Whenever I want to buy a new product or sign up for a new service, I’m always drawn to options that offer a sales demo. Maybe because I can’t afford to waste money. Or I just need to see the product or service in action first. And a sales demo has convinced me to buy faster once the offer is a good fit.
So, if you’re a sales rep or sales manager looking for strategies to close deals quickly, always do your homework and deliver fantastic sales demos.
In this post, I’m going to explain what a sales demonstration is, its importance and purpose, how to give one, and the best practices for a successful sales demo process.
Table of Contents
- What is a sales demo?
- Why Sales Demos are Important
- Sales Demo Basics
- How to Run a Sales Demo
- Sales Demo Best Practices
- Begin Creating Your Sales Demo Process
But before we dive in, let‘s look at the difference between a sales demo and a product demo, as they’re often confused terms.
Sales Demo vs. Product Demo
To reiterate, a sales demo is the process of providing a prospect with a demonstration of your product or service. A product demo is the same process, but it involves a current customer.
The point of a sales demo is to create a sale, whereas the point of a product demo is to show an existing client how to use the product or service they have already invested their time and money in.
Why Sales Demos are Important
Sales demos are important because they provide benefits that can shorten the sales cycle and close deals faster. Here are some of those benefits.
1. Showcasing Personalized Value
You can use a sales demo to explain key features of your products and services, clearly demonstrating the benefits. Instead of doing this in a generic manner, personalize the demo for each prospect. This way, you’ll address their specific problems and pain points, grab their attention, hold their interest longer, and stand a better chance of closing the deal.
Will Yang is the head of growth and marketing at Instrumentl. Previously, he led the sales, marketing, and customer success team at an Edtech company from zero to several million ARR. Here’s his take on the importance of sales demos.
“Sales demos are crucial because they transform abstract product descriptions into tangible experiences. They allow potential customers to see firsthand how the product can solve their specific problems. These demos build trust, showcase value, and differentiate your offering from the competition,” Yang says.
2. Establishing Credibility and Building Trust
A personalized sales demo can give prospects a good impression of you plus your products or services, boost your credibility, encourage them to trust you and your offers, increase their engagement, and further convince them to buy from you.
Here’s what Phil Strazzulla, founder of Select Software Reviews, has to say.
“Sales demos are pivotal in establishing trust and credibility. They provide a platform for potential clients to engage with the product, ask questions, and see firsthand how it can address their specific needs. For us, these demos are not just about showcasing features but also about demonstrating our expertise and understanding of the HR tech landscape,” Strazzulla notes.
3. Addressing Questions and Objections
It’s normal for prospects to have concerns, objections, and questions, like a lot of buyers. A sales demo is a timely opportunity for you to quickly answer all their questions and address all their objections and concerns without delay.
4. Increasing Conversions and Sales
When done right, sales demos can effectively communicate the features and benefits of your products or services, help you establish credibility and build trust with your prospects, and also make it easier to address their objections, answer their questions, and convince them to buy. Of course, all these can add up and increase your conversions and sales.
“Sales demos create a personal connection with potential customers. By showcasing products in action that address their specific needs, they help prospects understand their value and functionality. They build trust and credibility by providing tangible evidence of the product’s benefits,” says Sergey Taver, a marketing manager at Precision Watches.
Taver also notes that demos also shorten the sales cycle as they can answer questions in real-time, speeding up decision-making. “Ultimately, they increase conversion rates by giving prospects a clear reason to choose your product over competitors,” Taver says.
5. Developing Profitable Long-Term Relationships
Even when a prospect doesn’t buy immediately, you can follow up after a sales demo and ensure your products or services remain top of mind. And don’t be surprised if prospects also share their sales demo experience with others and constantly refer people to you. In fact, according to research:
- 82% of sales professionals see building strong relationships as the most crucial and rewarding aspect of the sales process.
- 36% of sales managers think follow-ups sent to high-quality leads are the most important tracking metric.
Sales Demo Basics
Next, I’m going to answer some questions that may come up as you think about your business’s process and prepare to deliver demos to prospective customers.
Who delivers a sales demo?
At virtually every company, a sales rep will deliver a demo to the prospective customer.
Why deliver a sales demo?
You deliver a sales demo to close a deal. With a sales demo, you‘re showing a prospect exactly how your product or service meets their specific needs and can mitigate any pain points and issues they’re experiencing. This makes your prospect want to buy your product or service (or at least want to learn more about it so they can convert later on).
