Hitting the Customer Feedback Jackpot

Recently we hit the jackpot with J., a random customer of ours who uses Glance for web demos. We sent a standard note inquiring about his satisfaction...and, surprisingly, he came back with a deluge of professional-grade suggestions – the kind of high-level stuff you'd expect from a senior marketing manager of a multi-national tech vendor...or something like that.

Turns out the guy was a Senior Global Marketing Manager of a huge, legendary tech giant, but that's besides the point – we're used to getting great advice from all kinds of people.

The point is that user feedback is as good as gold. And with thousands of users an email away, we like our odds. That's why everyone at Glance, including our CEO (who had the pleasure of initiating the email thread with J.) invests uncommon amounts of time and energy into listening. As far as we're concerned, anything less would be the real gamble. Thanks, J.!

-Carla Gates

Put the "WOW!" Into Your Web Demos | A Glance Webinar

I'm excited to announce the first in a series of complimentary How-To Webinars we'll be doing for our customers and prospects, with some of our favorite partners and industry colleagues. We picked the topics and speakers based on business information and tools we find helpful ourselves -- after all, like many readers of this blog, we're running a small business here too!

Our first Webinar speaker is Peter Cohan, author of Great Demo!, a book that provides easy-to-use methods to create and execute compelling sales demos.

Here's the first Glance Webinar description:

Learn how to turn your dull demos into winners that capture your customers' interest and close business every time. Co-sponsored by Glance and Peter Cohan, we'll teach you how to:

- Engage and captivate your audience in the first 6 minutes;
- Organize your demo to address your customers' key concerns;
- Generate a "Wow!" response that compels their interest;
- And more...

Join us Friday, July 11, 1pm ET (that means, 10am PT, 11am MT, and noon CT) for an hour with Peter, and give a permanent boost to your web demos!

Register today.

6 tips for better web demos

Many Glance customers use our simple desktop sharing tool for web demos.  They often ask for tips.  Here's what we tell them.

1. Take a practice run-though.  This isn't just to make sure you sound smooth or know the high points to hit. You'll know that you have the software and files it needs properly installed on your computer and configured correctly. You'll also see how fast your network can send screen changes.  You can make sure there's no embarassing content left over from internal testing -- yes, we've seen this happen in live demos! You'll get a better idea for pacing the demo and you can leave applications running and files pre-loaded to avoid start-up pauses.
2. Use a solid Internet connection.  Make sure you have plenty of bandwidth. Often ISPs tout their download bandwidth. But if you're hosting the demo, it's the upload speed that matters, and it's often only a tenth as fast.  (Check your speed now, using the Speakeasy Speed Tester here.)
   To avoid wireless fades or drops, connect your computer directly to your network and disconnect your wireless interface (here's how).  Some Windows laptops have a silly policy of connecting to a neighbor's network, dropping the existing connection on its wired interface.
3. Lower your screen resolution. We all like a nice big screen when working, but that's not what you want for remote demos. Lowering your screen size to 1024x768 or even 800x600 means your demo is transmitted much faster to your guests. It also makes it less likely your presentation will be shrunk down on your guest's side, making text hard to read.
4. Go for solid colors. You know about not wearing a checked shirt on TV?  This is similar. Good solid colors compress better and transmit faster. Avoid photos, gradients and textures when possible in your desktop's background, slides or charts.  You'll find screen changes and transitions come accross snappier.
5. If something goes wrong, keep talking.  We all have days when the demo gods don't smile on us. If something glitches, despite your run-through, it's usually not worth getting distracted trying to fix it. Acknowledge that something went wrong, and then move on. If it's a live product demo, have a backup slide presentation.
6. Finish strong.  Sum up what you've said.  Then pause for questions with a memorable or "sticky" image on the screen having a clear call to action.

Try these tips out on your next demo.  Like many of our customers, I believe you'll find that  web demos can be your most cost effective way to boost inside sales.