Just Show Them the Product

The five words every SE hates — and the fifteen-minute move that turns a product tour back into a conversation.

An SE got the call request with fifteen minutes' notice: "The prospect just wants to see the product. Don't overthink it." She ran the generic demo. Two weeks later the deal was dead. There's a better move — and it doesn't require winning the discovery-vs-demo argument with your AE.

What Nate and Ava discuss

• The mini-discovery — three questions that frame the demo around the customer's actual situation without sounding like an interrogation
• Why you tailor the narrative, not the build — same demo, different lens
• When the mini-discovery is a rescue play (first call) vs. when it signals something broke upstream (call three)
• The debrief move — sending what you learned back to the AE turns a rescue into pipeline intelligence

The move

Next time an AE says "just show them the product," don't argue. Take the meeting. Coach your SE to open with three questions before a single screen gets shared. After the call, send the AE what you learned. Prove the model through results, not philosophy.

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🔗 Resources & Links: paths.to/presales

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