When do you deliver a sales demo?
Sales demos typically occur after a visitor becomes a lead. Depending on where a prospect is in the buyer’s journey, there are a few specific points in time when you might deliver a sales demo (or ask if your prospect is interested in a demo).
- When a visitor completes a micro conversion (signs up for your newsletter or requests more information).
- When a lead contacts a member of your sales team to learn more about your product or service.
- When a lead requests a consultation.
How do you deliver a sales demo?
There are a number of channels through which you can deliver your sales demos. You might offer your prospects different options to be flexible and meet their needs.
Ensure you have all the tools needed to offer these sales demo delivery methods. For example, if you decide to deliver a sales demo via video chat, make sure you have access to software like GoToMeeting or Zoom, which allows easy screen sharing, face-to-face video chat, messaging, call features, and more.
Here are some more examples of common sales demo delivery channels:
- Phone call.
- Email.
- In-person.
- Automated/pre-recorded video.
- Live video chat.
And still speaking of videos, take a look at these interesting statistics:
- Over one-third of sales pros who use custom-recorded video report that it has shortened their sales cycle, and nearly half report that it has increased close rates.
- Videos for outbound prospecting, demos, and follow-ups to an initial outreach are account management professionals’ top three video messaging use cases.
- 64% of account managers and executives report they are satisfied or very satisfied with the results they are getting from the use of video messaging.
Since you now have a better understanding of the basics behind the sales demo process, next I’m going to share important steps on how to actually deliver a sales demo.
And get this, successful demo calls last 30.5% longer than unsuccessful ones, according to statistics. So, make sure you deliver targeted and engaging presentations during demos to enhance the possibility of closing deals.
How to Run a Sales Demo
1. Research your prospect.
The first step in the sales demo process is to research your prospect. As the rep who‘s delivering the demo, you should have a deep understanding of the prospect’s needs and pain points as well as what it is the company they work for does.
This will allow you to tailor and customize the demo to the prospect’s specific needs and situation, which is a critical component of a successful sales demo.
With years of experience in SaaS, Axel Lavergne is the founder of Review Flowz. On prepping and delivering a sales demo, he says,
According to Lavergne, his team encourages clients to participate in a 45-minute demo session. Prior to the demo, clients are asked to complete a quick form with details such as their company name, size, specific service needs, and the review platforms most important to them. This information helps tailor the demo to their unique requirements.
“During the demo, we focus on demonstrating how Review Flowz can address their specific challenges and ensure the demo is highly relevant and engaging. This personalized approach not only enhances the client’s understanding of our platform but also builds trust and credibility,” Lavergne says.
2. Confirm the sales demo.
A sales demo is something that’s almost always planned in advance — so it‘s important to remember to confirm the demo prior to it happening. Make sure the planned time of the demo still works for the prospect and give them a window to postpone if they’ve accidentally double-booked or if something else came up.
Send a calendar invite as soon as you‘ve confirmed the date and time of the demo (don’t forget to include any dial-in information if needed). Ask if anyone other than the person (or people) you listed on the invite will be attending so you can add them. Then, follow up with a confirmation email the day before, or a few hours prior to, the demo.
Use free scheduling software to efficiently plan, organize, and manage all of your meetings.
3. Plan your sales demo before the meeting.
There are many ways to plan your sales demo in a way that will enhance it and make it more engaging, depending on the channel you choose to present through.
For example, share your screen during the call with tools like the ones we mentioned above. Create a personalized slide deck (with a tool like Canva), and have any relevant links loaded in tabs on your browser for reference, so you can easily incorporate them throughout the presentation.
Examples of these resources include a customer case study, an informative infographic, and any other web pages, like your testimonial web page, that you think may come in handy during the demo.
You should also prepare statements around each tool or service you plan to show your prospects. As well as any tie down questions — which spark agreement and invite the prospect to better define the value of a given tool or solution for their business — to ensure your prospect is following along and understanding the given information.
Plan tie-down questions for each tool or section in your demo to ensure your prospect is following along, understanding your descriptions, and grasping how these tools can help them solve their problems. You want to lay out a clear path from A to B so they can envision the way your product or service can resolve their challenge.
4. Humanize the sales demo.
If you start the demo with, “Hi. I’m Kristen … Let’s start the sales demo now!” you officially sound like a sales zombie.
