Why you need time between a Discovery and a Demo

A few weeks ago I wrote an article about ‘Demo Pressure’ and how to avoid it.

In the article I provided an antidote to the unpleasant pressure that every salesperson experiences when a prospect or client wants to skip discovery and go straight to the demo: the antidote is to position the demo as a process in 2 steps which are connected, interdependent but happens separately.

At the end of the article I recommended keeping some time between the 2 steps so that the information obtained in Discovery can be studied, organized, and used to customize the demo.

 

The reason why we need more time between a Discovery and a Demo is more complex and we’ll explore it today: as you’ll see, the reason for the distance between the 2 steps lies in our thinking processes and the way we work.

To be more precise, by organizing the 2 steps at a certain distance we help our brain and our performance.

 

Let’s start with a general principle which is often underestimated: sales is an intelligence job more than a job of constant activity.

Sales is a work of choice, of decision making.

In sales, you look for the best solution to solve a problem in the best way: then, you figure out what’s the best path to position this solution so that the customer recognizes its value and accepts your proposal.

As you can see, constant activity is a consequence of the ability to make smart choices: being constant in dumb activities is not recommended.

For this reason, the salesperson needs to create the best conditions to make the best choice.

 

Paradoxically, constant activity does not create the best decision-making conditions: making lot of calls, sending numerous e-mails, filling every space in our calendars leaves no room for the default mode, the mode in which our brain does nothing.

Even is it’s hard to believe this in today’s performance society (a society which makes us believe that being busy means being productive), taking moments when you do nothing is not useless – on the contrary, it’s essential to be effective.

In fact, these empty moments are crucial to integrate and assimilate what we have experienced or learned: this function is performed by the DMN, or Default Mode Network.

 

But, what is the DMN?

The DMN is a large neural network consisting of several distinct brain regions which synchronize their activity when the person is not actively involved in specific tasks: this activation is crucial for human thinking, which is characterized by self-focus.

Self-focus enables our integrative thought processes to connect divergent information, to form new associations, to look closer to a situation or a problem, to generate new solutions and new ideas which are better than those generated so far.

As you can imagine and without going too further, this condition is what you and your client have to aim for.