Category: Demos and Presentations

There’s Always Someone Cooler than You: What Ben Folds Can Teach Us About Sales Demos and Presentations explores unique sales and presentation strategies inspired by the music of Ben Folds.

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I’m a big fan of Ben Folds. I’ve listened to his work countless times, and know most of his songs by heart. I even asked the piano player from my wedding band to learn The Luckiest to play as the processional song.

Folds is one of the greatest living pianists, especially in rock/pop music — both Billy Joel and Elton John, the former being literally known as “The Piano Man,” have told Folds he’s a better piano player. But besides his talent as a player, he’s an extraordinarily talented songwriter, and is a master of what I’ll call “snark rock.” Who else could write songs covering such wide topics: that time he threw a phone in a pool and Kesha was there (Phone in a Pool); that time his friend climbed a tree, dropped acid, and came back different (Not The Same); a moving tribute to Elliott Smith (Late); or telling his son “you’re so much like me, I’m sorry” (Still Fighting it)?

In 2003 he put out an EP called Sunny 16, which opened with the song There’s Always Someone Cooler Than You. The song is about exactly that — no matter how good you are, there’s always someone better. In sales, that someone better is usually a competitor. So I’ve found this song to be particularly relevant when the topic of competitive differentiation comes up in a sales meeting, though somehow I doubt that was the intent of the song.

Let’s dive into what Ben Folds can teach us about sales presentations through his unique music.

What is cool?

“There’s one thing you should know, what’s hip today might become passe.” – Tower of Power

Technology sometimes feels like fashion; things move quickly, and it can be hard to know what will last and what will simply be a fad. Except for NFTs, which I think are the “pogs of technology” — a thing no one quite understood, yet many bought into, and now they are essentially worthless.

Enterprise software isn’t *quite* as finicky as consumer tech, but there’s no shortage of technologies that seem cool without any sort of real practical value. For example, there’s no way people are going to have business meetings in VR/the metaverse – after all, how can you scroll social media on your second monitor if your monitor is a pair of glasses?

It’s never been easier to try out a new technology, which is why most enterprises run into “shadow IT” (using unauthorized software at work, particularly applications that connect to the network). With things moving so quickly, your prospects are one cold call away from hearing about the next big thing. 

Here’s the good news: cool isn’t always valuable, because value is in the eye of the beholder. After all, if cool were the only purchase criteria, we’d expect conversion rates to be a whole lot higher than an industry average of 15-25% (Reprise).

Even worse, cool can sometimes hurt a demo or presentation. One of my personal pet peeves is when presenter shows something the audience doesn’t care about, yet they tout how it’s “game changing.” Even worse is when they make claims about it being a differentiator. Sometimes it is, and sometimes it isn’t (more on that later), but more importantly, a differentiator only matters if the audience cares.

Let’s say you want to buy a sports car. You go to the dealership, and the salesperson shows you a little red Corvette (yes, I know that song’s not actually about a car). As they walk you around the car, they point out the dual-clutch automatic and talk about all the benefits, and why it’s differentiated compared to other sports cars. But if you want a manual transmission (because sports cars should only have manual transmissions, but I digress), then it doesn’t matter how great the automatic is. That feature is meaningless to you because you don’t want it.

It’s the exact same in B2B. You could have the most advanced version of a feature. But if your competitor’s feature set is better aligned with your prospect, then they are already cooler than you.

You can get outsold

Not too long ago, I was having trouble with my bass guitar. My band, Fascinator, was a week away from recording our first EP (should be on Spotify soon!), so I brought it to the local Guitar Center as the tech could look at it that day. Without recounting the entire adventure, it ended up being a lot of trips, and ultimately ended with me buying a new Schecter bass.

On a few occasions I brought my young kids, and the employees went out of their way to be kind to them. I remember one of the employees saying to me “I remember what it was like to be a kid at Guitar Center.” Compare that to the local store, where they just acted annoyed that my kids were there (I normally prefer local stores, just not that local store). Next time I need something I’ll go back to that Guitar Center, not because of a particular affinity to the brand, but because the people at that specific store were kind to my kids.

While that’s a B2C example, B2B is also about humans. Humans who make irrational decisions. Humans who don’t always pick the “best” (on paper) or cheapest option, but the option they like. After all, we all make decisions emotionally and then justify them rationally. You could have the best product out there. But if someone else does a better job selling, the product starts to matter a whole lot less.

