Updated December 4, 2024.
Let’s cut to the chase.
You’ve stumbled across this blog because you want to know what you need to do to meet your sky-high quota this Q.
Well, you’ve come to the right place.
To close more deals, you need to be able to nail the most crucial part of the sales process: the sales demonstration.
That’s why we put this article together to break down everything you need to know about delivering killer sales demonstrations.
What is the definition of a sales demonstration?
Before we dive right into the details, let’s make sure we understand what a sales demonstration is.
A sales demonstration (AKA a sales demo) is the part of the B2B sales process when a sales rep presents the product to a prospect in order to showcase its value and benefits.
A successful sales demo will help the prospect understand how the product can address their unique pain points. It will also position the product as the best option on the market to achieve the prospect’s goals.
What is the difference between a sales demo and a product demo?
At this point in the article, you might say to yourself, “Well, a sales demo sounds exactly like a product demo.”
And you’re not wrong for thinking this.
They are very similar in that both demonstrate how a product addresses pain points and position a particular product as superior to the rest of the competition.
That being said, there is a significant difference between them.
A sales demo is only given to prospects during the buying process. Meanwhile, a product demo is given to both potential and existing customers.
Why sales demonstrations are important
You may just have the best SaaS product in the whole entire world.
(WOAH, that’s pretty darn impressive, if we don’t say so ourselves.)
That being said, no matter how awesome your product is, if you can’t showcase that awesomeness to buyers, your sales numbers will suffer. And this is why the sales demo is so critical to your sales team’s success.
The sales demonstration lets you show your prospects that you understand their pains and have a solution that will save them time, money, frustration, or some combination of all three.
More often than not, the quality of your sales demo is usually the difference between closing a deal or not.
So, in order to boost your win rate and drive revenue growth, you need to make sure you’re presenting your product in a way that resonates with your prospects.
Sales demo basics
Even though we’ve got the definitions down pat, let’s quickly go over some more basics before we go any further.
Why give a sales demo?
You wouldn’t buy a car without taking it for a test drive, right?
Well, the same goes for buying software.
Software buyers want to be able to try out your product for themselves and get a sense of whether or not it will really address their pain points. Plus, when done right, sales demos allow you to showcase how your product is better than the competition’s solution.
When should you give a sales demo?
It used to be that sales demonstrations would take place towards the end of the sales process.
If we look at the traditional sales funnel, demos would typically happen in the Decision phase.
But this is old school SaaS sales.
Nowadays buyers want to see the sales demonstration from the moment they start the buying journey.
If you use an interactive demo platform (like Walnut), you’ll be able to let prospects see your demo whenever it works for them.
With an interactive demo platform, you can show your demo earlier in the process by embedding on your website or including the demo in your outbound communications.
But this is just the tip of the iceberg. Interactive sales demos can be used at any point throughout the funnel, whether it’s during the Awareness phase all the way through internal training.
For some inspiration on all the different ways to use sales demonstrations, check out our use case library.
Who gives a sales demo?
Typically, a sales rep will give a sales demo to prospects.
That being said, a solutions engineer will sometimes join them on the call to help with the technical side of things.
However, if you are using an interactive demo platform, then you can send your prospects interactive demos so they can view them on their own time. Plus, they can share these demos with other decision-makers within the organization.
How can you give a sales demo?
When it comes to presenting a demo, there are tons of ways you can do it.
But not every type of demo is created equal.
The different ways to give a sales demo include:
- Interactive sales demos
- Pre-recorded videos
- Slide decks
- Live sales demos
Having said that, only interactive sales demos make it easy for you to personalize the buying experience and show how your product will meet buyers’ needs.
Benefits of using sales demonstrations
If at this point, you find yourself saying, “That all makes sense. But what do I really get out of using sales demonstrations?”
Well, to that we would say, “Quite a lot.”
Here are just some of the things that sales demonstrations can help you do:
Explain how your product works
When it comes to selling SaaS, the golden rule is to show, not tell.
We mean that it’s better to let your product do the talking and let it sell itself. And that’s where sales demonstrations come in.
Instead of listing out what your software can do, sales demonstrations allow you to showcase exactly how a product works and why prospects should care.
