Demo in Discovery, or two different beasts?

Working with a customer now, they asked to see the software in our discovery call. Did a 15-20 Minute demo with them and they loved it. 'Ive seen enough to progress, the Director says'.


3 Months later it has stalled and my champion is unable to make progress with director and a new guy has come in and didnt feel confident using the tool.


This made me question, should you stick to your guns and say no, we need more time to do a demo (treat mean keep keen?), or take advantage of who's in the room and all the insight you have?


Thoughts/comments below!

Do you demo in discovery, or keep it separate?

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๐Ÿ‘‘ Sales Strategy
โ˜๏ธ Software Tech
๐Ÿ“ฃ Demos
3
Rallier
Politicker
2
SDR Manager and Consultant
As a buyer, I hate discovery calls. When I was implementing a new sales engagement platform, it drove me nuts when I had to be BANTed by an SDR before I could see the platforms. Such a terrible experience.ย 
ColdCall
Valued Contributor
0
Account Executive
True! A lot of people have trials now a days where you don't need to speak to someone. But a trial/demo request is some of the best gated content you can have.ย 

I hope my discovery calls help the prospect understand everything the tool can do (or in some cases cannot do), and helps them make a purchase in a long run.ย 

I do full cycle Cold Call to Renewal- so I guess its different if there are handovers.ย 
poweredbycaffeine
WR Lieutenant
1
โ˜•๏ธ
I don't see a problem with doing discovery and demo in the same call...but sometimes you get down a rabbit hole and you can't stop the discovery portion. You either found a great use-case or pain point that you can solve for and you're fleshing it out completely. If that's the case, then it's gonna have to be a two-call strategy.ย 

You could also learn to run brief discovery in the first 10 minutes then hop into a demo. However, in that demo you are continuing to drive deeper into the discovery by asking questions and keeping the demo active rather than scripted.ย 
ColdCall
Valued Contributor
1
Account Executive
Yup! Segementing it can help poeple think and hopefully get them excited. Very true about the 'rabbit hole',!ย 

I like the truncation between discovery and larger demo- but its good to have an 'active' demo where you gather more info along the way!ย 
CoorsKing
WR Officer
1
Retired King of the Coors Knights
I think it really depends on the product. Our product is technical. It also has a number of different use cases that it solves, so in order to effectively demo we do in fact need to do discovery.ย 

My opinion is you just need to be upfront on why you are doing discovery. If you have done your research up front, there shouldn't be too much pushback.ย 

"Hi <name>, thanks for taking the time to speak with me today. In order to make sure we optimize our time, I want to ask you a few questions before we get into the demo to make sure we are on the same page"

Then I use the notes from my individual research and (hopefully) my SDR to guide the conversation.

From there I guess it depends on the opp. I am currently working on the largest potential deal in company history by $20M ARR... I am 6 months in and STILL have not demo'ed a thing.
ColdCall
Valued Contributor
0
Account Executive
Yes, I guess you want to understand who you should demo to before going ahead.ย 

If there are other staff members or diff departments they should join the party.ย 

In my case discovery calls serve as the why for demo'ing. This makes demo's entirely one way (aside from questions) which can take some getting used to!ย 


Ironically I have closed large deals before and not demo'd anyone. Shows your talking to the right person if they can make it happen!ย 
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