I’ve won deals where I know the product was not as good as the competitors’. I’ve lost deals to products I know were worse than mine. I know I’m biased, having been a sales trainer for so many years, but this is why training and skill development matter so much in sales. If I have a choice between the best product and the best sales team, I’ll take the best sales team every time. 

Connecting is more valuable than being cool

I’ve seen a lot of sales decks whose authors were trying to be cool. Super fancy PowerPoint templates. Professionally designed graphics. Charts and graphs. But here’s the problem: those decks are often built by marketing teams who never present them to a customer. This isn’t to knock marketing teams — they absolutely add value to an organization — but creating the deck and presenting the deck are two very different skill sets. 

Whenever I make a deck, I have only one rule. OK, fine, I have more than one rule, but this one’s the most important: the audience should never be able to figure out my presentation if they only have the slides. It should only make sense if I’m presenting it. After all, if I can give someone the slides and they know exactly what I’m going to say, then why present at all? At that point, my presentation can just be an email. 

That’s why my decks are pretty much all memes (which I think is cool, but someone in their *very* late thirties saying “I think this is cool” doesn’t count a whole lot). This, of course, presents a risk: memes may not land with an audience, particularly international audiences. So I have a rule (and we’ve established there’s more than one): The audience doesn’t have to get the joke, but the point needs to be clear. You don’t have to know the source material for a random Arrested Development meme, but “I’ve made a huge mistake” is pretty self-explanatory. 

I don’t just use memes — I also love using whiteboards, even if my handwriting is the same as that of a child with bad handwriting. People pay attention to whiteboards. It engages audiences, and they want to know where I’m going. Hell, James Cameron sold Aliens with a whiteboard. A whiteboard is also a cue that I know what I’m talking about, because I’m not simply reading slides.

Being Different In Your Sales Approach Is Often Enough To Advance Your Deal

We’ve established that competitive differentiation in sales doesn’t always come from what you sell, but how you sell. And this isn’t just for external/customer-facing sales, but for internal sales as well.

When I was working in strategy at IBM, I led a project that required buy-in from every product manager, and the General Manager of the business unit was my primary stakeholder. I remember getting on a call with him to give an update and outline my next steps. After the pleasantries, I started talking about the project. He stopped me and asked where the slides were. I told him there were no slides, to which he immediately said “that’s amazing.” He looks at slides all day, and just by virtue of him not looking at slides my meeting went incredibly well. I of course sent a follow-up deck to his executive assistant following the meeting so he’d have the content. That day, maybe even that week, I was cooler than anyone else who presented to him.

Make me feel tiny if it makes you feel tall

Ben Folds’ songs provide unexpected and valuable sales lessons. As you saw in this post, we can think of There’s Always Someone Cooler Than You when handling the competition in sales.

Let’s say you’re in a meeting, and your competition comes up. There are a few ways to deal with a discussion about competitors, but no matter how you handle it, I strongly believe that going after your competitors is a mistake. A big reason is you end up looking bad in the process. It often comes off as petty, or, as Ben Folds says (sings?) “make me feel tiny if it makes you feel tall, but there’s always someone cooler than you.” I’ve worked in industries where some vendors were known for playing “dirty,” and going after their competitors in meetings. And sometimes it worked. But as their reputation became better known, it started to hurt them. I’ve even worked a few deals where prospects specifically cited that vendor’s reputation as the reason they weren’t looking at them.

And don’t forget, things move quickly in tech. To quote the song again, “yeah, you’re the shit but you won’t be it for long, oh, there’s always someone cooler than you.” Any product team worth their salt takes feedback from sales, and if there’s a feature that’s costing your competitor deals, there’s a good chance they’ll prioritize it in their roadmap. After all, today’s differentiator is just tomorrow’s table stakes.

In sales, especially tech sales, we’re always dealing with competitors. Sometimes your competition is another vendor, sometimes your competition is the status quo, and sometimes your competition is an unrelated project when finance won’t fund both. But no matter what, there will be competition whether you like it or not. All you can do is be confident in yourself and confident in what you’re selling. Don’t give your competitors free advertising; instead, focus on what makes you great. Or, as the song goes:

“Smile, like you’ve got nothing to prove, no matter what might you might do, there’s always someone out there cooler than you.“

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What do you think? How have competitors impacted your deals? Let me know in the comments!

I’m a 90s kid. Most of my references are to 90s things, I still play Mario on NES, I can play just about any famous 90 guitar riff, and I proudly rewatch of 90s TV (Seinfeld, X-Files, 3 different Star Trek series – 90s TV was truly excellent).