And if you’re using interactive demo software to create your sales demonstrations, you can give prospects the power to freely click through and get a true-to-life experience with your product. This in turn, can speed up the time it takes for them to understand what your product can do.
Showcase value
Sales demonstrations don’t just give you the ability to show how your product works.
They also let you highlight the product’s unique value proposition.
This is especially true if you are using an interactive demo platform. Because interactive sales demos let prospects experience the product at their own pace, they can spend more time on the parts that interest them and skip the parts that are less relevant.
On top of this, interactive demo platforms allow you to personalize your sales demonstrations based on a particular prospect’s needs and pain points.
And by showing only the parts of the product that are relevant for them, you make it easier for the prospect to understand the value they can gain and what it would be like to actually use it in their day-to-day lives.
Qualify leads and enhance buying intent
If you use sales demonstrations from the beginning of the sales process, they can even help you qualify leads.
How, you ask?
Well, by embedding a sales demonstration on your website or sending it in your outreach, you allow prospects to see your product right off the bat.
And if you use an interactive demo platform to make your sales demos, you’ll be able to see which parts of the demo buyers spent the most time on and which parts were less interesting for them.
This information can then be used to qualify your leads and help you better focus your future conversations with the prospect.
On top of this, showing your product from the outset can help you ensure that the leads meeting with your team have high buying intent. This is because buyers have already seen your product from the beginning, so they already have a sense of what it can do before they meet with your team. This ensures that your team is investing their time and resources in the right prospects.
How to structure your sales demos to make an impact
When it comes to structuring your demo, it needs to be less about your product, and more about the buyer. This involves creating a vision of what your product will specifically do for them.
Let’s dig a little deeper and break this down even further.
Learn to speak their language
Do some research prior to your call to ensure you will be able to relate to buyers and speak their language.
You don’t need us to tell you to go through their website and learn more about what they are selling, who the leaders of their company are, and their competitors.
However, in addition to that, dig a little deeper into who they might be targeting, and which industries they are looking into. Do they target companies of a particular size, or in a particular location? What’s the department or the role of your prospect’s prospect? What are some obstacles your prospect may be facing, and how can your product help overcome them?
Having a good sense of these insights will help you take on the most ideal approach in demonstrating (in a well-rounded manner) that your product is the best solution to their pain points, and that you and your team are really on top of things.
Structure the sales demo
Once you’re comfortable with the approach you’re going to take, email your prospect to let them know of the structure of the presentation itself.
We recommend this so they can know what to expect beforehand. In the email, be sure to confirm the date, time, and duration of the call.
While writing out the structure, we highly recommend you spend more time listening to them, and less time talking.
After that, go over the most interesting product highlights that would be relevant for your prospect, followed by the application. Last but not least, spend the rest of the time doing a Q&A, a quick wrap-up, and going over next steps.
Make an impact
There are two important points you must always remember for sales demos:
- You must be naturally conversational, so you don’t come off as a salesy robot in your delivery.
- Your prospect isn’t in it to buy your features or your tech. They are in it to buy a solution for their woes, from a company and contact they can trust.
Make your mark by showing your prospect all that you learned about them, their company and their industry pain points. By demonstrating your fluency in their industry trends, vocabulary, titles, competitors, etc- you will further establish your credibility and strengthen the connection.
Also, bear in mind that you do not have to succumb to the pressure of completing the planned demo path, or even ultimately following it at all for that matter.
When push comes to shove, let the natural flow of the conversation ultimately lead the way, to ensure the most impactful and meaningful call for both you and your prospect.
Ways to prepare and deliver a compelling live sales demo
To blow your prospects’ minds during a live demo, you need to make sure that you’re prepared.
In addition to researching your ideal buyer persona and understanding their needs, challenges, and preferences, you also need to have an understanding of how your product is superior to the competition.
What’s more, it’s essential to do market research to stay up-to-date with industry trends, tech, and changes in your audience’s behavior or preferences.
To break it down even further, here are the steps you need to follow to prepare for a live sales demo:
1. Do your homework to personalize the live demo
Your live sales demo should be personalized to meet your prospect’s specific needs and to show how your product will address their unique pain points.
