The demo starts… buuut we’re still not showing the software yet

When the demo starts, you won’t launch into your software demo.

Some sales people, like Adrian Diaconescu, like to hold off on showing the product as long as possible. Here’s one key reason you want to delay the reveal:

The strategy was to spend time with the buyer, understand their objectives, buying criteria, buying process, qualify financially and agree on a solution.

You won’t show your software immediately — you may or may not share your screen, though. If you do share your screen, don’t have your app showing. Instead, consider sharing either:

A slide featuring the agenda (source), or

The company’s website, which can create a sense of familiarity and comfort for your prospects (source).

As people join the meeting, you’ll want to start building rapport.

Yup, this means small talk.

Authentic — not weather-based — small-talk. As SalesLoft suggests:

Be sincere and ask them how their day has been. Reference an article you read about them. Do something that will make them remember you. In a competitive market where solutions are similar, it’s ultimately you that will be the tie-breaker.

You’re not just chit-chatting to build rapport, though. Director of Sales Jordan Rackie notes that you need to combat all the distractions your viewers could be facing, and a conversational approach to the demo can help with that:

When you’re doing a web demo, you want to get the client involved early because there’s so many things they could be doing while on their computer (checking email, browsing the web, etc). For the first 10 or 15 minutes, make sure they’re speaking for about 80 percent of the time. Ask a lot of questions up front, learning about their business, keeping them involved.

The keyword: questions.

Ask lots and lots of questions. Follow the 80/20 rule: 80% of the demo content should be about your customers, and 20% should be about your solution. Summarize past conversations. Ideally you’ll already know what your prospect is struggling with when you head into the demo, but this early part of the live demo is a good point at which to get greater clarity on their pain and remind everyone in attendance of the challenges their team faces.

Some questions you need to answer, courtesy of Alex Yamamoto:

Why did they sign-up?

What are the evaluation criteria?

What other competitors are they evaluating?

What problems are they trying to solve with you product?

How are they currently dealing with these pain points?

As you ask questions and they answer, your prospects are bound to come up with questions of their own. This is a great opportunity, as Yamamoto explains:

Treat a demo like a discovery conversation and make sure you are constantly checking in to give your prospects time to speak and ask questions. When they ask a question, follow-up and dig deeper to get at the heart of their issues.

And here’s a cool bonus: the question-asking period of your demo is a great way to learn about your market in those early growth stages.

A direct line to uncovering the pain is this question, suggests Rob Gonzalez:

“Just so I make sure I focus the demo on what’s most important for you, why did you take this call? What are you hoping to see?”

Once you’ve identified their pain, stop pushing for more. Instead, try dimensionalizing that pain. Steli Efti explains how to do just that with this script:

Sales rep: “So, currently your company is losing out on sales opportunities because leads are falling through the cracks. You’ve got tasks and notes and reminders in your system for hundreds of leads, and it’s just a big mess right now. None of your reps are able to consistently complete all tasks on time and follow up as planned with every lead. That sounds like you’re losing out on a lot of potential deals, right?”

Prospect: “That’s right, that’s why we’re looking for a better system now.”

Sales rep: “I see. If you would just make a guess, how much revenue do you think you’re missing out on just because of ineffective lead management?”

Prospect: “Well, I haven’t really run the math yet, but I’d say roughly $2,000 to $3,000 in deals per rep each month.”

Sales rep: “Wow, and you’ve got 16 reps working for you currently?”

Prospect: “That’s right.”

Sales rep: “So we’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost deals every year. Well, I’m now going to show you a feature that’ll make you hundreds of thousands of dollars over the next twelve months. Do you want to see this?”

You know what will excite them about your product — so you know what your “dinosaur feature” is. Let me explain.

How to start showing your software in the demo

Don’t save the good stuff to the end, as Steli Efti notes.

Start with the killer feature that most obviously addresses your prospect’s identified pain. Your first 2 minutes should wow them — and to do that, SurveyGizmo recommends you take a page from Jurassic Park:

Grant and Elle drive up to the meadow and there is a brachiosaurus. The look of awe on their faces is priceless. Notice how Hammond doesn’t just take them into the lab right away and show them the genetic cloning process. He orchestrates this moment to shock their senses. While a software demo rarely blows people away to the extent of this example, any sales person should be aiming to emulate that initial experience.

Only after they’ve seen the highly desirable outcome should you walk them through how to get there. This is especially important for winning over the key decision makers, who are less likely to care about what’s behind the curtain and more likely to be looking for end results.