To avoid coming off as pushy, untrustworthy, and possibly unpleasant, ensure you‘re personable and show your caring, human side at the beginning of the call. After all, at this stage in the sales cycle, you and the prospect probably don’t know each other that well.
You might ask the prospect how they’ve been, how their latest project went, if their dog is finally potty trained, whatever. Time is precious, but so is rapport.
And rapport does not stop here. Build it at the beginning of the call and ensure it’s continually injected throughout all other parts of the sales demo to establish a human and trusting relationship.
5. Set an agenda for the demo.
Your sales demos should always follow an agenda. Prospects should be informed of this agenda prior to the demo beginning and can also be reminded of which stage of the agenda they’re actually in throughout the demo. This sets expectations and keeps everyone organized and on task. Knowing what will happen during the demo will put the prospect at ease.
Emphasize that there will be time at the end of the demo for the prospect to ask detailed questions (but you can also stress that questions are welcome at any time).
6. Summarize past conversations.
As you begin presenting the demo, mention any past conversations you’ve had with this specific prospect. This will remind them why they needed your assistance to begin with, why they considered doing business with you in the past, and how you determined you can help them during any previous conversations.
One way to neatly do this is by outlining the prospect’s goals, plans, challenges, and timeline (GPCT). Once they confirm this information is right, you can use this presentation slide (or brief discussion) as a springboard to jump into the meat of the demo.
On prepping and delivery, Yang says, “It’s essential to understand the prospect’s pain points. Tailoring the demo to address those directly makes it more impactful. During delivery, keep it engaging by asking questions and encouraging interaction. Don’t just talk at the prospect; involve them in the process to ensure they see the potential for their own use case.”
7. Provide background.
As a rep, gaining the trust of the prospect is a critical component of closing any deal. To do this, provide some background information about your company. This will establish your company as a reputable and innovative potential partner for the prospect.
For instance, let’s say a prospect shows interest in the free and paid HubSpot tools available for businesses. This is a good reason to share about the HubSpot CRM, the Blog Ideas Generator, the Sales Software, the Campaign Assistant, and much more.
The ticket here is avoiding generic babble and incorporating specific facts about your company and its products/ services that align with the needs of the prospect and their company.
8. Explain the product or service.
Now, it‘s time to explain your product or service. When doing this, you’ll want to ensure the explanation is both specific and tactful.
Start with an overview of the product and its basic features. Explain why this product exists, and link it to the prospect’s needs (which you already confirmed with the GPCT). Each feature being presented in the demo should tie back to why the product is the best solution for the prospect’s challenge.
Next, bring in the “wow” factors. This should answer the question, «What unique value does the product offer?»
This is where personalization is key. For example, if a HubSpot prospect mentions they want to improve their blog’s SEO, you could feature the SEO, Content Strategy, and Keywords tool. You can also always refer back to any previous conversations and plans you worked on with the prospect during earlier conversations and ask a tie-down question to ensure you’re all on the same page at this time as well.
Furthermore, if your company provides excellent customer service to help with the onboarding process and beyond, include that information in this part of the demo. Knowing help will be available when needed does wonders to reassure a doubtful prospect.
9. Address any questions the prospect has.
As mentioned, you‘ll want to ensure every demo has time for Q&A at the end. Throughout the demo, try to anticipate possible objections the prospect might have by listening to their tone and even watching their facial expressions (if they’re on a video call or meeting in person).
By picking up on these emotions and concerns, you can frame your responses and answers in a more personalized way. You can also determine whether or not you should pull out that extra infographic or show an example of a customer successfully solving the same problem using the tools being referenced. This builds social proof, credibility, and shows the prospect that others have succeeded by partnering with you.
10. Set expectations for next steps.
Whew! You’ve officially completed the sales process. Now, the big question: Is the prospect interested in moving this conversation forward to possibly make a deal?
Let the prospect know upfront what’s required on their end for the solution to be successful. For example, show a final slide to summarize the discussion in terms of the prospect’s necessary commitment, skills, time, willingness to learn, and budget for the solution to be a worthwhile investment for them.
If they’re interested in learning more or keeping the conversation going, you can set up a follow-up conversation. Or — even better — if the demo was highly effective in convincing the prospect, it might be time to begin a closing sequence to complete the deal (yay!).
Teresha Aird is the co-founder and CMO of Offices.net, where she has led marketing and sales strategies for 20 years. Here’s her take on prepping and delivering a successful sales demo.
