I’ve had the (mis)fortune of sitting through some pretty bad software demos.
It usually starts with lame slides about the company history and the fact that the team has ‘143 years of combined experience in the industry’ (wow, we're really impressed! 🙄)…
The presenter babbles on about features and some technology nuances that nobody cares about…
The screens flash by so fast that not only are the participants confused, they are on the verge of having an epileptic fit…
There’s zero engagement from the audience and then it ends abruptly. With no questions.
It’s a painful scene to watch.
Doing great demos isn't magic, but it requires those giving the demos to think outside of themselves and focus on the prospect. Of course, this all assumes that the prospect has a problem they're looking to solve and that the product being demo’d actually can solve it…but let’s stick with that assumption for now.
My simple framework for giving a great demo starts with a solid introduction to set the stage:
State why you exist as a company. This is your well thought out value proposition and revolves around solving the problems your customers face.
Tell them why your current customers work with you. I like to frame this as: “Our clients engage with us when…”. List out the problems your solution solves for customers and see which of these resonate with your prospect. Write these down and let the prospect know you intend to focus on these during the demo.
Show them a list of customers you have already helped. This cranks up the FOMO-factor while providing social proof that your company knows what it’s doing. This is also a signal that doing business with your firm isn’t risky…because…well…everyone else is doing it!
Now that we’ve warmed up the room and engaged the audience, it’s show time.
As you walk through the product itself, don’t hammer on features and functions, try to make the audience envision what a day in the life is like with your solution.
The best salespeople I've worked with also spend time upfront making sure they understand the prospect’s workflows, terminology and pain points. This allows them to tailor the presentation so it’s more impactful. If the prospect refers to a customer as a ‘subscriber’, find that out in advance and use their terminology. It’s amazing how even a small thing like this can make people’s eyes glaze over if it's not taken into account.
As you navigate the product, keep it slow and always explain what you’re about to do before you do it. For example: “I’m about to go into the customer overview screen to show you what your service reps will see when they receive a new ticket”. This helps the audience to stay ahead of you so their head doesn’t start spinning as you jump from screen to screen. Remember, you see this product every day…it’s all new to them.
A pet peeve I have when watching a demo is junk data. If you have screen with a list of customers and every line shows “asdfghjkl” or “xxxxxx” this is distracting. Even though demos are normally conducted from a system with fake data, at least make it LOOK real. In fact, in order to inject a little humor into the session, I often use company or people’s names that I think might get the odd giggle from the audience.
Now that you’ve set the stage, executed a highly-engaging walkthrough of the product and have the audience virtually eating out of the palm of your hand, it’s time for the grand finale.
Remember the list we made for step #2 from our opener? Pull that out and review it with the audience. Find out if the demo addressed how your solution solves the problems that resonated with them. If they’re in agreement, check them off the list. If not, go back and dive into the product again to demonstrate that point. Your goal here is to get full agreement that your product, based on the demo, solves their high priority problems.
I promise if you use this approach for your next product demos, you’ll stand out from the crowd of boring, monotonous presentations they just received from your competitors.
__
Want more of this?
Check out my book: The Delusional Founder