Product Demos That Sell: How to Deliver Winning SaaS Demos

by Steli Efti

One can't just invite the prospect to attend the demo. He should be really excited to attend the demo and for that the sales rep needs to sell it.

Demos are sales tools, period. Too many people give product demos as if they are product training sessions.

Here’s the difference: when you give a demo, you help a prospect understand the value your product can generate for them and you help them make a buying decision. It’s sales.

Since people confuse product demos for training tools (see sin #3), demos are way too long!

The purpose of your product demo is demonstrate value, not features and functionalities.

Nobody cares about your product’s features. What that means is that when you’re giving your product demo, you need to focus on how your product is going to help your prospect: •create value •save time •increase revenue •solve problems

If you give a demo and you give it remotely—meaning you can’t see eye to eye with the person because they’re not in the same room as you—you have to highlight the precise moment when prospects need to pay full attention to you.

Don’t let prospects figure out the most important moments on their own; tell them when the most important moments are.

You don’t end the demo with a close

The biggest sin of all

Product demos are sales tools; if they aren’t ending in closes or call-to-actions, they are being wasted.

Why is qualifying demo attendees so important? Because it will help you understand which features to show your prospect and how to craft a product demonstration that connects with your audience and excites them. You'll be able to map your product's benefits to your prospect's needs.

Customize your product demo to your prospect's

desired results to make the most out of your sales opportunities.

"I want to make sure that we don't waste any of your time on a demo that doesn't answer your questions and provide you with the insights you need to make an informed decision. That's why I'm going to ask you a few questions about your interest in our software."

Ideally you want to create your own list of questions that work best for your sales needs, but here are some questions to get you started: •Why is the prospect interested in your solution? •Which objectives do they hope your product will help them achieve? •Which problems do they hope your product will help them solve? •How are they currently trying to achieve this? •What do they like most about their current

•What do they dislike most about their current approach? •What do they want improved? •Have they used a similar product in the past (or are they currently)? •What other products are they evaluating? •Who are the stakeholders involved in the deal? •How do they feel about your product? What are their individual objectives, objections, wants, and needs? •How are they evaluating your solution, which KPIs do they want your product to push? It's worth investing some time upfront into formulating a set of questions.

Generally, the questions you ask when you're speaking to end-users of your software should be more focused on tactical issues, whereas when you're talking with high-level executives, you want to focus your questions on strategy.

I always, always, always ask each individual, “If it was completely up to you, what three things would you change about your existing system?” Then ask, “What are the three best things about your existing system?” If appropriate, ask, “What are the three things you’d like demonstrated when I come back?” Basically, these are three ways of asking the same question, right? Why ask it three different ways? I’ve found if I only ask one question, I get responses like, “I would like the system to be much faster.” Sure, better response time will be a nice thing to highlight, but you need to dig deeper.

Qualifying is as much about learning which features you should skip, as it is about which features you should demonstrate. If a feature isn't relevant to a prospect's objectives, don't demo it. "Demonstrating isn’t a contest of more; it’s a contest of more relevant."—Bob Riefstahl

Once you’ve decided whether a prospect is a fit, look at it from their point of view. Why should they make time in their busy schedule for this demo? What’s in it for them? Why should they do it now? Why should they dedicate their time to you and not another vendor? If you don’t have compelling answers to these questions, you’ll miss out on a lot of demo opportunities. It’s not enough to invite prospects to a demo. You actually have to deliver a compelling pitch and apply salesmanship so they’ll commit to joining your demo.

The qualification has given you insights into the objectives they want to achieve. You can bring these up when pitching the demo: “You should buy from us because you need X, Y, and Z, and we’re the best in the world to do these things. This is going to be a real game changer for you. So there’s two ways we can proceed from here: 1) you can do this yourself and figure it out, and I’m pretty confident you’ll become a customer or 2) I’ll connect you to Kevin (the guy who has

helped companies like yours to achieve X, Y and Z even faster with our software), because a 30-minute call with him will get you these results within the next five days.”

If a prospect resists at this point, ask them why. One of the most common objections is about time: they don’t want to spend half an hour on a demo. How do you manage th...

Have some lines ready If, not when, there's a technical glitch, the last thing you want to do is think about what to say.

That's why it's good to prepare. If your app suddenly crashes during the demo, what will you say? How will you bridge the time it takes to get up and running again? If your presentation software suddenly starts lagging because of a slow Internet connection, how will you deal with this? It's good to have a few lines for different scenarios prepared. There's no bonus points for being brilliant on the spot.

Do the same with your demos: experiment with different ways of presenting certain features and see what gets your prospects excited about your software.

We reference different movies and parts of popular culture in our sample data, and it often elicits a laugh or positive response from prospects when they notice one of these references.

Turn off chat notifications, instant messengers, and any other apps that could unexpectedly pop up on the screen and distract your viewers from your demo. Do you use any browser extensions or toolbars that take up valuable screen space? It’s best to launch a new browser without any add-ons and present in full-screen mode. Minimize visual clutter.

Open an empty text file where you can jot down prospect’s questions or notes to yourself during

the demo. If you already have the window in the background and don't make viewers wait for an app to start, it’s just another way...

Have an agenda

Decide in advance the three things you want your demo audience to remember about your product. I'm sure there's more you will want them to remember, and there definitely will be more that you'll show them. But if you assume that they could remember only three things, what are the three things you'd want your product demo attendees to remember? What are the highlights you want to highlight?

Always go from macro to micro

When you’re demoing a feature, always give your prospects the big picture first. They should never watch you demo something and be unsure of its purpose. If a prospect wonders “Why is this guy showing me this?”, then you haven’t properly explained what you’re going to demonstrate.

Reveal your capabilities in layers, in accord with the customer’s level of interest…. First, show the route to achieve the desired result with the fewest number of mouse clicks (the “Do It” pathway). This proves your capabilities and helps build a vision in your customer’s minds: they can visualize themselves using your software. Then, as your customer asks questions, you can drive deeper to show more relevant breadth of the Specific Capabilities desired (the “Peel Back the Layers” pathways). Note that the highest-ranking audience members may only need to see the “Do It” to be convinced.—Peter Cohan, strategy consultant, angel investor, and author

If you keep the good stuff for the end, all that's left is the boring stuff for the beginning and the middle—and you'll likely lose your prospect’s attention before you even get to the end.

A real demo should start with one of the specific problems or challenges the customer or prospect said they are having. They sound more like this: ‘During our previous conversation you stated your team was having a difficult time sharing documents and collaborating was difficult. In this part of the demo we want to show you how you would be able to share documents easier and increase collaboration without breaking your current file structure and maintaining federal compliance.’— Jim Keenan, author of the blog A Sales Guy

Never interrupt a prospect who is asking a question.

Flipping questions is a great way to learn more about the underlying reasons for why a prospect wants things a certain way.

Ask questions that contextualize the value you provide

For eg: Show the loss the company is making and how much the software can save

At the end of your sales conversation, you will have talked about many different things. How can you make sure that your three most important points still stick in your prospect’s mind? Just ask them one of these questions: •What were the highlights of this conversation for you? •I’m wondering, what was the most interesting thing that you’ve learned in this conversation? •I want to ask you, in the pitch today, what did you find most impactful? What were the things that you’re taking away? •If somebody asks you tomorrow to describe what we discussed today, how would you summarize our conversation?

Demonstrate that you’re going to have clarity and focus, and fix the issue promptly.