Adored

Sales Director

Valued Contributor

How good are your demos? (Be honest)

I work in a company where the calibre of demo provided by our reps varies massively.

I for one, think that most salespeople fucking suck at demoing and there is an over-reliance on SE or Solutions Consulting to take the lead here, even when a technical demo isn't required. The fact is that you work for a SaaS company and should know your solution pretty much inside out or at least have a vague notion as to how your product is best leveraged in any given situation (within reason) as well as its limitations (and how you sell around those).

I've demoed and sold a number of SaaS products over the years and wanted to offer to help anybody who struggles delivering killer demos but tbh don't know how strongly people feel they have a problem here (because most folk won't admit it). So I'm curious to know what you think of your own demo performance.

On a scale of 🔥 to 💩, how do you rate your ability to demo your product?

Attached poll

🔥 - my demo is so hot it'll burn your eyebrows off (why? Answer in comments) 👋🏽 - my demo slaps 🤷🏻‍♂️ - my demo aite 🗑 - my demo is trash but my product sucks / I'm a lil bitch 💩 - my demo stinks worse than my unwashed anoos (What do you struggle with? Comment)

*Voting in this poll no longer yields commission.

21

45 comments

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CharmingSalesGal

Politicker

6

Account Executive

Honestly, I think my demos are fucking fire. The prospect leaves knowing EXACTLY how the product generally works but more importantly, they have started telling me how it can solve the problems they face. On the other hand, I leave with new stories of how people can use the product as well as getting answers I need to give them proper pricing on our next call. It is rare that I don't set next steps with a qualified prospect.

Mind you, not EVERY prospect is a fit but I think what makes my demos so fire are that I am able to use the initial time to understand if they are a good fit or not, I'm not here to waste anyone's time. I shouldn't have to do too much convincing to buy our product, I should however use the time to understand why it makes sense for them to buy it and reiterate that to them.

#CockyMewd #HappyThursday

Adored

Executive

1

Sales Director

That's great. Sounds as though you go beyond pure show and tell by a long stretch.

You also make a good point about 'fit' - really that's all sales is, finding prospects that fit with your solution and being able to communicate that clearly.

Nice.

CharmingSalesGal

Politicker

1

Account Executive

Totally- I think my entire "demo" of the product is a solid 6 minutes in total. Thankfully, it is a pretty easy product to explain/demo but most of my time is spent discovering what they need/want to hear.

Adored

Executive

0

Sales Director

How do your prospects find that aligns with their expectations for the call? In general though, AEs in my firm definitely underqualify which is a fucking sin.

CharmingSalesGal

Politicker

1

Account Executive

I'm very conversational and... charming... So I haven't had any negative reactions to it. In the past, I've had people say "okay show me the product" in which those just weren't great fits anyways. If someone truly wants to fix their problems, they'll be open and honest with you about what troubles they're experiencing.

Stratifyz

Big Shot

1

Account Executive

Can you give me a demo? I wanna see what fire looks like 👀

CharmingSalesGal

Politicker

0

Account Executive

Absolutely will give you one if you bring your DM and figure out who I am. 😂😂😂

slaydie

Big Shot

1

Account Executive

amazing! How do I sit in on one of your demos?! haha

CharmingSalesGal

Politicker

1

Account Executive

Bring your DM and a minimum of $30k. 😂

slaydie

Big Shot

1

Account Executive

LOL - now that's how you run a business!

funcoupons

WR Officer

6

👑

Not in SaaS so I don't do typical demos but I'm fire at proposal calls. I'm perfect in every way though so this isn't a surprise.

BmajoR

Arsonist

1

Account Executive

Flips hair, turns around, and walks away while the city burns down.

funcoupons

WR Officer

1

👑

https://data.whicdn.com/images/89634558/original.gif

BmajoR

Arsonist

1

Account Executive

That gif is making me feel some type of way. I feel like you and I could carry an entire conversation using memes and gifs lol

funcoupons

WR Officer

1

👑

If it didn't make you feel some type of way I'd think you were an alien.

Probably - I can't wait until they allow image/gif embedding...my shitposting game is going to go to the mooooon

chubbspeterson

Politicker

2

Business Development

I've put a shit load of time and effort into perfecting mine. it wasn't easy and it took about a year, doing at least 5 per week, but at his point it's second nature, which frees me up to focus on the questions they're asking / objections

Adored

Executive

1

Sales Director

Always nice to be fluent and feel the flow.

How do you stop it from getting it stale?

chubbspeterson

Politicker

1

Business Development

That's a great question, not going to lie i'll catch myself zoning out at certain points of it... i think the bottom line is, part of being good at anything is being able to put up with how boring it can get, doing that same thing over and over and over again. Like practicing free throws, or taking batting practice, I'm sure it gets boring as fuck at times, but it pays off.

