo performance, but instead on their attainment to quota or other Presales KPIs – measures often influenced by other independent factors like how good the sales reps the Sales Engineers are assigned to are, or if they’re in good territory with lots of opportunities. Even worse, some Sales Engineers are evaluated by superficial activity levels (e.g. the number of demos delivered) that measure quantity but not quality.

As a result, most organizations don’t necessarily have a clear idea of how good their Sales Engineers are, or where they need improvement. Here is a simple guide to explain why measuring demo performance with resources like presales KPIs is so critical, and how to do it successfully.

Technical Sales: A Three-Step Guide to Measuring Demo Performance

Upleveling demo performance requires objective observations, scientific scoring and continuous improvement.

Why Measure?

If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.

  • Performance: Establish a baseline level of performance.
  • Consistency: Ensure consistent performance across your team.
  • Growth: Track improvement over time.
  • Impact: Effective demos have a direct impact on growth.
  • Share: Socialize best practices across your team.
  • Blind Spots: Identify skills and knowledge gaps.
  • Adherence: Ensure that your team is following best practices.
  • Real-World Behavior: Measure based on actual prospect demos.

Three steps to uplevel the demo performance of individuals and teams.

Step 1: Objective Observations

Professional athletes measure their performance to be great. Presales and sales engineering professionals must apply the same rigor.

Conscious: Being aware of what you need to improve is a starting point.

Peers: Peers and leaders’ feedback can expand your conscious view.

Coaches: Enroll formal or informal coaches to uplevel your demo performance.

Subconscious: Uncovering what you don’t know can remove performance blockers.

Step 2: Scientific Scoring

Contextualize areas of importance required to be successful. Identify how you stack rank in the areas that determine your success.

Product Knowledge: Ensure that you are well informed on the solution you demo.

Active Listening: Be highly aware of what your prospect is asking from your demo.

Story Telling: Deliver relatable stories that strike a positive emotional response.

Mapping Value: Connect the dots during the demo on how you can deliver value.

Step 3: Improve Continuously

Being great requires a commitment to be great. Delivering compelling demos requires continuous measurement of your performance so you can map a path towards greatness.

Measure Performance: Objectively measure over time to track performance and improvement.

Track and Compare: Track individual and team performance to identify gaps and ensure team-wide consistency.

Future Goals: Identify areas of improvement that are actionable and measurable.

Best Practices: Execute proven playbooks, templates, and demo methodologies.

Professional Coaching: Enrol experts who can provide you personalized demo best practices and feedback from a broad set of perspectives.

Utilize Tools: Utilize tools that can enhance your capabilities to deliver high-quality demos.

 

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