To do this, you need to understand who the prospect is (their role, responsibilities in the company, and what their typical day looks like), what their pain points are, and what it would take to solve those issues during the discovery call. You also need to learn more about the prospect’s company and their industry.
It’s also a good idea to customize your demo with the prospect’s name, brand elements, and company logo to add a personal touch.
2. Craft a live sales demo script that focuses on value
Now, it’s time to get your pencils out.
The next step is to write a demo script for your live sales demo. But this script needs to focus on the specific value that your prospect will gain from using your product.
So here’s our advice: Don’t fall into the trap that so many sellers get stuck in by showing prospects tons of features and forgetting to focus on their value.
The prospect is listening to your pitch because they want to understand how your product will help them address the issues they’re facing. That’s why you need to make it as clear as possible how your product will do just that.
With this in mind, to craft a deal-winning demo script, we recommend following these steps:
1. Introduce yourself and the main message.
2. Tie the features to the pain points.
3. Make sure prospects have the “Aha!” moment.
4. Reinforce the message and close.
5. Explain what the next steps are.
3. Keep your demo call short and engaging
Walnut research found that prospects spend just 6.5 minutes on average viewing each demo. This number varies slightly depending on the demo type, size, quality, or industry.
But regardless, people simply don’t want to spend so much time at once viewing your product.
And even though our research found that the average time spent on live demos is 2x more compared to off-call demos, the 30-minute calls most sales reps book with prospects to walk them through their product is still way too long.
A great way to solve this? Create short, personalized, and interactive demos with a demo platform. Show only the most important features. Stick to the point.
And no, we aren’t biased.
4. Make it interactive
Let the prospects try before they buy!
We recommend making your live sales demo interactive to not only keep prospects engaged during the demo, but also offer a true-to-life product experience. This will help buyers imagine what it would actually be like to use your product.
How can you do this? Well, if you use a demo automation software, it’s easy to create and deliver interactive product demos that you can use to wow your prospects before, during, and after your live sales demo call.
By giving your prospects the ability to freely click through your demo, it’ll help speed up the time to value.
5. Constantly check-in
Throughout the entire demo, you’ll want to ask your prospect questions and check if what you presented resonated with them.
This will help ensure that their focus remains on your pitch. On top of this, you can be sure that what you are showcasing is really relevant to their needs and that you’re not skipping over anything.
Here’s how you can do this:
1. Call your prospect by their first name. This will help ensure that they don’t doze off or start daydreaming halfway through your demo.
2. Consistently check in with them throughout the demo so that they stay engaged and interested in what you have to say.
3. Make your presentation more of a discussion and ask your prospect questions throughout.
6. Be nice
Nothing stinks more than commission breath.
And nothing will make a prospect less comfortable than listening to you try to convince them they need something that they don’t.
So try to forget about the crippling anxiety from those high quotas hanging over your head and be a nice person. Start by actually listening to your prospects and understanding what they need. Offer your advice and listen to what they think about it.
If they push back, stop and process what they said before responding. If you don’t have a good response, maybe they’re right and they don’t need your product, or maybe you need to tell them you’ll get back to them with an answer. Worse than not knowing something is pretending you do when everyone knows you don’t.
Likewise, if you lose the deal by being honest and sincere, it sure beats acting like a jerk, not getting the sale, and leaving prospects with a bad taste in their mouth that’ll prevent the sale from ever happening in the future.
So stick to your morals, be real, and become an advisor instead of a salesman.
7. Offer clear next steps
Just giving a killer live sales demo isn’t enough.
It’s important to reiterate your main message once again before you close because you can’t assume that your client has absorbed every piece of information you’ve shared.
You also have to make sure that your prospects know exactly what the next step in the process is so it’s as easy as possible for them to move through the buying journey.
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.
Best practices for delivering a sales demonstration that converts
That’s all fine and good. But how exactly can you make sure your sales demonstration will win over your prospects and ultimately lead them to convert?
Well, that’s exactly what we are here to help you with.
We’ve rounded up some of the best tips and tricks in our playbook to help you deliver a deal-winning sales demonstration.
