Donald Light has been in the room for hundreds of product demosas insurance software vendors try to convince carriers why thecarriers should select their product. Light, director, Americas, inthe property/casualty practice for the consultant and advisory firmCelent, has seen more than his fair share of disastrous demos andhas detailed some of them in his latest report.

“I was involved in vendor screening for this global initiative,”he recalls. “The vendor must have had a team of eight differentpeople there, which is a lot of head count in one room for a demo.We had no idea why at least half of them were there.Notwithstanding all those people, the vendor to a large degreeignored what the insurance company had said they wanted to see inthe demo.”

Experiences such as that led Light to write the tongue-in-cheekreport: “How to Give a Really Bad Demo.” In the report, Light liststhe 10 “worst” practices he has seen based on actualexperience.

“Essentially, everything in that report actually has happened,”he says. “Fortunately, not all of them happened in a singledemo.”

Light has more than once felt puzzled by the poor job vendorshave demonstrated.

“Carriers want to end up with a new system that will make them amore successful insurance company,” he says. “How can you structureyour demo to reflect that? That is where vendors are missing a hugeopportunity in how they create the demo and how they present thedemo.”

When a vendor visits a carrier's office to present ademonstration, the carrier isn't looking for what Light calls “adog and pony show.” The company has already gone through severalsteps in the selection process and the demo is almost always afterthe RFP.

“At that point the insurer or an analyst will say to the vendorhere are 10 or 20 specific things they want to see from thevendor—processes, capabilities, business environments, ITenvironments—and demonstrate what happens, how [the system] isautomated or how work is kicked out of an automated processingcycle,” he says.

Vendors have been known to take the lazy route, using theirstandard, off-the-shelf demo that may hit some, but certainly notall of the specific points the carrier is seeking answers to.

“Is that a good way to sell your system?” Light asks. “No. Doesit take the insurance company's request seriously? No. Does it hurtthe vendor? Yes.”

Seeing a complete meltdown by the vendor isunusual, according to Light, who estimates it may happen in 10 to15 percent of the vendor demos he has witnessed.

Not being responsive to each and every part of what the insurerhas asked the vendor to present is much more common. Lightestimates that happens approximately 50 percent of the time.

“Maybe they are responsive to 17 or 18 out of the 20 requests,but they ignore the other three,” he says. “Or, of the 20 thingsthey are being asked to demonstrate, they kind of blow it on a fewof the requests. Demos, per se, don't call for the business valueof your underwriting system, but it ought to be obvious to everyonethat the insurance company wants to acquire a system that hasbusiness value. Hitting the business value theme is probably whereover half the demos fail.”

Presenting a good demo can improve the vendor's position in theeyes of the carrier, according to Light.

“One thing we always tell insurance companies we work with isdon't be a slave to the numbers,” he says. “The RFPs come in andthe insurer scores them and then ranks the systems. You can'tcapture all the dimensions in what is going to be a long-termbusiness relationship through scoring. You have to listen with yourheart and your gut to determine what's going on. A good demoprovides a tremendous opportunity to improve the company's view ofthe vendor and the solution they are trying to get the carrier tolicense.”

Here is what Light has determined are the 10 “worst practices”that vendors should not try and emulate if they are lucky enough toreach the demo stage in the sales process:

• Don't try to understand the insurance company.
• Give the same demo you always give.
• Don't waste time convincing the insurer that you are a good,long-term partner.
• If you get a hard question, don't answer it.
• Business value? Don't even go there.
• Spend as much time as possible in the business userenvironment.
• Don't demonstrate the current version.
• Don't give people a chance to understand new scr3eens.
• Don't tune your demo for the insurer's presentationenvironment.
• Don't repeat questions or answers for anyone on a conferenceline.