Before we could stream everything, lots of TV time ended up being “let’s just watch whatever movie TNT or TBS is playing (it was the equivalent of “let’s just watch The Office because I can’t find anything else to stream”). And in 2000 (close enough to the 90s that we’re going to count it), a film came out that ended up being that “it’s always on cable” movie – I’m talking, of course, about the 2000 film The Replacements. 

For those of you who haven’t seen the movie, it’s pretty great – much better than the 41% on Rotten Tomatoes would have you believe. The movie is about a group of ragtag replacement football players (“scabs”) who play for the Washington Sentinels (equally meaningless as “Washington Commanders,” but WAY better than the old racist name). It’s your classic “a bunch of misfits need to come together as a team” story – like the Mighty Ducks but with adults and football.

The Replacements stars Gene Hackman and Keanu Reeves (fresh off of starring in The Matrix), plus a bunch of “that guy from that thing” type actors: Jon Favreau (pre-Avengers, so he was still the guy from Swingers who was also Monica’s boyfriend during season 3 of Friends), Orlando Jones (at the time, famous for being on Mad TV and also those 7-Up commercials), Jack Warden (the “grumpy old guy who isn’t Jack Lemmon or Walter Matthau” from a bunch of 90s movies, including the underrated Dirty Work), and David Denman (Roy from The Office). 

The reason I’m talking about this movie is that, there’s a scene that’s always stuck with me. Coach McGinty (Hackman) is running a team meeting and asks the team what they’re afraid of. After a bunch of silly insect-related answers (spiders and bees, and let’s be real spiders are terrifying), QB Shane Falco (Reeves) gives a speech about being afraid of “Quicksand.”

You’re playing, and you think everything is going fine, but then one thing goes wrong. And then another. And another. And you try to fight back, but the harder you fight, the deeper you sink. Until you can’t move. Can’t breathe. Because you’re in over your head. Like quicksand.

“Quicksand” is known in more technical communities as a “cascading failure.” Plane crashes aren’t often caused by one system failing, because there are redundancies. But when multiple systems fail, or when pilots take the wrong action to remedy a system, then a bunch of other stuff ends up going wrong – and the combination is what causes the crash. This ends up happening in demos quite often.

(Did the MythBusters bust the myth of “Killer Quicksand” being a thing? Yes. Does that matter for this post? Not even a little bit.)

Shane Falco’s Speech But “Demo Quicksand”

You’re giving your demo, and you think everything is going fine, but then one thing goes wrong. It’s probably something small. Your demo environment times out. Your screen share stops working. You get an error that you weren’t expecting. But then, you start getting in your head about it. You start worrying about all of the other things that can go wrong. And something else minor does. So, you start getting uncomfortable. Maybe you start rambling a bit. You start using all of those filler words (like, um, now, you know, right!?, etc) that you managed to keep at bay. Then, maybe you make a comment to the audience about it to try to diffuse the tension (“we can see how easy this is, that is, if my demo decides to work” or “it usually works, it must be in a bad mood” or “it worked 5 minutes ago, I swear”), but that seems to make everything worse. When the demo is over, you wonder what went wrong.

The good news is that, there are things that you can do when it comes to getting stuck in quicksand.

1. Prevent getting stuck with checklists
2. When you get stuck, breathe
3. Play through the accidentals

Checklists are your friend

Doctor/Writer Atul Gawande published the excellent book The Checklist Manifesto about 10 years ago. If you haven’t read it, it’s about how to manage errors that happen in complex, technical environments, such as medicine and aviation. The point of the book is that, no matter how much of an expert you are, a well-designed checklist can significantly improve outcomes.

From Atul Gawande’s site:

Gawande begins by making a distinction between errors of ignorance (mistakes we make because we don’t know enough), and errors of ineptitude (mistakes we made because we don’t make proper use of what we know). Failure in the modern world, he writes, is really about the second of these errors, and he walks us through a series of examples from medicine showing how the routine tasks of surgeons have now become so incredibly complicated that mistakes of one kind or another are virtually inevitable: it’s just too easy for an otherwise competent doctor to miss a step, or forget to ask a key question or, in the stress and pressure of the moment, to fail to plan properly for every eventuality. Gawande then visits with pilots and the people who build skyscrapers and comes back with a solution. Experts need checklists–literally–written guides that walk them through the key steps in any complex procedure. In the last section of the book, Gawande shows how his research team has taken this idea, developed a safe surgery checklist, and applied it around the world, with staggering success.

