This week I had a pre-sales consultant tell me he always showed reporting at the end of the demo, and if he had time he would show Extender.  WOW.  In every GP demo I have ever done (and I have done plenty) – Extender is always the second thing I show. A good Demo of GP should look like this and follow this order:

1.  Prove it is easy to access, manipulate and analyse your data in reports:  
This is the number one thing people want from a new ERP system and must be done at a few different levels.  
  • Show a sexy dashboard, pivot table, BI pretty colors reporting tool. There are plenty out there to choose from. (My favorite is Solver).
  • Show a nice P&L – that is essential as at the end of the day you need financial reports.
  • Show the Builders. Every single piece of data you enter + those fields that do not exist but need calculating is available through SLB. People love that story. 

2. Show how a GP solution fits their business, is completely flexible and is fast to configure.
  • Find an important area of the clients business that is important to the CEO or president – but is not usually covered by regular accounting systems.  Build components of this solution in Extender and present it like it is a standard part of GP. 
  • Then ask if you have all the data they need here (intentionally leave some data off the screen you know they need). Now add the extra fields on the fly in front of them. 
Do this early in every demo (You can use the term Extender or not – does not really matter). You will find that later in the demo  – the prospect will start answering their own questions by sating ‘well we could just add that field with the Extender tool’. 
You have now proven flexibility, ability to keep the budget down through rapid configuration – after all you changed it right there in front of them – most importantly you have set the expectation that all ERP systems should do this same thing. You know that your competitors can not – so you are a mile ahead. You have changed the rules of the game in your favour. 
3. Show the power of integration with other relevant applications. (Excel, CRM, etc.)
In today’s world every company needs some form of integration. They have a front end system, a website, or some sort of application that should have integration to GP. Do not talk about this as being hard or difficult – but lead with how they MUST integrate and you can handle it easily. Do not be scared of words like XML, Web Service, FTP etc.  
4. Show GP – This is important but the last thing I do. Then go onto the detail behind GP and the specific functions that this company may need.  (Landed costs, applying cash receipt, recurring journals, fixed assets, etc). The reason I do this last is that by doing the first 3 things you have usually already won the deal. By showing a P&L you have implied you can do a journal entry – so why show it again?  By showing the BI reports you are proving that all the data they need is being captured. By showing how configurable GP is – you win their trust that it can do most things they could ever need. By proving it fits into the business world and can integrate to anything, easily and inexpensively – you have won the deal.  
So this quick 40 minute demo – wins you many many deals. Sure there can be deeper detailed discussions following this – but the deal is won or lost up front. So to keep an eOne flavor I say show SLB and ERB together with a powerful BI tool, show Extender for customizations and SmartConnect for integration. 
My real interest is having people sell more GP – so regardless of the tools you choose to deliver this demo – it is a winning formula and I encourage every pre-sales person to give it a run if you are not already. You will sell more. 
But we prefer Dex mods?
Really?  Customers want flexibility, customers do not want to be locked into your dex team. The other argument I hear is that those crazy Extender tables make life hard. WRONG. It is simply not true. For 8 years we have had Extender views – and this ensures those tables are no more difficult to work with than any other table.  If you do not believe me – call me or call Nicole and we will show you.