The Microsoft Dynamics Meta Sales Demo™

There aren’t a ton of software categories that lend themselves to a “meta” demo, but luckily, Sales does…if you’re brave enough to try.

Defining a Meta Demo

UrbanDictionary defines “meta” as such: “Meta means about the thing itself. It’s seeing the thing from a higher perspective instead of from within the thing, like being self-aware.” In other words, it’s self-referential. Showing someone how you’re using your Sales software to sell someone Sales software is meta. If you’re still confused, spend 2 minutes with the video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRGCZh5A8T4

SFA software makes for the ultimate meta demo

If you are selling an SFA solution to a company, there is a 99% chance your own company uses an SFA system (hopefully the same one you’re selling). In your real-life SFA system, you have an Opportunity created for the prospect you’re demoing to. The Opportunity is tied to that company as an Account in the system, and the people in the room should be Contacts in said system. You have at least 3 options for your demo:

1. You could demo a fake company selling fake products through fake opportunities (which is most people would do);
2. You could demo the real company you’re selling to selling their real products through fake opportunities (what good SEs would do);
3. You could demo a romanticized version of your real company selling its real Sales solution to the real customer in the room (aka the Meta Sales Demo™).

If it’s not obvious, option 2 is perfectly fine. It’s customized. It’s relevant. It’s fine. I’m not going to argue that meta demos are inherently better than any other type of demo; they’re just different. Option 3, however, the Meta Sales Demo™, creates a lot more opportunities for engagement and humor. Option 3 puts the customer at the center of the demo (Commandment 4) in a way that option 2 doesn’t because the decision makers for a Sales system are likely not the ones that will be using the software to track sales opportunities. The people in the room are, literally, the decision makers for this Opportunity in your company’s SFA system.

One other bonus of a Meta Demo: you don’t need to spend any time thinking up fake data. No need to come up with clever Account names, or customer names, or scenarios. You can –and should– still customize your environment for the opportunity you’re working, but all of the data will be about the company and people you’re selling to. Easy-peasy lemon squeezy.

Instructions for the Microsoft Dynamics Sales Meta Demo™

Start by creating an Opportunity in your demo environment for the company you are selling to. Create an Account for their company, and create some Contacts, but don’t create all of them (I like to leave a couple as Contact Suggestions or Stakeholder Suggestions from Assistant). Since I’m usually working a bunch of opportunities simultaneously, on the morning of the demo, I name the opportunity for the demo I’m about to do: “Literally, this Opportunity.”

Log everything. You will probably enter more data about this Opportunity in your demo environment than the actual salesperson will enter in the company’s real SFA system, but that’s okay. If you know how the prospect found you, put it in as the Lead Source. Make sure the discovery call is in as an appointment. Put in appointments or tasks for the prep time you’ve devoted to them. If you want, double that number to make them really feel like you want the business.

As mentioned above, “romanticize” the Opportunity with made-up content that seems like it could be real. What do I mean by “romanticized”? We all know there may be notes a sales person would put into the SFA that you would NOT want the customer to see (e.g. comments about a stakeholder’s personality, embarrassing power dynamics, frank comments about product shortcomings, etc.). Instead, consider sprinkling in over-the-top flattery to crack a smile. Employ self-deprecating humor about the probability of winning only if you’re 100% confident you’re can pull it off. If you don’t like the self-deprecating approach, put some “assumptive close” fields in like a Close Date that’s really soon. Overshoot the price in the system by a little because your team is committed to under-promising and over-delivering. You’re in the opportunity — just spend a little time thinking about creative data points to enter about the opportunity that will showcase functionality as well as your sense of humor.

