Something I’ve seen a lot of regarding demos in the SMB space…I see a lot of struggles when the use case that the demo is focused on is around sales and CRM. SEs just have so much to cover when they’re doing a demo that I think sometimes prospects maybe just get overwhelmed by it all, and they can’t filter it all out because it’s going pretty fast.

So one way to maybe work around that a little bit is really just to step back and get down to some really simple basic Salesforce features that anybody that’s in a sales job should appreciate. And you know as a Salesforce AE, these are probably things you do yourself. Don’t ever lose sight of the fact that you’re probably an expert CRM user in your day-to-day work, and your manager certainly is, so that should be leveraged. So in a little 15-minute call it really helps a sales user or sales manager see themselves using Salesforce in their day-to-day work. Which is kind of the point of the demo, right?

The first thing you do is pull up an open Opportunity list view and talk a little bit about list views – one of the most important parts of Salesforce – and they just get glossed over. Open up your open Opportunities list view and just have a little discussion about how every other day or every week you go through and you update close dates, you update statuses, you add next steps… You know, just kind of the meat and potatoes pipeline maintenance stuff that you do. Easy thing to show, and again, something you probably do in your day-to-day work anyway. So that’s the first thing you can do. And it also as part of that, you can show a little bit about filtering the list view and talk about inline editing as well, which are great features.

The next thing is super simple. Go to your home screen and show the Opportunity Assistant. It’s one of my favorite features because it’s Salesforce helping me manage my pipeline, just helping me keep an eye on things. So the Opportunity Assistant is monitoring your pipeline and it’ll show you when you’ve got overdue deals, past due tasks, opportunities with no activity in the last 30 days. So every time I’ve ever shown this to a salesperson or sales leader they kind of have a WOW moment because that’s a big challenge. If you’ve got a big pipeline, it’s just staying on top of the little stuff, and so that stuff just hits you in the face.

And then the final thing is, as it relates to running your day-to-day work, using tasks. So pull up your task object and filter your tasks for what’s due today and show that in the split view. You’ve got the list of tasks down the left-hand side, and then for the task you’ve got highlighted, the task itself shows up in the right-hand side. And you just show your prospects step by step just how you can kind of work through your daily task list right there on the screen.

Those are three simple things you can do, and don’t lose sight of the fact that you use Salesforce all day every day, and you probably know more about it than you realize. Leverage that with this whole idea, but maybe some of your own favorite tips and techniques. These are some things that have worked for me and some observations I’ve made sitting in a lot of demos and maybe it’ll help.