Once the go-ahead has been issued from the sponsoring company to WAMware for one or a series of Demo Skills Workshops, the sponsoring company will assign a "Technical Liaison" (TL). The TL, with Wayne's assistance, will ensure that the following preparatory tasks are completed.
General Scope and Logistics
Make major decisions on the Workshop(s) early (60-to-90 days in advance if possible):
Dates
Cities
Venues (regional office or hotel)
Define targeted attendees -- an example of a successful mix might be:
3 internal pre-sales application engineers (AEs), 5 reseller AEs, 4 sales (hands-on participants)
4-to-6 observers (sales mgrs, product managers, etc)
Book hotel sleeping room reservations (for out-of-town attendees, TL, Wayne[no-smoking; late arrival])
Communication
Send invitation email (click for sample) to targeted attendees (includes message from senior manager on importance of event and preparation)
refer attendees to demo-skills.com for further workshop details
communicate start time (e.g. 8:00am continental breakfast, 8:30am start workshop) and finish time (suggest first day 5:30pm, second day ~4:00pm to facilitate return travel)
Send Workshop Package to registered attendees at least 2 weeks in advance, including:
Script for Demo Slice (see below)
start data files
command-by-command instructions
narrative (text or bullets)
Get "Demo-Skills-Workshop-handout" document from Wayne (waynemcc@wamware.com) and make 1 copy for each attendee (stapled or bound).
Print out one "place card" per attendee from the following documents... A4-size Place Card... 8.5x11-size Place Card (in Acrobat Reader... File, Print... PageScaling=none; attendees will fill in their name/company with a bold marker at the event).
If the workshop is devoted to one company (e.g. reseller), schedule a meeting (evening or early morning before workshop) with the key "sponsor" of the workshop (e.g. owner of reseller, VP sales, etc). This meeting (to include Wayne, TL and sponsor) will last 30-60 minutes and will review the objectives of the workshop as well as background of the attendees.
Define post-workshop program for regular within-office demo skills refreshers (e.g. last Friday of each month, 8am-to-9am, one AE/sales team demos for colleagues)
Define metrics for measuring effectiveness of demos (e.g. for each demo, record date when it was given, and record date/revenue for eventual closing of sale)
The Demo Slice
Key to the success of the workshop is repeated performance of a "demo slice" with plus/minus critique (from the demo team itself, from other attendees, from Wayne). We need to get about 10 repetitions per attendee in order to discover, reinforce, and ingrain positive demo techniques. For this reason a "demo slice" needs to be selected that is limited to 10 minutes in duration (including narrative).
Select initial Demo Slice (usually from an existing introduction demo; representative of product/company strategy)
Schedule web conference with Wayne (plan 1 hour in length)
Conduct web conference with Wayne... run Demo Slice... iterate on content of Demo Slice
Document and Package Demo Slice (start data files, command-by-command instructions, text or bullet narrative)
Workshop Room Logistics
Venue logistics are an important part of successful preparation for any session, including a Demo Skills Workshop. The TL, directly or by delegation to a local individual, will ensure that the myriad details of the venue are worked and checked in advance. These items are detailed in Venue Logistics Checklist for Demo Skills Workshop.