“Understand who exactly will be watching your demo. Tailor your presentation to address their specific concerns and needs. In essence, do your homework to understand the prospect’s industry, role, and pain points, so you can highlight features most relevant to them,” Aird says.
From there, Aird suggests that teams make demos interactive, encourage questions and let prospects participate in the demonstration so they can experience the benefits firsthand. “And always follow up after a demo. Timely follow-up keeps the momentum going and shows that you value their time and interest,” Aird says.
Sales Demo Best Practices
While working on your sales demo, you need to consider and follow some best practices. I’m sharing these next because they will help you meet the needs of your clients and develop a consistent, effective, and repeatable process for you and your fellow reps.
Personalize the sales demo.
Personalize the sales demo to fit the needs of the specific prospect you‘re speaking with. You always want to distill your demo down and customize it to your audience’s situation with only the essential information they need.
To do this, make sure your demo demonstrates the ways your product is suited to address their pain points and meet their needs. Prospects and customers only care about the features that impact them in a positive way, so you’ll want your demo to highlight those.
Also, Strazzulla has this to say on sales demo prepping and delivery:
“We emphasize thorough preparation for our demos. We begin by understanding the unique challenges and requirements of our clients through one-on-one consultations. This allows us to tailor the demo to highlight the most relevant features and solutions.
“During the demo, we focus on showcasing how our recommended products can solve the client’s problems and uncovering the right questions. We ensure that clients leave the demo with a clear understanding of how the product can benefit their organization, which significantly enhances their confidence in our recommendations.”
Always explain “why.”
With everything you present and share throughout the demo, you must explain the “why” behind it. Why is your product better than your competitor‘s products? Why is your product or service ideal for managing the prospect’s issue? Why should your prospect want to do business with you? Why do your current customers love your product?
These are the types of points and comments that may just move your prospect from an interested lead to a new and loyal customer — they differentiate you from other companies and make your demo significantly more convincing.
Remember to be adaptable.
The sales demo steps are a bit like an adaptable script you can refer to and pull from to ensure you’re providing all prospects with an on-brand, consistent, and professional experience.
Also, make sure you run through various situations with your sales manager regarding the reasons why prospects might need your product or service and how it can help them, so you’re ready for all scenarios.
Additionally, you might choose to review some possible questions the majority of prospects currently ask the rest of your team so you’re ready to provide quick, helpful, and impactful responses on the fly.
And remember, every interaction, prospect, company, and situation is unique, so prepare to adapt the demo as needed. Your job is to meet your prospects where they are to show your support, flexibility, and commitment to their success.
Listen.
Prior to, during, and after the delivery of any sales demo, it’s critical you listen to both the prospect and your fellow reps.
You need to listen to your prospect’s needs, pain points, concerns, questions, hesitations, and positive or negative feedback. This will allow you to customize the demo and all future conversations to fit their needs and tailor the points you make during the demo to highlight the ways your product can resolve their challenges.
In fact, nearly nine out of ten sales professionals say sales today is more about listening to the customer than talking to the customer.
Additionally, you need to listen to your fellow reps. Your demo process is ever-changing and you’re the group of people who are actually working with prospects, conversing with them about their issues and needs, and delivering the demos every day.
So, who better to ask for feedback on the current demo process (what should stay the same and what could be improved) than the other members of your team? Maybe they’ve uncovered something you’ve never thought about or encountered (and vice versa).
Include real data.
Data speaks volumes about your products, services, and ability to positively impact your customers. As we mentioned earlier, in your demos, don‘t be afraid to include real data about your company’s success, the percentage of current customers who have solved problems similar to those of your prospects with your product or service, and more.
If a prospect asks for specific information about one of your product’s capabilities, you can also pull in real data about the ways in which your solution works and functions.
Begin Creating Your Sales Demo Process
You can close more deals at a faster rate if you consistently deliver sales demos that provide value. I compare the demo in sales to the climax in a movie — this is the part where all the action has built up and resulted in one big moment where everything comes together.
Not only has a sales demo helped me to learn more about new products and services as a prospect but it has also encouraged me to buy or sign up faster, like I mentioned earlier.
And most likely, this is also true for many others.
So, whether you’re a sales rep or a sales manager or anyone charged with the responsibility of delivering sales demos, it‘s so important to get it right. Take the time to prep, understand your prospects, and determine how to tie your product back to the prospect’s needs and challenges. This way, you’ll greatly improve the likelihood of closing a deal.