How to Demonstrate Software

I am a strong advocate for spending the time directly with software vendor sales and technical support to explore software tools. Most software offers many more features than you expect, and have unique approaches to solving data management challenges. Often its largely on the basis of the demonstration that many of us will make a final selection of software for our needs.

For the last 4 months, I have managed to either sit through demonstrations or demonstrate myself approximately 30 software packages for various nonprofit technology projects, including a number of donor database systems. Some were quite informative while others did not go so well. Here are a few of my discoveries on what makes for a great software demonstration that we as demonstration facilitators and participants can incorporate:

• Educate the vendor: Most software tools are built to solve a wide array of business problems, even when they are narrowly focused to, say, donor management tools. Vendors lead much better demonstrations when they know their audience goals and requirements so they can focus on what is most important.
• Educate the audience: Many participants in demonstrations do not know what to expect, and how to participate. Provide information up front about the software and the areas to cover, and invite feedback and questions before the event as well as throughout the demonstration to make sure the audience understands and is engaged.
  
• Develop a script: Its very easy for both the facilitator and audience to go off track on an aspect of the system, and lose time to see more important areas. Before engaging a demonstration, prepare a script with areas to cover and questions to resolve, and keep track of time to make sure you cover those areas. Share this will all folks reviewing the tool so everyone is on the same page.
• Phrase questions as "scenarios": Instead of asking, "how do I merge the last name of my donor to a letter", ask "how do I personalize my messages to my donors to build stronger relationships?". This is a broader question that includes the reason why you want to send personalized messages. The vendor is then invited to show the process of developing and personalizing letters, emails and other tools besides strictly mail merge, and will likely answer several additional questions in the process.
• Get your technology ready! Software demonstrations typically require computers with internet access, ability to run web demonstration software, a working phone line, and the software to demonstrate. Most vendors will set up a system for running a web demonstration - definitely test it prior to the demo to make sure it works ok. Some demonstrations used software that was not well prepared for answering my questions, or that did not work at all initially - this is definitely not a great way to start!
• Debrief immediately: Software demonstrations generally will not answer every question. Be sure to debrief soon after the demonstration to identify learnings, pros, cons and questions for further exploration. If engaging demonstrations of more than one software system, be sure to debrief each before demonstrating the next, as it gets very confusing to remember what each system offered otherwise.

In general, its best to approach the demonstration in the spirit of partnership, rather than as a competitive venture. Share more information rather than less to get the most out of the exchange, and to manage expectations properly.