The ROI of Interactive Product Demos: Why They're Worth Every Penny

2023 has been one bumpy ride for sales teams. You know it and we know it.

But this doesn’t mean the apocalypse is upon us and all hope is lost. 

(Seriously, this too shall pass, friend!)

What it does mean is that it’s more important than ever to take stock of the tools in your team’s arsenal and see what resources you don’t really need as well as what might be missing. 

Essentially, the question you’ll need to ask yourself is which tools will bring the highest return on investment (ROI) for your sales team. 

So, join us as we break down why investing in delivering interactive product demos is worth every single penny. 

What are interactive product demos?

Let’s kick things off by going through the basics. 

You can think of an interactive product demo as being an elevated version of your demo. 

The goal is the same: to showcase your product and the value it can bring your prospects. 

That said, what makes interactive product demos way better than regular old product demos is that they enable buyers to freely click through your product. This will give them a more hands-on experience as well as a realistic sense of what it would be like to use your product. 

Why interactive demos are better than other types of demos

That’s a good jumping off point, but we want to dive a little deeper into why interactive demos leave other types of demos in the dust. 

Well, for starters, live, in-product demos are often really breakable. And building sales demo environments from scratch is super costly. 

You could use slide deck demos or product video demos. But these are really (pardon our French) f****** boring. Because they don’t have clickable elements, slide decks and product videos are much less engaging than interactive demos. Plus, the prospect isn’t really able to get a sense of what it would be like to use the product in their day-to-day lives. 

As for product videos, they make it much more difficult for users to consume the content at their own pace. 

The real kicker though? Product videos are time-consuming and expensive to make. So, it would also take too many resources to personalize them for every prospect you encounter. 

On the other hand, interactive demos put prospects in the driver’s seat and allow them to spend more time on aspects of the product that are interesting for them and skip the parts that might be less relevant. 

Additionally, if you use a demo platform like Walnut, you can deliver your demos in a safe environment to help you avoid any annoying bugs.    

6 reasons to start using interactive product demos

Still not sold?

Challenge accepted. 

To convince you that it’s essential to invest in interactive demos, here are just some of the ways they can help you improve your sales process. 

1. Let the product do the talking

You’re proud of your killer product. 

Well, you should be!

But that doesn’t mean you should talk nonstop about every single feature your product has to offer. 

Instead, you’ll want to let your product do the talking. 

By using an interactive product demo, you’ll be able to give prospects a more engaging experience and enable them to better understand what your product can do. 

Plus, interactive product demos make it easier for your prospects to visualize how they would actually use your product on a daily basis. 

2. Cut down friction with buyers

For sales leaders, it’s all about making the buying process as seamless as possible. 

And this means actually letting prospects try before they buy! 

That’s another benefit of interactive product demos; they can be embedded on your website or you can send a link to them in your outreach emails. By showing prospects the product right off the bat, you’ll make it much easier for them to understand if your solution is a good fit. 

This will speed up your sales process, which means you and your team will spend less time and resources on every deal. AND this will result in a major boost to your sales efficiency. 

But it goes deeper than that. We know that nobody, especially not your prospects, has time to sit through a million discovery calls before they can actually get a glimpse of the product. 

So, by giving prospects the power to see your product at any stage of the sales process, it will go a long way in making the buyer journey a little bit better. 

3. Improve lead quality

Interactive demos let prospects see what your product can do at any point throughout the sales process. 

With these types of demos, you can require the customer to give you their email address to view a demo on your website. 

This means that buyers better understand what your product can do before you meet with them, which can help you boost conversions and make your sales process faster. This can also help you generate leads that have higher intent. 

On top of this, if you use a demo platform like Walnut, you can track how buyers engaged with your interactive demo, which is helpful for lead qualification and can help you understand which topics to focus on during your next call with them.

4. Provide a personalized experience

We’ll say it a million times if we have to: GENERIC DEMOS SUCK. 

Unlike your run of the mill slide deck or video demos, interactive demos can be personalized to include your prospect’s company logo, brand colors, and other details. 

On top of this, you can tailor the demo to meet your prospect’s specific interests instead of boring them by presenting features that they have no interest in.

Personalizing the demo sends the message to your prospects that you took the time to make something just for them. It also shows that you did your homework and understand their unique needs.

5. Decrease time to value

Do you wish prospects could understand how life-changing your product is in no time at all?

Well, we’re here to tell you that this wish can come true! Wait, does this make us your fairy godmother?

Anyways, if you use interactive demos, you give prospects the ability to absorb information from your demo at their own speed. This means that they can spend less time on parts that are clear and more time on parts that may have been confusing. 

The result? It will take a lot less time for buyers to grasp what your product can do for them. And this can help shorten the sales cycle. 

6. Analyze your demo performance

You’ve created your best interactive product demo yet and shared it with your prospect. Way to go!

But remember, there’s always room for improvement. 

One of the best parts of using an interactive demo is that you can monitor how your prospect engaged with it. That is of course if you use a demo platform like Walnut. 

This will help you understand which parts of your demo got prospects hooked and which parts might have been less interesting as well as which demos are most engaging and convert more. With this information, you’ll be able to gain valuable insights about what works and what doesn’t so you can improve future demos. 

Using interactive demos to improve the sales process

Why not let the value of your product do the talking?

Well, that’s exactly what an interactive product demo will allow you to do. 

By offering a demo experience that’s pretty darn close to the real deal, you’ll be able to give prospects an idea of what it’ll be like to use the solution. Plus, clickable content that prospects can consume as quickly or as slowly as they’d like is much more engaging and reduces the time to value. 

And one super easy way to deliver these kinds of interactive demo experiences is by using a demo platform (LIKE WALNUT). 

Think of it this way. When it comes to interactive demos, they are a win-win situation for buyers and sellers. They not only give prospects a more meaningful product experience, but also make your sales process more efficient. 

FAQs

How do you create an interactive product demo?

To create an interactive product demo, there are five steps that you need to take: capture your product’s screens, personalize the demo for your prospect, link the buttons and other elements, add a guide, and share it!

What will happen if you use a slide deck or video demo?

Well, if you decide to use a slide deck or video demo, there’s a good chance that your prospect will die slowly and painfully as a result of severe boredom. 

(This won’t actually happen but they will definitely be super bored.)

How can you make sure you’ve created a killer interactive product demo?

If you use interactive product demo software like Walnut, it’s easy to create and deliver interactive demos that your prospects will love!

What are you waiting for? Click that big “Get Started” button to get started with Walnut.