From there, the goal should be to highlight what’s unique, says Brian de Haaff. ​​​Let your audience guide you through the details you should show, if and as they’re interested. As Sean Burke says:

Let them steer — one of the reasons that SaaS products have such a low usage rate is that users don’t take the time to understand how to use the product. If your product is intuitive(big if) — then hand over the control of the demo and let them use it with your guidance. Why? You want them to personalize their experience with using your product. If they find it easy to use and valuable, then you maybe able to skip the trial and go right to the proposal stage.

When you’re demoing the feature level, Steli Efti recommends you 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 not know what the purpose of it is. If a prospect wonders, “Why is this guy showing me this?”, then you haven’t properly explained first what it is you’re going to demonstrate.

Question-asking doesn’t stop once you’re demoing features. This is a great point to get feedback and buy-in from your prospects. Before you show a feature, try this formula:

Remind your prospect of what they told you they were struggling with Tell them you have a solution to that very problem, and mention a great benefit or outcome Ask them if it sounds interesting / if they’d like to see it

You can also learn a lot about your prospect — while avoiding interrogating them — by asking them about their business as you demo. Rob Gonzalez gives this example:

“You can see here we have 3000-some widgets loaded into the system from some of our customers like XYZ. How many widgets do you have?”

And while you’re demoing only the features your prospect needs to see, based on what you know about them, remember this: slow down. Sebastien Bonnier explains that you may know your product inside and out, but this is the first your prospect is likely seeing of it — so go easy on flying all over the screen.

If you’ve reached the end of the pains they’ve identified but you have more to show them (because you know they’ll really wanna see), consider adding this to your demo script, courtesy of Hampus Jakobsson:

“Do you want me to show something else — I can take you through a general product tour if you want, it just takes 5 minutes.”

Side note A: What if your prospect wasn’t forthcoming about their pain?

If you’re unclear on the pain your prospect needs you to solve, start your demo with a real world use case, says Alain Mevellec. Jason Lemkin fleshes out that thought:

The best way is to demo using actual data/instance/etc. if permitted — how a real paying customer is using the service. Connect that to a great story about the customer and the real ROI.

Side note B: Consider using one of these frameworks to shape your demo

The You-They-You Framework is highly recommended by Robert Falcone, author of Just F*ing Demo!

“You need to show your prospects only the specific features that they need to achieve what they want, so that you can get the result you’re aiming for. The success of a demo depends on your prospect’s understanding the value you could add.” (source)

Brooke Harper recommends the WIN approach:

W — rite a personalized demo I — nitiate a discussion N — ever stop practicing

Also consider EQCRC: Encourage Question Confirm Respond Check. Rob Gonzalez uses it to develop empathy with a prospect. Here’s the script he uses to explain it:

Prospect: “Getting started seems like a lot of work.”

Me (Encourage & Question): “Yeah, I can totally understand that reaction. It does take some effort to get started depending on how many widgets you’ll be loading. About how many widgets do you think you’ll be maintaining?”

Prospect: “Maybe about 40.”

Me (Confirm & Respond & Check): “Yeah; 40 can definitely seem overwhelming. But the good news is that it’s a one-time effort that our Customer Success team really helps you out with at the beginning. We have customers with well over 100, and the started getting lots of value after the initial handful to their key retailers were set up. That make sense?”

It’s time to wrap up the demo — so set expectations for what happens next

Raj Nadar recommends finishing a demo with this question:

On a scale of 1–10 how much have we covered of what you wanted to cover?

If you don’t get a ten, ask what else they were hoping to see. Continue the demo.

Then, in the final five or so minutes, talk about next steps.

Do you want to execute the contract? Ask for it.

If you have a slide deck prepared to help you through your demo, the final slide could begin your closing sequence, suggests HubSpot.

Although there are different schools of thought on the ultimate goal of a demo, it’s a sales tool — so unless the sales cycle continues beyond the demo and there are more stakeholders to involve, go for the sale. As Annie Musgrove puts it:

Don’t just thank the prospect for their time. Go all the way to the sale. That’s the ultimate goal, after all. And if the sale doesn’t go through, there are still other tiered goals you can aim for. If not a sale, then a trial sign-up. If the customer doesn’t even want a trial of your product, then you should leave the conversation with precise feedback on why not. This could be invaluable insight into the product and also the sales demo itself.

Don’t hesitate to push for the close. Be clear on what is the next step and get your prospect to commit to it.

Also feel free to ask the prospects what they believe the next steps are.