1. Start the sales demo on a high note
Your prospects’ attention spans aren’t getting any longer.
That’s why we recommend leaving out generic steps like signing up, inviting colleagues, or anything else that is not unique to your product. Instead, focus on showing them the most interesting and relevant value.
There’s nothing worse than being in a demo where the first 10 minutes are spent just talking about the company. In these kinds of demos, there’s a good chance that prospects will have zoned out and started thinking about what they are eating for lunch by the time the rep starts talking about the product.
This is why it’s so critical to start with the best reason that the prospect needs your product, and then spend the rest of the demo showing them other features that could be useful for their needs.
2. Focus on value
For the sales demonstration to succeed, you need to convince buyers that they will gain value from using your product.
And the way to do this is by letting the product do the talking.
We want to clarify though, that this doesn’t mean showing them feature after feature.
You need to take everything you know about the prospect and show them only the features that they need to address their pain points. So, once you identify the parts of the product that are most relevant for their needs, focus just on those features and the value they can gain from them.
3. Keep your sales demonstration short and sweet
When it comes to sales demos, short and sweet is the name of the game.
Like we mentioned earlier, your prospects’ attention spans aren’t very long. Not to mention, according to Walnut’s product report, on average, buyers spend only 6.5 minutes viewing each demo.
That’s why we recommend creating short and personalized interactive sales demos that keep things straightforward and to the point by showing only the most important features for that particular prospect.
4. Keep your audience engaged from start to finish
It’s not enough to just grab your prospects’ attention at the beginning of the demo.
You have to make sure that they remain engaged and interested from start to finish.
To keep your buyers engaged throughout your entire sales demo, it’s a good idea to call them out by name and consistently check in with them to make sure you’re showing them the parts of the product that are the most important for their needs and use cases.
We also recommend asking them questions as you progress through the sales demonstration.
5. Make it specific to their industry
Companies use an average of 39 interactive demo templates. — Walnut’s Full-Funnel Report
Based on this stat, we can see that buyers want you to personalize the experience for their specific industry.
This means that one generic demo isn’t going to cut it with today’s modern SaaS buyers.
You need to have multiple demo templates that can be customized according to the specific industry they are in or the specific step in the funnel. This will show that you understand exactly what the prospect’s needs are and how your product can address those needs.
On top of this, if you have multiple demos at your fingertips that showcase different aspects of your product, you can use these demos to handle objections that may come up or answer any of your prospect’s questions.
6. Deliver multiple demos throughout the funnel
Buyers view an average of 3.4 demos per deal — throughout the funnel. — Walnut’s Full-Funnel Report
Old school sales processes usually consist of multiple discovery calls before the prospect is finally able to see the product during the demo call.
But this is outdated and definitely not what modern SaaS buyers want.
Prospects want to be able to see the product whenever it works for them during the sales cycle. And see it at a pace that works for them.
On top of this, we know that buyers want to interact with the product multiple times throughout the sales funnel.
Luckily, with an interactive demo platform, you can create and share interactive demos with prospects at any stage of the sales cycle so they can view them on their own time.
7. Share it with multiple people from their team
More than 3 prospects view each interactive demo. — Walnut’s Full-Funnel Report
In today’s market, there usually is more than one decision-maker that reps need to convince to sign on the dotted line.
That’s why it’s critical that you not only be in contact with multiple people within a company, but also that you’re able to show the product to every stakeholder involved.
One of the benefits of interactive demos is that you don’t need to find a single time that works for the multiple stakeholders that are being targeted in the company and who are involved in the decision-making process.
Instead, it’s better to send an interactive demo to every stakeholder so that you can get the product in front of all the decision-makers and allow the demo to do the work for you when you’re not there.
8. Address the audience by name
There are several regions in the brain’s left hemisphere that show greater activation to one’s own name. — NIH
It’s not enough to just grab your prospect’s attention at the beginning of the demo. You need to make sure you keep them focused and engaged from start to finish.
And one way to do just that is to call your prospect by their first name.
This will help ensure that they don’t doze off halfway through the demo or start day-dreaming about what they are going to order for lunch.
