ESET is an award-winning global digital security company delivering services to over 400,000 businesses and 100 million individual users globally.
Privately owned and with a now vast team which includes the founding engineers, ESET uses its autonomy to develop innovative technology that protects people from ever-changing and progressive internet and cyber threats.
In order to effectively communicate how their products can help secure computers and devices, they have a dedicated sales department which is supported by a demo team made up of engineers to showcase business solutions.
What they Needed
With multiple pre-recorded demos already available on the website, ESET’s 121 demos are designed to give business customers a more tailored insight into how products can work for specific user cases.
Delivered by a team of expert technical team with no sales-training, the demos are feature-led and informative. However, ESET recognised that demos lacked personalisation and weren’t always presenting the product or its benefits effectively.
The company wanted to support engineers with running demos in a far more multidimensional way, enabling them to extract information from potential customers that would inform what features they should present and in what way.
What We Did
The first thing we did was book a demo as a mystery customer, taking notes on what worked well and what could be improved.
Using this information, we designed a successful demo training and coaching programme for the demo team. This involved weekly group sessions, followed up with 1-2-1 coaching calls.
The group training covered conversation structures, how to ask useful open questions and role play while the 1-2-1 sessions reviewed the individual real-life demos, offering alternative approaches that could be used. In all cases, we would produce review reports with tips and guidance to implement in real time.
In addition, we produced a process and guidelines that both the sales and demo teams could follow to improve the information sharing between the departments.
The Result
By encouraging more collaboration with the sales team and putting a detailed briefing document in place, the information passed on to the demo team is now tailored to the clients’ needs and wants.
This allows the technical team to plan a unique demo experience that answer questions before they’ve even been asked and focusses on both the features and the benefits that each client is most interested in.
Having a flexible conversation guide to work from has changed the demo format from a ‘talking at the customer’ presentation to a two-way dialogue that has significantly reduced objections and lost leads.
As a result, the qualification process is much more concise, which has led to an increase in quality over quantity, and shorter but more successful demons. Customer renewal rates have also passed the 90% mark.
What They Say
Benjamin Burgher-Fuller
Enterprise Technical Sales Manager
“One of the main reasons we engaged Zest was because there were concerns internally that the demo team’s technical expertise was actually acting as a barrier to sales success. Since the training, the demo team has become one of the most respected and invaluable sources of knowledge and is now involved in the whole sales and marketing process.
There is an increased level of pride in what they do and information they provide has vastly improved. Customer service satisfaction rates and retention has improved and calls are far more targeted.
I’ve done a lot of sales training in the past, but the difference with what Zest provided, and what we found most impressive, is the way they delivered the training was far superior. Kristy lives and breathes what she speaks, she knows far more than the theory and applies in her own business. To learn from her was what everybody needed and I have nothing but angelic statements for her.”
