Demo Best Practices

Pre-Demo

• Pre-qualify the person: Not every lead deserves a demo. However, it can be hard to know this without some additional qualification. For instance, summer interns may seek demos as part of a project they are working on behalf of a senior executive. For people with Director & below job titles, you are within your right to ask in advance, “Are you exploring this for personal interest or is this part of a key company initiative?”
• Research the person and their company
• Invite others: Have the prospect invite one or two other people from their team to attend the demo. Other attendees should share a similar persona in terms of what type (technical depth) of demo will resonate with them. Try to avoid demos with more than ~3 attendees since it will be to easy for people to disengage, esp. when the demo is delivered via a web meeting.
• Orchestration: If you have multiple people from your team on the call, pre-define roles and responsibilities.
• Craft your demo script
  • You do not need to cover every feature
  • Rather than going feature by feature, weave the demo into a step-by-step guide to addressing a particular use case
  • Remember that you should address both value creation and risk reduction. On the latter, either involve CS or speak to implementation, onboarding, and value-realization.
  • Start with the end state and then walk through how to get there (rather than building to a grand reveal)
• Have a backup plan: In the event of a technical glitch, have a static version of your demo available (ex: slide deck version with screenshots).
• Email an agenda for the demo a day or two in advance
• Schedule demos to last no more than 45 minutes

During Demo

• Your job is not to be respected for your technical depth & expertise; your job is to make your solution look easy and valuable
• Use an ‘up-front-contract’ to position next steps at the beginning of the call:
  “By the end of this call, I’d like you to be in a position where you’re either interested and we plan the next logical step, or you’re not interested, you tell me that candidly, and we avoid wasting each other’s time. Is that fair?” – Source: Gong
• Be adaptable; the script is merely a guide
• Confirm your pre-research and/or the prospect’s specific use case(s)
• Consistently link features to value
• Do highlight your key differentiators
• Share short & specific anecdotes about how current customers are using your solution; but only name drop if the examples are extremely similar to the prospect’s company
• Avoid long monologues
• Pause frequently to give people time to jump in with questions
• Intersperse discovery & demo
• Tailor the demo to the role of the prospect and their company
  • Avoid giving deeply technical demos to senior executives (unless you know for certain this is what the want).
  • Select a use cases that matches the challenges/goals of their persona/industry
• Ask open ended question
  • Avoid, “Does that make sense?” and instead ask, for example, “How would you see you or your team using this?”
• Let the prospect drive (if feasible)
• Wait to discuss pricing until the end when the prospect has some sense of value
• Do not show/discuss your ROI model during the demo
• Leave enough time at the end of the demo to gather reactions and especially to schedule next steps
  • For example, if the next step is to sign up for a trial account, then do it right then and there
• Finish on time

Post-Demo

• Follow up promptly on promised actions
• Address any unanswered questions or lingering concerns/objections
• Ask for feedback on the demo

Self-Guided Demo Tools

G2 Grid for Demo Automation [rating / # reviews as of Sept. 26, 2023]

(*) = recommended

• AppDemoStore [-/-]
• Consensus Revel [4.8/432]
• Demoboost [4.8/30]
• Demostack [4.8/30]
• Navattic [4.8/121]
• Reprise [4.3/103]
• Saleo [5.0/73]
• Storylane [4.8/130]
• Storyscale [4.6/4]
• Tourial [4.5/52]
• Vivun Revel [4.7/87]
• Walnut [4.4/72]