Tips to Avoid Demo Drama - Tip 6: Less is more

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Yesterday, I talked about lessons that I had learned from presentation courses.

One tip that often comes up is the importance of remembering that less is more. This is perhaps my personal favourite—and one of the tips that is hardest to follow in practice.

How does it work? Let’s say that you are demonstrating a specific capability requested by the customer. They may say, “That’s great, that’s exactly what I was asking for.” You may think that now is the perfect time to start to show them more similar and powerful features, or how they can combine different options to do even more along the same lines.

No. Now is the time to stop. You have solved their problem. You don’t want to either confuse people, or raise more questions, especially if you might not be able to answer them.

When I discussed this with Gregor, he commented that he is always surprised how fast 30 minutes goes. His top tip is to deduct 20% of your available timeslot and plan to finish your demo within the remaining time. It is better to show fewer capabilities but get your message across clearly.

It is easy to lose your audience and never get them back. Try to read your audience’s faces, and avoid moving too fast, or giving too much information.

Less is more. Your audience can always come back with more questions later.