Demoing is a technical job – even for those who don’t consider themselves to be technical. There are lots of systems involved. Your computer. Your A/V equipment (camera, mic, etc). Your internet connection. The software you’re showing. The servers that said software is running on. The video conference/screen share service you’re using. The servers that said video conference/screen share service is on. The audience’s equipment. And each one of these is a potential failure point. And while you can’t control all of these things, many of them are in your control (to a point anyway).

What sorts of things should be on your demo checklist: Make sure your equipment is working. Join the meeting 5 minutes early and test the screen share. Check your login to the demo environment. Reset all of your users (if that’s a thing you have to do). Have your backup demo on standby. You get the idea.

You may be thinking “But Ed, I don’t have time to run through a checklist, my day is back-to-back every day!” And you’re right, but this is why a checklist is even more important. All of these tasks are things that are necessary for your demo, but most everyone relies on memory to do them. When we’re stressed, and we’re relying on memory – that’s when mistakes are made. We forget to reset that demo user. We realize that, while we normally use Zoom, the client uses GoToMeeting, so then there’s a bunch of installation and permissions that need to happen (making you late to the meeting, of course). Checklists can keep you on track, give you a quick reminder of all the things you have to do, and get those things done faster.

Don’t fight Quicksand – Take a Breath

I have a 2 and 4 year old, so there’s a lot of Daniel Tiger happening in my house. If you’re not familiar, Daniel Tiger is a spinoff of the classic Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood that takes place in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe. Every episode follows the same formula(ish) – Daniel is a 4-year-old tiger (son of the original Daniel Striped Tiger from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood) who has your typical little kid problems: his favorite red sweater is dirty and he has to wear the blue one (but learns he’s still the same Daniel); he doesn’t get to be line-leader and, instead, has to be lunch helper (but learns that lunch helper is a very important job); he has to go potty but there’s no potty on the neighborhood Trolley – you get the idea.

In almost every episode (seriously, my 2 year old LOVES Daniel Tiger), Daniel gets irrationally upset about…whatever it is that he’s upset about (he’s 4, that’s what they do). To help, an adult validates his feelings: “I can see that you’re frustrated, and it’s OK to be frustrated, but we can’t go the park right now.” I strongly believe that we can all learn about positive social interactions by watching more Daniel Tiger.

I’ll cover the idea of “talk to adults just like we talk to toddlers” in another post, but, for now, I’m bringing it up because of a simple song that Daniel sings.

When you feel so mad that you start to roar, take a deep breath and count to four.

As silly as it may sound, this is actually excellent advice, and is exactly what you should do when you get caught in quicksand.

The reason that quicksand can be all-consuming is, just like Keanu told us, “you can’t breathe.” It’s the fight/flight/freeze response taking over. It’s the only thing you can focus on in that moment. And the more you try to fight it, the deeper you sink. So stop trying to fight it (just like any other form of anxiety – the more you fight it, the more it fights back). The best thing you can do in actual quicksand (as we learned from the MythBusters) is to lie back and gently pull yourself out of it. And while you may not be able to lie back during your demos (that would be weird on video), you can gently pull yourself out of it.

When you feel yourself getting stuck, take a deep breath and count to four. Seriously. The audience won’t really think anything of it – that amount of time just feels like you’re pausing for effect. But what you’re actually doing is giving your “rational brain” a chance to catch up to your emotions. You can then think of a course of action to respond. Those few seconds can mean the difference between sinking deeper or getting out of it.

Get out of Demo Quicksand by Playing Through the Accidentals

Anyone who has seen me present can figure out pretty quickly that I’m a musician. My real (non-virtual) background consists of the jackets from some of my favorite records, and also my electric guitar and bass. Plus my band, Fascinator, just recorded our first EP – more on that soon!

The phrase “play through the accidentals” means “pretend like you meant to do it.” Wrong note? You’re just taking some liberties with the part. Forget the words? Turn the mic toward the audience so they can sing. Audiences rarely notice mistakes if the musicians just act like it was intentional (and yes, most of the audiences I’ve played for were at bars and drunk, but that’s a separate issue for another time).

Audiences notice when musicians try to awkwardly cover up mistakes. When the singer tries to pick up the part somewhere else, but it’s clear that they missed it. When the instrumentalist shakes their head when getting a note wrong, or has some other reaction to it. All of these things tell the audience that you made a mistake, and you know you made a mistake.