Outlook on Mobile: let me preface this by saying I don’t start with mobile if the prospect only has an inside sales organization. If they have field sales, then I always start on mobile, and I tend to start with Outlook since your average salesperson will be far more familiar with Outlook than with Teams or the Dynamics Sales mobile app. Create an email to send to the main stakeholder on the call that you can show will be tracked (or suggested to be tracked) when you get to SFA on the desktop later. Even better, in my opinion, is to ask to set up a meeting to debrief and get feedback about the demo sometime after the demo using the new Scheduler (separate license required). Sure, you might get some feedback during Q&A when you finish the demo, but it may be guarded with an audience on the phone. Under the guise of your demo, you’re setting a marker down that you really want to get 30 minutes with the main stakeholder sometime after the demo (preferably after they’ve seen any competitor demos as well) to hear positive and negative feedback and figure out next steps. If you’re using the Scheduler, it’s a twofer in that most people have no idea that the Scheduler exists which is a great example of how Microsoft technologies seemingly unrelated to CRM can be game-changing for CRM.

Mobile App: assuming you’ve scheduled the demo you’re giving in Outlook, when you pull up the Dynamics Sales mobile app, you’ll see the meeting you’re in front and center. The other nice thing is the Recent contacts section at the top of the app is likely to include a few of the Contacts from the prospect organization if you were doing any demo prep prior to the demo (if you weren’t, I’d strongly recommend you spend a few minutes clicking on the Account and Contact records associated with the Opportunity so they’ll see their names when you pull it up.

While in the Mobile App, and while we’re discussing salespeople and their various preferences for getting information into CRM, I’ll show the Take a Note functionality I’ve extended using AI Builder for the handwritten note types. This is also an opportunity to make the Meta Demo about them. Ask someone from the prospect organization for a couple notes a salesperson might write down during an meeting with one of their prospects. For more comprehensive instructions for this part of the demo, read the post linked to two sentences ago.

Manager’s Dashboard: if/when you show what a sales manager’s dashboard might look like –and if you don’t, I strongly suggest you do per Commandment #7— consider putting yourself in the middle or the bottom of the pack performance-wise if you’re comfortable with self-deprecating humor. If, in real life, you’re one of the best at what you do, this has the added advantage of coming off as funny and humble at the same time.

Business Process Flow: the out-of-the-box Business Process Flows for Opportunities don’t include anything related to a “demo.” Presales erasure, amirite? I prefer to champion the importance of demos by creating a Demo stage all by itself. Steps include Customization (yes/no), Humor (choices of Mild, Medium, Spicy), Dry Run (yes/no; required), and then Mark Complete (yes/no; required). [ spoiler: marking the demo complete is foreshadowing for a future blog post ] During the demo, you now have an obvious “You are here” moment when showing them the ribbon across the top as you should be in the Demo stage while doing your demo.

Conversation Intelligence: you place a live call to the main stakeholder or decision maker during the demo to talk about the deal. “How do you think this demo is going so far?” “Is there anyone you think I should be giving more attention to, or making sure their questions are being addressed?” Just know that demoing Conversation Intelligence is unlike demoing any other part of Dynamics Sales, logistically speaking, so read my post here for tips on how to demo it live.

LinkedIn integration: it’s vain, I know, but the only thing people like more than seeing their name on something, is seeing their picture on something (maybe I’m projecting here?). Theoretically, the people you’re demoing too have chosen the best professionally-appropriate photo they have of themselves for LinkedIn, so show the LinkedIn Sales Navigator integration with the Contacts matched and the Account matched, and spend a few minutes talking about the Microsoft Relationship Sales solution (MRSs).

Products: put in the products and/or services you think they need. If those products and services don’t yet exist in your environment, set them up! RSM is the third largest reseller of Dynamics in the U.S., mostly to unmanaged accounts via CSP, in addition to the services we provide to implement so I have both setup within my environment.

Forecasting: manipulate the demo data such that the Forecast by Rep shows you missing your number by exactly the amount you set for Estimated Revenue on Literally, this Opportunity (and make sure you call attention to the Estimated Revenue field while on the Opportunity to set up this callback).

