Customer-site vendor demos are a great way for customers to vet products and the company, but I've been through a number of vendor demos that have been total disasters.

So, how do you get the most out of a vendor demo?

Well, it takes a little work, but it's worth the effort. Here are some basic guidelines to ensure that the time is well spent—and to represent your company in a professional way to vendors.

First, make sure that you—or someone from the sourcing department—is "in charge" of the logistics of the demo. You'll also need someone to take notes of highlights (not minutes) and any action / to do items that come up.

Have an agenda and stick to it—don't let the vendor or the attendees get the demo too far off track. You might feel that you're being over-bearing by cutting people off, but there are probably folks sitting in the demo quietly thanking you in their minds for taking charge and keeping things on-track.

Having an agenda means that you have to develop it beforehand—preferably with the vendor's input—and that you've sent it out to the attendees in advance of the demo. Schedule breaks in your demos and stick to them (both starting and stopping).  Minds begin wandering after an hour in meetings and calls from nature can ruin concentration. Anything more than two hours without a break is cruel and unusual punishment.

Speaking of the agenda, ensure that your vendor is prepared to demo exactly what you and the attendees want to see. If you don't put boundaries / parameters around the scope of the demo, the vendor may do deep-dives on something you don't have much of an interest in. Give your vendor positive and corrective feedback (we want to see more of that, we don't want to see this) during the demo regarding the scope and depth to make sure you and your attendees get what you want out of the demo.

As a part of the agenda, make sure that you leave some time at the end (after the demo and without the vendor present) for the attendees to have a debrief. It's a bit strange for the demo to conclude and then for all of the attendees to wander off without any debrief. And trying to get the attendees back together is an unnecessary use of their time (you could have done that at the demo) and memories fade. Get attendees' feedback during the debrief.

If you're going to be discussing confidential information—either the vendor's or yours—make sure that you have an NDA (using your contract template, of course) executed before the demo. Be sure, in your opening remarks, to mention that confidential information will be discussed and that the parties (and, therefore, the vendors and attendees) have an obligation of confidentiality.

If the demo is scheduled in the morning or at mid-day, consider springing for breakfast or lunch to be catered. Consider some sort of break food (like cookies) for other times of the day. Food is a great way to get attendees to show up! At the very least, have some liquid refreshments.

Double-check (before the demo) that you really did reserve the meeting room. You don't want to find out at the last minute that, oops, you really didn't have the meeting room booked. Book the meeting room a half-hour before and after the demo's scheduled times. Visit the meeting room before the scheduled time and make sure that it's neat, not too hot or cold, food is there (if ordered), there's Internet connectivity (if required) and the necessary A/V equipment is there and functional.

If the vendor needs to have anything installed on your system, network, etc., make sure that your IT folks (including IT Security) have everything done that they need to do before the day of the demo.  Don't surprise your IT folks the day of the demo with some sort of urgent request.

Make sure there's a limit on the number of vendor "suits" that show up. For some reason, vendors think that the more suits they bring, the better. Limit the number of vendor suites to something like the sales rep, the sales rep's boss, and a pre-sales technical / marketing type. Anything more than that is probably over-kill.

If your vendor is coming from out of town, make sure that you don't schedule the demo to start at too early in the morning. Your vendor may have flown in the night before or the morning of the demo.  You want the vendor to be refreshed and not harried.  Vendors (believe it or not) are humans, too, so be considerate in that they are going through the rigors of travel to do this demo for you. Make sure they have directions to your building, they know where to stay over-night (if that's the case), and greet them in your company's lobby so that they don't have to navigate your company's security process by themselves. When your vendors come on-site, make sure they know where the restrooms are and what the codes, if any, are. Don't wait for a vendor to have to ask where the restrooms are.

There's nothing more embarrasing than to schedule a vendor demo where the attendees don't show up. Sure, there are "emergencies," but your attendees should be considerate of the vendor's time. Make sure that you do more than just send out one meeting invite. Send a reminder a few days before the demo (with the agenda) and one the night before. Remind attendees, in a polite way, that the vendor is making the effort to do the demo, and that their attendance (assuming that they accepted the first invite) is strongly encouraged.

If you have any attendees that are not trained in the "way of sourcing," politely let such attendees know (well in advance of the demo) that certain subjects shouldn't be discussed in front of the vendor (such as budget) and statements like "Your product beats the pants off of XYZ's product! Can you start implementing it tomorrow!?" should be avoided because they erode leverage.

Do have everyone introduce themselves. It's tedious, but helpful. In some cases, particularly with a vendor that you know won't buck proper protocol, it's even appropriate to tell the vendor in advance who the attendees are.

If your company has some logo / incentive item (like coffee mugs), consider having enough of them for the vendor's staff to take back with them. It's thoughtful and a nice touch.

Finally, make sure that someone follows-up with the vendor not too long after the demo. The vendor's staff is going to wonder whether they were on-point, what the results were, next steps,and so on. They also need to report to their boss, so give them at least something they can carry forward, even if it's not the greatest of news.