Prep the People, Not Just the Demo

Ava: Okay so I need to vent for a second because I just got off a call with one of my SEs and she is... NOT happy.

Nate: What happened?

Ava: They had this big multi-product demo last week. Three SEs, four AEs, a couple of solution architects for the integration piece — customer had fourteen people dialed in, half on-site, half remote. Three and a half hours blocked out. And my SE had prepped EVERYTHING. Dry run the week before, shared a clear message in the deal channel morning-of saying hey, let's park questions until the framing slides, let's not break the flow...

Nate: Let me guess. Somebody didn't get the memo.

Ava: Oh they GOT the memo. They READ the memo. Five minutes into the first demo block, one of the AEs just... starts freelancing. "Oh and we can ALSO do this, check this out—" And the customer's like, well if HE's opening it up, game on. Hands everywhere. And the SE running the last block? Had to cut an entire story arc and cram everything into twenty minutes.

Nate: Welcome to Leading PreSales. I'm Nate.

Ava: And I'm Ava. Every episode, one idea, five minutes. Today — why prepping the demo isn't enough if you don't prep the people.

Nate: So look, I feel this one. I've had my managers come to me with this exact same story... probably a dozen times. And my first reaction is always the same — did you actually run a dry run?

Ava: That's the thing! They DID. Full dry run. Each SE had their own story, their own framing slides, their own exit points to pause and check in with the customer. And the agenda went out ahead of time with clear expectations. Honestly? The prep was textbook.

Nate: Right. And that's what makes it so frustrating. Because the prep WAS good. The problem is that a dry run rehearses the content. It doesn't rehearse the BEHAVIOR.

Ava: Say more about that.

Nate: When you do a dry run, everyone walks through their slides, their demo flow, their transitions. But nobody rehearses what happens when a customer asks a curveball question three minutes in. Nobody practices the moment where an AE gets excited and wants to jump in with "oh and we also do THIS." The dry run covers the script. It doesn't cover the improv.

Ava: So you're saying the dry run is necessary but not sufficient.

Nate: Exactly. And here's what I've seen work — one of my SE Directors started doing something she calls the "rules of engagement" conversation. Not in Slack. Not in an email. In the dry run itself, as the FIRST agenda item. Ten minutes where you explicitly walk through scenarios. "When the customer asks about integrations mid-demo, HERE is what we say. When an AE wants to add something, HERE is how you signal it."

Ava: So you're scripting the reactions, not just the presentations.

Nate: Right. And the other piece — this is the part most SEs skip — you give the AEs a JOB during the demo. Not "sit there and don't interrupt." An actual role. One of my teams has the lead AE responsible for capturing every question on a shared doc in real time. Visible to everyone. So when a customer asks something, the AE can say "great question, I'm noting that down, we'll hit it in the Q&A section." They're not sidelined. They're contributing. But in a way that PROTECTS the flow instead of blowing it up.

Ava: I love that. Because "please don't interrupt" is a restriction. "You own the question log" is a responsibility. Totally different energy.

Nate: And it works with the customer side too. My Director actually opens these big demos by telling the customer — "we've got a lot to cover, so our AE here is going to capture all your questions live. You'll see them on screen. We WILL get to every single one." Sets the expectation before anyone even touches a slide.

Ava: Okay but what about when it's already going sideways? Because in my SE's case the damage was done in the first five minutes. What do you do THEN?

Nate: Honestly? In the moment, you can't fully recover. Which is exactly why this has to be a pre-game thing, not a halftime adjustment. But — if you're the SE and an AE starts freelancing, the best move I've seen is to acknowledge it quickly and redirect. Something like "great point, and actually that connects directly to what I'm about to show in the next section." You fold their tangent INTO your flow rather than fighting it.

Ava: Redirect, don't resist. Okay. So the move here... it's not more prep. The prep was there. It's DIFFERENT prep. Script the human behavior, not just the demo content. And give your AEs a role that channels their energy instead of trying to suppress it.

Nate: That's it. A dry run without rules of engagement is just a dress rehearsal for a play where half the cast is improvising.

Ava: That is painfully accurate.

Nate: I'm Nate.

Ava: And I'm Ava. See you next episode!