You run all this discovery. You multithread like a machine. And eventually you end up in a room of 5 people.
This is where many deals spiral out of control. Your ability to run a room with differing opinions, personas, and power levels is often make-or-break in a consultative sale.
So let’s break down how to run the big team meeting in three sections.
15 Minutes: The Deck
This is not your time to throw up NASCAR slides with your logos.
If you start this meeting like every other mediocre run of the mill pitch, your prospects will see you as a run-of-the-mill product.
Here are your keys to nailing the first 15 minutes with a deck:
- Have your CHAMPION set the agenda. Make it clear that they felt this meeting would help them solve a problem, not you earn a commission.
- Recap the top problems, but then validate. Call out key DMs in the room and ask them what's most important, or what's missing.
- Explain how you solve those problems in one slide, max. Keep these extremely jargon-light and problem-centric.
- Jot down their wishlist, live on the deck. What would you have to see in the next 30 minutes for this to be a slam dunk?
Then and only then can you run into the demo. Because you’re gonna come back to these notes multiple times over the next 30 minutes.
30 Minutes: The Demo(scovery)
This is NOT your time for the grand hurrah 30 minute snooze-fest feature monologue. A good demo continues discovery and uses what you learned earlier to create anchor points and micro-yes moments in your demo.
Try asking past-present-future questions to make a demo a 2-way street:
Past Questions:
Validate problems they shared and ensures your demo is meeting the mark. This is where you continuously call back to what they shared during the demo deck
Example: You mentioned XYZ was painful, how does this feel relative to what you were doing before?
Present Questions:
Gather more information to help you tailor the demo (avoid too many of these, this pulls the discussion into the weeds).
Example: When you’re reporting on results to your board, what are the key metrics you need to have ready at a moment’s notice?
Future Questions:
Gets them thinking about how they could make it real.
Example: Let’s pretend you were giving your sales managers access today. What kind of visibility would you want into their pipeline reviews and their forecasts?
15 Minutes: The 15 Minute Drill
Many reps think that the end of this meeting should be used to set next steps.
Nope.
You can’t copy paste the last 5 minutes of a discovery call to apply to a room of 5+ people (hence, the 15 minute drill).
Instead, use these 15 minutes to get to the truth live. Pinpoint the key decision makers in the room and ask them 1-by-1 for their honest take.
If someone was quiet the whole time… do not let the loud voices (especially your champion) dominate the room. The quiet ones often kill the deals behind the scenes. Call them out.
And that’s how you run the big team demo folks.
If this was helpful, you can steal the deck Nick and I use to sell at 30MPC below.
