Proper Demos Require Significant Discovery
Imagine that your lawyer appeared for trial without doing any discovery associated with your case. Obviously, that case is not likely to end well for you.
Similar results occur when enterprise SaaS salespeople want to do demos without doing any discovery prior to the demo. These are commonly referred to as “show up and throw up” events. While prospective customers constantly push the salesperson for a detailed product demo, this must be resisted by the salesperson, as a demo without context is likely to be a missed opportunity.
Demos have many purposes, such as gaining initial enthusiasm for the product; however, these “drive by” demo are generally performed by the salesperson and are very high level and relatively low risk. In fact, these events save the Solution Engineer from doing unnecessary and unqualified demos, while giving a taste of the product to the prospective customer.
The “real” demo (typically given by the Solution Engineer) takes significant discovery, including inputting customer data so that the prospective customer can better visualize their company utilizing the software. Ultimately, the objective of this demo is to prove the “product fit” in a way that demonstrates clear superiority over the competition, as well as showing how the business case can be achieved using the system.
In order to properly demo “a day in the life” of the prospective customer (by role), the SE must spend time with each participant in the process (a “ride along” is particularly useful for field apps), as well as create reports that show the results of the data that flows through the system for the executives in the audience. Success is measured by converting a minimum 65% of all custom demos into license deals.
To quote the famous football coach Chuck Knox, “The will to prepare is more important than the will to win.” If your sales organization struggles to adequately prepare for demos and consequently, under achieves on demo conversions to deals, please contact Virtual Dave or email dave@moicpartners.com.
Virtual Dave is an AI-based virtual sales support tool trained on 40 years of enterprise software sales experience, available 24/7 to enhance sales process consistency.
