The interactive demo category may be new, but it is taking the B2B SaaS sales world by storm. Interactive demos are used by so many teams across organizations, from sales, sales engineers, and CS to product marketers and sales enablement managers.
Today, we’re going to focus on how product marketers use interactive demos.
Let’s break it down.
Get to know the product marketing role
First, we need to understand the PMM role.
Product marketing looks different in every organization. It’s a role that’s gained popularity among B2B SaaS organizations. Product marketers can be found somewhere in between product, marketing, sales, and customer success.
Often, they play the role of bridging the gap between cross-functional teams. Their role is about marketing their company’s product, both internally and externally, to bring revenue. Their roles and responsibilities may include GTM, product launches, positioning and messaging, competitor intel, ICP and persona research, product market fit, pricing and packaging, and much more – depending on the company stage and current needs.
Product marketing life before interactive demos
Product marketers craft the product narrative for field-facing teams.
They’re natural storytellers, and use this skill for any medium required. Their work can be reflected in website messages, demo talk tracks, sales presentations, and more.
Without interactive demos, product marketers are dependent on other resources. This can be either video, design production, or R&D resources to create sandbox environments. However, the problem with videos and sandbox environments is that they are time-consuming and expensive to create, as well as difficult to maintain.
Why should PMMs use interactive demos?
While screenshots and videos serve their purpose in some use cases, they’re not enough to give prospects a true sense of the product value. They also require product marketers to be dependent on others and not autonomous in their role.
Interactive demos can:
- Give PMMs autonomy and save resources from other teams.
- Allow PMMS to define the narrative.
- Offer a rich experience to complement videos.
- Enable internal teams to get up to speed.
- Educate customers on new features and use cases.
Plus, they’re easy to maintain and update as needed. Which is necessary for agile SaaS products that constantly change. Without depending on other teams or resources, interactive demos allow PMMs to execute quickly and independently.
What role do interactive demos play in the GTM motion?
Product marketers do more than just telling product stories and connecting teams. They define the GTM strategy along with GTM leadership.
Their research on the audience, ICP, messaging, and how to position the solution in the market is crucial for setting teams up for success.
PMMs, armed with interactive demos, can tell the right product story to the right audience. Interactive demos can be strategically created and placed at every stage of the funnel. This includes website demo embeds and pre- and post-call demos to bottom of the funnel pricing and packaging.
Beyond that, PMMs can segment by persona, industry, use case, or solution to make sure the messaging lands. They should collaborate with the rest of the GTM team, including sales and CS leaders, to define these segments and advise on recommended messaging.
In this way, PMMs can define the interactive demo strategy for their organizations and take a leadership role.
How can PMMs measure success?
Product marketing is notoriously difficult to measure.
Many metrics imply correlation or influence, but not direct causation or attribution.
That being said, interactive demos are completely measurable in terms of demo engagement, stakeholders, and deal momentum. These provide concrete metrics that PMMs can point to for their efforts.
Interactive demos are also directly linked to opportunities in Salesforce. Whether they’re using interactive demos for internal training and enablement, marketing initiatives, customer communications and upsells, or for selling to prospects, product marketers can directly see how they contribute to bottom-line revenue.
