The 3-Minute Pitch that Won Over Dreamforce Audiences — Twice
A conversation with Conversica, winner of two Dreamforce Demo Jams
Effective pitch writing is a topic that we’ve taken on time and time again, and with good reason. Whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur or a well-established Salesforce partner, being able to sell others on your vision in a concise and memorable way is a critical skill — which is one of the reasons that we developed the AppExchange Demo Jam series.
If you’ve ever joined us for a live Demo Jam or the monthly webinar series, you know that these fast-paced competitions feature four to five AppExchange partners battling it out with three-minute live demos of their apps (no slides allowed). When all the participants have completed their demos, the audience votes online to choose the winner.
This year at Dreamforce, we went big with eight live Demo Jams, including a ‘Mega Demo Jam’ where winners from the other seven sessions competed for the final trophy. And this year’s ultimate Demo Jam champion was Conversica, an automated sales assistant for Salesforce users. Read on to learn what Gary Gerber, Senior Director and Head of Product Marketing at Conversica, had to say about the experience, and how the team came up with the pitch/rap that won over the crowd — twice.
Tell us a little bit more about Conversica.
Gary Gerber: Conversica provides an AI-based sales assistant that empowers salespeople to focus on selling and closing deals instead of chasing down leads. The assistant engages prospects in natural, two-way human conversations, is always persistent, always polite, and tirelessly reaches out to every single lead, as many times and over as long a timespan as is required. It’s a win/win/win: Sales is more efficient, Marketing is more effective, and prospects have a great experience. Conversica is available on AppExchange.
Nice pitch! So, what did you find to be the most challenging part of participating in our Dreamforce Demo Jams? Which part did you enjoy the most?
GG: The most challenging part was figuring out a way to stand out when we knew we’d be competing with some really good products and presenters — we decided it wouldn’t be enough to just do a good traditional demo. As it turns out, the part we enjoyed the most was the same thing: Putting on our “creative hats” and thinking of new and different ways to convey the value and functions of our product.
How did you come up with your unique approach to your demo (rapping)?
GG: We were brainstorming, having fun and throwing all sorts of crazy ideas at the wall to see what would stick. The rap idea was one of them (not nearly the craziest!) and since our product is all about facilitating human conversations, the rap idea seemed perfect since it’s also in the form of a human conversation.
Did you find the exercise of condensing your demo down to three minutes to be helpful? How about the show vs. tell format?
GG: Yes, we found both to be very helpful. Anything that helps you drill down concisely, and get to the crux of what you do best and where your value lies is always a good thing. It helped us focus the demo and we will carry that practice over into other marketing and sales activities. Plus, it was fun!
What did you learn from this experience?
GG: We learned that no matter how “serious” a task may seem to be, there is almost always room for creativity—and even fun—in approach and execution. We’re all human and we all like to experience and observe passionate people doing passionate things. We were really happy the voters reacted so positively to us doing that.
What’s next for Conversica?
GG: Well obviously that would be a repeat victory at Mega Demo Jam 2018. :-) But, in the meantime, the company is growing rapidly and gaining a ton of visibility through awesome events like Dreamforce and fun activities like Demo Jam. With Salesforce as our partner, we plan to keep up the crazy pace and get conversational AI into the hands of every organization that thinks more revenue is a good thing.
Congratulations, team Conversica!
Want to learn more about AppExchange Demo Jams? Check out some of our recorded Demo Jam webinars for more examples of great apps and exceptional demos — and tune in every third Thursday to catch all the action live.
Learn more about Conversica here.
