Technical Liaison Checklist
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
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Make major decisions on the Workshop(s) early
(60-to-90 days in advance if possible):
- Dates
- Cities
- Venues (regional
office or hotel)
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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)
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Book hotel reservations (for out-of-town
attendees, TL, Wayne[no-smoking; late arrival]) |
Communication
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Send
invitation email (click for sample) to targeted
attendees (includes message from senior manager on
importance of event and preparation)
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attach
data sheet for Demo Skills Workshop
(right mouse, Save As) |
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refer attendees to
www.demo-skills.com for further workshop details |
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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) |
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Send Workshop Package to registered attendees
at least 2 weeks in advance, including:
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Script for Demo Slice (see below)
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start data
files |
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command-by-command instructions |
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narrative
(text or bullets) |
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Get "Demo-Skills-Workshop-handout" document
from Wayne (waynemcc@wamware.com)
and make 1 copy for each attendee (stapled or bound). |
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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). |
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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. |
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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) |
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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).
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Select initial Demo Slice (usually from an
existing introduction demo; representative of
product/company strategy) |
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Schedule web conference with Wayne (plan 1
hour in length) |
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Conduct web conference with Wayne... run Demo
Slice... iterate on content of Demo Slice |
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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.
