My Bookshelf: Just F*ing Demo! by Rob Falcone

In the years since Marc Andreesen famously noted that "software is eating the world", sales engineering has emerged as a prominent discipline within many revenue organizations. Attracting practitioners from a variety of backgrounds, SEs deliver countless software demos every day as an expected step in any serious (or not so serious) evaluation. There are dozens of books covering the art and science of delivering effective demos, but one that's on my must-read list is 'Just F*ing Demo' by Rob Falcone.

So many software demos fail to rise above what could be more efficiently delivered as a simple recorded video. Why is that? Across the 29 pages of this small but mighty book, Falcone offers a concise, targeted blueprint for relevance. His own "lightbulb moment" came when "stopped trying to deliver the perfect demo for my product and started trying to deliver the perfect demo for his audience."

The essence of tailoring the demo approach comes down to effective discovery - unearthing as much decision criteria as possible. And whether this happens in a separate call, in the first part of a demo meeting, or worst case realtime as you demo, it is the antidote to delivering the dreaded "harbor tour" demo - where you show a little bit of everything hoping that something sticks.

So, whether you are a sales engineer whose background is technical or more commercial, 'Just F*ing Demo' deserves a spot on your bookshelf. If you're like me, you'll find it a quick read, but one that you'll come back to every so often for a refresher. Can't ask for much more than that!