How to Write a SaaS Sales Demo Script That Sells

‍The product demo phase is one of the most critical parts of the sales process. If you allow us a cheap comparison, until this time, the relationship with the prospect was like chatting with a partner before a blind-date. You gave your sales pitch, described your company, tried to align expectations, and everything seemed great on paper. But now it’s time to meet. Only while the prospect meets with your software, they can understand if it’s a match for them. And you don’t want to mess that up – that’s what will make or break the deal. 

To give yourself the best chance of success, make sure to plan, create, and prepare the demo script well before the pitch.  

What is a sales demo script?

A demo script is the written portion of your demo that outlines the narrative you’ll use when showcasing your visuals. Your sales demo script offers a prompt for critical messages, visuals, and benefits you want to cover with your clients during a demo.

Researching before writing a demo script

Before writing your demo script, you already had several interactions with your prospect. You used your initial discovery call to qualify your potential customer and learn more about their pain points. 

Supplement the knowledge you gained during this call with additional research into the industry.  In other words: Use everything you already know about the client to personalize your script.   

How to structure your sales demo script step-by-step 

You should prepare to think on your feet during a demo, but using a predetermined structure will improve the flow of your demonstration and make you appear confident and well-prepared.

Introduce yourself and the main message

The goal of the introduction is to build rapport and credibility with your prospect.

Start by introducing yourself and why you are qualified to present your product to the prospects. If you’ve worked with businesses similar to the prospect’s company, tell them up front so they know you understand their industry and pain points. 

Then, reiterate your main message. Think of the one thing you want clients to remember after you’ve left. You may want to repeat this message a few times and close with a reiteration at the end. 

Another good tip, that was shared with us Mike DeCorso, VP Sales at THNKS, is to call the prospect by their name, many times during the discussion. 

Your main message should answer the question: “How does this solution solve the prospect’s needs/pain points?” 

Here’s an example of an introduction and main message highlighted by a sales rep: 

“First of all, thank you [name] for agreeing to see me. I know you are pretty busy. I understand from our initial call that you are interested in finding a new way of managing your sales pipeline. 

You indicated that it’s time-consuming to manually schedule these tasks and that sales staff often get confused and miss essential details. I’ve seen this happen at Company (XYZ), whom you may know, and we’ve managed to automate their entire pipeline in less than a week. 

Today I’m going to show you how to automate all your tasks so you won’t have to set reminders or manage your sales team every day manually. How does that sound to you [name]?”

This structure gives the prospect context of what you are about to show them and how it is relevant. Ending the introduction with a question is a technique used to engage your prospects’ attention. 

Tie the features to the pain points 

Your SaaS product demo shouldn’t delve into every little feature and detail of your solution. Identify the primary pain points your client has, and tie a product feature to each one.  

According to Rachel Shekhtman, VP Sales (Growth) at Namagoo, you should even try to remind your prospect regularly of their own pain while using their own words.

Reveal each capability in layers, according to their level of interest. Show the route to the desired result with the fewest clicks to help the client visualize using the software solution. 

Keep their attention by asking relevant questions. Here’s an example:

“During our last conversation, you said that it was difficult for your team to share documentation. Now, this portion of the demo will show you how to upload and share documents and emails right from your Outlook and word processing system. It saves a lot of time and confusion, right?” 

You could also lead with a question:

“Do you ever have a scenario where two salespeople reach out to the same lead and then start arguing about whose lead it is? Sure! It happens all the time. Now, here’s how you can avoid that by using our software.” 

Once you’ve demonstrated the core functionality of each feature, you can dive deeper and reveal more details according to the prospect’s level of interest. 

The AHA moment 

The AHA moment is the moment you want customers to remember. Your AHA moment is something you show, not tell. 

Press a button and show how your solution can pull immediate insights from big data. Showcase how your software demos can compress huge files or pull up the dashboard that sales staff can access when they sign up. Think of Steve Jobs pulling out the MacBook Air from an envelope for the first time. 

Your AHA moment requires showmanship, for example:

“Now we come to the best part of the presentation. If you view this portion of the demo, you’ll see we’ve recreated a series of calendars, documents, and emails. It’s typical of what you would see if you rely on a manual system, right?

Now we hit this button, and you will import everything! You have complete visibility into your entire team and their historical interactions with your clients up to the present date.”

Reinforce the message and close

Don’t assume that your client has absorbed every piece of information you’ve shared. Reiterate your main message once again before you close. 

Close with a call to action. Ask the prospect to sign up for the first month, schedule a follow-up meeting, or set up a call to finalize the paperwork. 

As an example:

“So we’ve shown you how you can use our product to pull all of the information related to your sales funnel into the cloud. As I’ve mentioned, we integrate with all your existing software so you can log all future and past interactions. 

Can you let me know if you want to sign up for August 1st? If so, I’ll send you the relevant paperwork this afternoon.” 

How to avoid common mistakes

Not all product demos go as smoothly as planned. A failed demo can eradicate the trust you’ve built up with prospects over weeks and months of nurturing. But there are many more mistakes to avoid during a demo. Below two common ones: 

Know where the fault lines are

If your product or software has a few glitches or known problems, prepare in advance. They may or may not come up during the demo, but prepare anyway. Disable any alarms, notifications, and pop-ups that might disrupt the flow of your demo. 

Make it failure-proof

Picture this: you spend the entire demo telling your customers how slick and sophisticated your product is, only to have it fail when you try to showcase it in practice. Nothing causes a loss of momentum like weak Wi-Fi or a live preview that lags painfully. 

Tech failures can undermine your entire message. So make sure that your presentations are failure-proof and consistent every single time. 

Get it right, every time 

At the end of the day, the main difficulty is to make sure your demos are consistent for all your prospects and across your sales reps. 

Providing them with a demo script is a great start, but you should also make sure that the flows of your product presentation are perfect for each customer’s use-case. The ultimate goal is to master your demos consistency and quality in order to scale. 

Walnut codeless platform not only allows you to create personalized, failure-proof and interactive product demos. It also gives you the ability to create “demo templates” (aka storylines) for your sales team to ensure your product story is always consistent. And more? You’ll collect valuable insights about your prospect usage to optimize your entire sales process.

Your product demo is your chance to close a deal and showcase your product. Let Walnut help you get it right, every time. 

Click “Get Started” to speak with us now.