Everything You Need To Know About…New Business Software #5

The Demo

You’ve decided you need new software and you’ve decided which solutions you want to consider.  You’ve even looked for partners and sent out your RFI.  The next stage is to receive demos of your chosen software packages from your shortlist of potential solution consultants.

The best partners will remember that you are interviewing both them and the software and will tailor the demo to suit your business needs and terminology.  This takes a bit of time and effort (in both understanding your business and in the customisation of the software) so if this hasn’t happened you have to question the company’s bandwidth or desire to win the business.

During the demo look for a partner who:

• Speaks normally. Doesn’t use jargon to try to impress you
• Focuses on fixing your problems. Doesn’t show you every function of the software, but instead the bits which really solve your particular pain points
• Doesn’t waste your time – by showing you useless functionality or by steering the demo off course
• Sets an agenda for the demo with some process flows to help guide you through what you’re seeing
• Asks all the important questions first to ensure you don’t just get the whistle stop tour of “standard functionality”, but rather something meaningful and interesting
• Encourages interactivity
• Has answers to your problems. Look for confident responses – which can also include, by the way, “I don’t know the answer to that but I know how to find out and will get back to you”
• Arranges a follow up

Be prepared to invest some real time and effort into this demo stage.  You may need to receive more than one demo to ensure you are OK with the software and/or partner capability.

The next in the series examines getting the project off the ground, including looking at some aspects of additional support you can get for your project.

Written by Emma Stewart Sales & Marketing Director at Cofficient

Cofficient provision cloud based ERP systems – with over 12 year’s experience of delivering demos and completing RFIs.