In our 6th episode of #NutsAboutPreSales, we chatted with the brilliant Rishi Kapoor, Lead Sales Engineer at Alteryx.
Don’t miss this interview with one of the presales industry leaders as he discusses the craziest thing a sales pro did during a sales demo call, why you need personalized product demos, and the best way to structure your software demo presentation.
Watch the video now or read the transcripts below!
What’s your name and where do you work?
My name is Rishi Kapoor. I’m a lead sales engineer at Altryx.
What’s the craziest thing a sales pro did during a call?
I’m not going to mention any names, but the salesperson left the room or left the call. And me, as a presales professional, as a sales engineer, I had to essentially close the call.
The salesperson never came back into the room so I’m not sure why he left, but neither does the customer, as well.
What’s you biggest challenge when demoing?
Keeping the attention of the other person alive.
Make that demo as personalized as possible. So then the customer or the client or prospect doesn’t switch off and they’re still active in the conversation.
What do you love the most about presales?
I think the fact that I can help so many customers in one day.
I come from a consulting background where we were working with maybe one customer for one or two years. It’s very interesting and exciting to work with 5,6,7,8 customers in a day and actually helping them very quickly.
What’s your best presentation hack?
Show the output first.
The best time when the customer or the other person has their full attention is at the beginning. So I start off with the outcome and the output first and then I like to follow a great demo methodology where then I start asking some very key questions to the customer to unwrap the onion or remove the layers and get some more understanding in terms of what they want to see.
What’s the worst mistake to avoid?
To talk about everything. The biggest mistake I’ve made in the past is to actually do more talking than the customer or the prospect. So really, I should be an active listener as a presales professional.
Sell me a walnut!
You see this walnut here? These walnuts are the biggest, juiciest, most tasty walnuts that Tel Aviv or the UK has to offer.
It’s all about the walnut.