Goals: let’s face it, you’re a Presales person, not a seller, so you may not have a formal quota at all, or if you do (I do), you may also have goals you’re asked to hit. Since you’re in the process of doing a demo about the Opportunity you’re in, why not have a Goal around the number of Demos you’re expected to do each quarter? Are you on track? Ahead of target? Got some catching up to do? Lotsa opportunities for humor when discussing your own performance during a demo. NOTE: this is easy to do if you set up Demo as a custom entity of type Activity which I highly recommend.

Lead Routing: for the new Lead Routing engine, think about having a really complicated rule that would have assigned the prospect/company you’re demoing to to you. You might start with a simple rule to introduce the feature (based on just geography or industry or company size) and then bring up a very complicated rule (to show how it came to be that you’re demoing to the audience today (companies of over 1,000 employees based in Plano, TX in Oil & Gas that start with the letter F). Make it feel like fate brought you all together.

Sales Literature: I realize this feature rarely makes the cut in a time-constrained demo, and I’m not arguing it deserves time, but in the interests of preparation, you should have something in there. May I suggest you upload some of the actual presentation or collateral assets you use when selling SFA? Your go-to Sales deck. Your official company deck? Just in case.

One other thought for Sales Literature: if you upload the deck you present right before your demo, you may want to upload it to Sales Literature. Then, in the demo, you can show the Email experience for a sales rep by sending everyone in the meeting the deck and showing off all the tracking that’s available.

As you can see, there are infinite possibilities here. The key is to think about every little detail you can enter to enrich the opportunity, and to keep at it until the deal is done. This demo really comes to life in a sales cycle where there are multiple demos over time and the Opportunity fills out and evolves (e.g. an internal team takes preliminary look and shortlists or selects for a final demo to the executive team).

Extra Credit for your meta demo of Microsoft Dynamics Sales

Assuming you’ve created a custom table for the Demo activity, take 5 extra minutes to show off your attention to detail by uploading a custom icon. Yes, finding icons in SVG format, resizing them to 32×32 pixels, and then updating the icons on the table is a pain, but in the end, it’s worth it. I’m currently using a bag of popcorn, but pick something that represents a demo to you. I also considered an old timey movie projector (with the reels).

WordPress won’t let me link to an SVG file for download but you can grab this zip file which has the popcorn icon already sized for you if you want to use it.

Other Meta Demos in the Dynamics Customer Engagement suite

Marketing. A meta demo of Marketing Automation is a little more of a stretch than Sales, but I’ve introduced the Marketing Meta Demo™ here.

Field Service. I wouldn’t try to fit a normal Field Service demo into the meta framework, but if you were doing an all-day Executive Briefing Center-like experience just about Field Service with multiple presenters, coffee & pastries, lunch, demos, etc., than you have something. You can literally manage the entire day and all of the tasks that need to get done with the solution. Each presenter was chosen for a reason — create a Skill around that reason. Someone was in charge of catering for the day — put them in. Put in an Incident Type for A/V testing, for setup, and tear down. If you’re taking the group out to dinner afterward, put that in with the restaurant address to show off drive time and traffic features. At some point in the day, engineer a curveball. Someone is running late and will miss their presentation, or they came down ill, and you need to find someone else that can do their Work Order and you have an excuse to show Resource Schedule Optimization!

Guides. Start the demo with a guide you’ve created for an actual training they might deploy. Let’s say you’re working with a manufacturer, and you put together a guide of how to assemble a piece of machinery. The prospect now knows it’s customizable because you built a version of what they’ll want to buy, but they don’t yet know the level of effort it took to put the Guide together. Did it take you weeks to do that? Do you need a PhD in Computer Science? Are you from the future? So for your second guide, pull up a guide about building a guide. It could be a generic tutorial on putting together Guides (which I think is perfectly fine), or you could go really meta and make a step-by-step guide of how you built the first guide (this might be so meta, you lose them).

Remote Assist. The Remote Assist flex is to intentionally have something go wrong with your demo (or the audience thinks something has gone wrong, but it’s all pre-planned). You reach out to a colleague via Remote Assist who is expecting your cry for help, and knows exactly what you need to do to fix the issue. You’ve now used Remote Assist to solve your issue with Remote Assist.