9. Let them see the demo on their own
Prospects view each interactive demo an average of 3 times without the rep being present. — Walnut’s Full-Funnel Report
This stat shows us that for modern buyers, it’s important to be able to educate themselves and see demos on their own time when they make buying decisions.
Before purchasing a product, we know buyers want to see product reviews, case studies, and data regarding the impact of your company.
But it goes further than that. Buyers also want to be able to see and try a product for themselves before they commit to buying it.
So, in order to give buyers what they want, sellers need to make sure prospects can test out the product, learn how to use it on their own, and share it with their own teams.
What to do after your sales demo
We wish we could tell you that after your live sales demo, you can just kick back and relax. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case.
In many cases, your buyer won’t commit to taking the plunge on the spot. Plus, there might be other stakeholders involved in the decision-making process.
This is why it’s essential to send a demo follow-up email.
In your email to the prospect, you need to start by thanking them for taking the time to listen to your demo. Then, you want to reiterate key points from the demo. We recommend stating these main takeaways and benefits at the top so prospects can easily skim your email.
If you are using an interactive demo platform (*clears throat*, like Walnut), you can also include a leave-behind demo with your follow-up email. By sending a demo in your follow-up communications, your champion can pass it along to any other stakeholder that needs to see it.
Craft a killer leave-behind demo
1. Define the demo goal, which is to create a demo that can be sent after the live sales demo.
2. Keep the length of the demo to around 2-3 minutes. It should be tailored based on your conversation during the call. Skip generic areas like sign up, inviting people, etc. We recommend capturing no more than 5-6 screens.
3. We also recommend building a narrative that is less focused on “how to” and more on the main points that were discussed during the demo.
4. Enable the Comments feature to encourage prospects to let you know if they still have any questions or objections.
5. When you send your follow-up email to the prospect, give clear guidance on what you’d like them to do with the demo and what the next steps are.
Example of a demo follow-up email
Subject line: We really enjoyed our conversation with you! Here are the next steps.
Hey Fred!
Thank you for your time yesterday and for sharing your challenge with [X and Y]. We hope the demo showed you how our product will help you address those challenges.
Based on our discussion, here are the ways [product name] meets your requirements:
Problem / Solution #1
Problem / Solution #2
In case you wanted to review the demo again or share it with anyone else on your team, I have attached it to this email.
Given the goals and workflows you already described, I can set up custom onboarding tips so everyone can discover features that would be useful for their work right away. I’ll get started drafting the proposal and will send it by [date].
When can we get started?
Best,
Your favorite sales rep
How to create a winning sales demonstration
So, how exactly do you go about making a killer sales demonstration?
Well, if you’re using an interactive demo platform, it’s actually pretty easy.
To build a sales demo that’ll have your prospects falling in love with your product, all you need to do is follow these steps:
Step 1: Capture your product’s screens
First off, you’re going to need to capture the screens of your product.
Remember, you don’t need to capture each and every feature your product has to offer. Instead, focus only on the parts that are relevant for the specific prospect you’re going to give the sales demo to.
Step 2: Personalize your interactive sales demo for your prospect
In case it wasn’t clear enough, we’ll say it again: generic demos suck!
So, make sure you personalize your sales demo with the prospect’s logo, name, and brand style elements. And of course, customize the demo to show only use cases or verticals that they are interested in.
Step 3: Add guides
By adding guides to your demo, you can create the perfect flow you’d like your prospect to follow and make sure they get the most out of your demo!
This way, your prospect will be able to explore your product by themself before, during, and even after the demo call.
That’s it! Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
(What even is that saying?)
Using sales demonstrations to enhance your B2B sales strategy
You wouldn’t buy a new bike without first taking it for a spin, right?
Well, for most people, the same goes for new software.
Modern SaaS buyers want to not only see your product, but also test it out before committing to spend their company’s limited budget on it.
That’s why the sales demonstration is so important. It’s your chance to make a good first impression on the buyer and convince them that your product is exactly what they need to address their pain points.
And if you use interactive demo software, it’s easy to create and deliver interactive sales demonstrations that can be personalized based on use case, vertical, or any other need a prospect may have. Not to mention, demo platforms let you analyze your demo performance so you can understand how to make improvements to demos going forward.