Then, when you react to the mistake, something else happens – you now have a heightened awareness of said mistake. All of the sudden, you miss another note. And you notice it. Then you miss another. And another. And before you know it, you’re just trying to get through the part so you can run offstage and hide. Instead, by just playing through it, the mistake gets out of your head almost as quickly as it got there. It doesn’t affect you. Or the audience.

When mistakes happen during your demos or presentations, it’s easy to make some sort of comment to the audience. But that’s a trap. Because once you make that comment, you get in your head about the mistake. You start making more comments, because you’re still in your head. For the Brene Brown fans out there, it’s a shame response. If I say something about this, you can’t say anything.

Here’s the good news – you’re human. Mistakes happen. And it’s OK. As the legendary football coach Vince Lombardi once said, “It’s not whether you got knocked down; it’s whether you get back up.” So the next time you’re in front of an audience and something goes wrong (and you want to roar), just take a deep breath and count to four. Your demos will be all the better for it.

Stick to the (demo) script at your own risk, because it might just kill your meeting. This might sound counterintuitive, but demo scripts can often throw you off your game.

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Relationships Matter in Sales

The Office, for all its humor, has some great sales tips. It turns out that, even though he’s a terrible manager, Michael Scott is a fantastic salesperson. Fans of the show will remember “The Client” from season 2, where Michael takes a prospect, a government employee named Christian (played by the great Tim Meadows) to Chili’s. Michael and Christian bond and share jokes (including singing that old Chili’s theme song), much to Jan’s chagrin. But at the end of the night it’s clear there’s a method to Michael’s madness, as the relationship he built leads to a sale. Because even on The Office, people buy from people they like.

We also know that, in many ways, Michael can be a bit of a dumpster fire. This is on full display in “Money” from season 4, which is there one where Michael runs out of money (he famously “declares bankruptcy”). To make ends meet, he takes a job as a telemarketer. 

This telemarketer job is a bit shady, as it’s to sell “Lipopedrine Diet Pills.” At the job Michael has a hard time not being a manager, and instead his job is to “smile and dial,” or make cold calls. During a sales meeting (ironically, Michael refers to it as “useless”), manager Nick Figaro (Alan Wasserman) gave him a simple formula to follow:

1. Make the call
2. Say the lines
3. Make the sale!!!

This goes about as well as expected. When Michael chats with a prospect (and not actively selling at that moment), Nick hangs up the phone, and brings Michael into his office to chew him out. Nick’s problem? Michael needs to “dial the number on the heat and stick to the script,” which Michael can’t do (yes, Vikram, who follows the script, outsells Michael every night, but that’s beside the point).

Scripts Are For Telemarketers, Not for Demos

When you’re demoing, you’re not doing a 30 second telemarketer pitch. But many salespeople try to follow this same formula which, while it may work for Vikram at the shady telemarketing outfit, won’t work in your demo. Because you’re not yourself.

I’m a big believer that presenters should be themselves in front of audiences as it’s obvious when someone’s inauthentic. And, trying to be something else, or say something that doesn’t feel right, takes a lot of brainpower – brainpower that can be used to listen the audience or ask good questions.

Instead of “sticking to a script,” write yourself a set list. Write out the key points you need to hit, and let the rest be a conversation.

6 Tips for Better Sales Meetings

Eliminate the word “click” from your demo.

Instead of narrating with “I click here,” “I click there,” you want to drop benefit statements like “look how fast it is to do this, or look how easily you can do that.” Just taking out the word “click” can make a huge difference for getting to that point.

Context, Feature, Benefit

Start with context – tell the audience why you’re going to show something. Then show the thing. Then give the benefit of the thing.

Start with a Story

Storytelling engages all of your brain. When you start telling a story the audience is with you and it is your job throughout the demo, to keep the audience with you. How do you do that? Reference back to the story. You are creating the moment and bringing the audience into the moment with you. Read more about storytelling here.

Set Next Steps

If you don’t set next steps, how will anyone know what to do next?

Save big claims for the end

You need to earn the right to make a big claim. Build value continually and build trust. When you have so much build up, the end is where you can make the big claims because you have proven your product and yourself.

Make the value clear

In the parlance of Thinking Fast and Slow, you want “cognitive ease,” or things to make sense without thinking too hard. And the more a story is plausible, the easier it is to believe. Therefore, make it as easy as possible for them to see value by being clear about the benefits. Define the value visually and verbally in no uncertain terms. It should be very obvious from your visuals and your verbal communication what the value is. If there is any doubt, go back and dework the portion of the demo.

What are your tips for better demos? Leave a comment!