Software demo run by sales and presales, sometimes by product managers, decide whether the prospect will continue the journey with us or drop the ball.

When presales give a generic pitch and run the product feature by feature,the game is lost.

Why you need a kickass demo?

In the current market, most of your  competing softwares will look the same to the market. At the end of the demo, your presentation will look stale and you will end up being another boring vendor with nothing new to offer.

So, it is important that you got connected with your audience and showed the value they expected at the end of the meeting.

Key ingredients for a successful demo

Your prospects are not connected to your demo’s when it is not scripted and customized. For a demos to be successful, the prospects need to visualize how the product will be used and its effectiveness when put to operations. 

In simple, they want to see how the solution would help to solve their challenges.

Discover and Identify the customer expectation

Discovery is fundamental to sales. It helps the team gain insights about the prospects and their challenges.

When discovery is done right, you get to know about the company’s profile,  prospect’s role, challenges faced and the implications if not resolved.

Discovery sets the platform to map their journey and present the demo proving it solves the challenges faced by them.

Map out their journey to customize the demo

Many end up doing a common scripted demos or a featured based demo even after the discovery is done. That is a big crime. 

The demo is an opportunity for the prospect to see themselves the possible solution. The most effective way to achieve this is to customize the demo as fully as possible.

Show how solutions solve their problem

It is show time. Resist the urge to show them all features. You have taken the effort to customize the demo and let it not go in vain.

Talk about their challenges and drive the demo in such a way that they could see their la-la land. Present the product from their perspective. It should tell the customer’s story.

Show them what the product can accomplish. In simple, they should see the value.

Make it interactive

The average human’s attention span is less than 10 mins and that too only if it is interesting. The further you go into the presentations without getting them involved the less they would pay attention.

So, don’t let your prospect’s to be just the audience. You are talking about their challenges and wishes. Get them involved in the demo.

Make it a two-way interaction. Make sure they experience how it would be they used it.

Get feedback and talk about the next step.

At the end of demo, a sale doesnt happen immediately. That is fine. At the same time,don’t let them slip into the zone “I will get back ”. Be in control. 

Ask the prospects about the impression about your product. Check whether the demo helped them to make the next step with you?

Explain the next steps and when you can reconnect(if needed). Set the platform that will help sales in closing.

The best demos are driven by goal. When presented right, it would have convinced that your product is the best and should sign up the same day. 

Demos make a difference in the sales cycle as it has a greater impact. it is a powerful playbook for sales.