DataSlangah

Politicker

2

SAE

Demos are easy if you do a proper discovery and know your product. Don't do a fucking stock demo - bc they suck. Just take the problems you uncovered in the disco and solve their problem. Advice for running a discovery call is to dig deep into pain and identify huge gaps.

StringerBell

Politicker

1

Account Executive

My SE is only there for tech stuff. The demo is otherwise 100% me, including showing how the product works, answering product questions, telling stories/case studies about customers. I think I have a pretty good way with words and I think the demo is one of the strongest parts of my game. It's not the only part and I definitely struggle in other areas. The key to a good demo is preparation. Map out what your going to say or show based on the disco and really put some time into thinking about how you can make it very relevant for them and interesting.

Adored

Executive

0

Sales Director

Solid! And good for you for not leaning on your SE as a crutch

Grant_Horun

Politicker

1

Account Executive

You're only as good as your knowledge on the product. When selling I make sure I know about 80-90% of the ins and outs of a product so I dont have to relay on a Solutions Engineer or Technical guy. If it does get that deep then I know not to BS an answer and tell them we can have a follow up session with my technical counterpart. But anyone who isnt confident / know what their product actually does should not be selling it.

Ozz

Politicker

1

Account Executive

I was an SE and now an AE at a growth startup. Product is straight forward and we can talk about how we developed the platform because we're subject matter experts versus being a tech company that jumped in. On top of me knowing how competitor platform works - I'm at a 40 - 50% close rate.

KendallRoy

Politicker

1

AM

Honestly 🔥. Our demo to POC conversion rate is at least 80-90%. Main SE I work with is awesome and we have a great dynamic in meetings.

Blackwargreymon

Politicker

1

MDR

Can you give me a demo? I wanna see what fire looks like

BmajoR

Arsonist

0

Account Executive

My demo is really good, but my problem is I'm still learning all the other parts of the sale so that's where I fall short.

Adored

Executive

0

Sales Director

Which parts are you referring to?

BmajoR

Arsonist

0

Account Executive

Closing and timing of follow ups to nurture the prospect. When it comes to closing, I know when/what I want to say, but I am still learning how to do it with finesse. I'm only a few months into my first AE role so thankfully I have my boss to help me so an example would be it takes me 3 sentences to say what she can say in 1 - succinctly.

As for follow ups, I'm learning how to balance helpful and relatable communication post demo versus being pushy.

HappyGilmore

Politicker

0

Account Executive

I'm still new in my role so I'm fine saying my demos are alright. I know I have a ton to improve upon and want to get better at and know that'll take time, but for right now they get the job done and things moving forward with a prospect.

Adored

Executive

0

Sales Director

How are you going about tracking and then working on those improvements? Keen to understand your approach

HappyGilmore

Politicker

1

Account Executive

Working with my manager on feedback via Gong, along with our solutions consultants for feedback, and continuing to learn about our demo process/what to highlight. The more I can use those things to help solidify my talk track and feel comfortable in that + being able to run a demo without help, that'll be a way I can track my improvement.

Adored

Executive

0

Sales Director

Gong is such a great tool. Sounds like a robust approach! Good for you mate

AnchorPoint

Politicker

0

Business Coach

Frankly, I am in my element in front of a client.

Adored

Executive

0

Sales Director

What if you were nude?

AnchorPoint

Politicker

0

Business Coach

Are you hitting on me?

Adored

Executive

0

Sales Director

No, I’m just getting a sense of just how comfortable you really are in front of a client.

SADNES5

Politicker

0

down voters are marketing spies

Knowing my product benefits inside and out, as well as tertiary benefits. Understand the customers needs better than the customer, can do things they haven't even thought of.

Adored

Executive

1

Sales Director

Love this. Nothing better than suggesting use cases to prospects that they love the sound of but had never thought of!

SADNES5

Politicker

1

down voters are marketing spies

Yeah, this product is cool. But have you tried it to slice potatoes.

Always an opportunity to provide value.

alecabral

Arsonist

0

Director - Digital Sales Transformation

I'd say I'm good enough to get that sale done just by demoing.

User1234567

Politicker

0

User1234567

could use some more practice to improve them

fidelcashflow

Catalyst

0

Account Executive

It just really depends. I've sold my product without even demoing. The point of a meeting is to make sure that you are indeed providing a solution. Are my demos fire? Fuck yeah, I'm enthusiastic and put whatever fire it is that I have in my body, into yours! I may not follow the script or an exact methodology but I know what I am doing when talking to someone who is potentially going to give me thousands of dollars.

I spoke to someone earlier today and he was like man, I couldn't care less about the front end or user experience (*closes slides presentation down). Instead of telling him why we founded our company and demoing, I asked what he needed and I gave it to him. BOOM. Contract going out.

SammySandbags

Politicker

0

Account Executive

depends on what SC i get on the call lol

Cyberjarre

Politicker

0

BDR

I don't want to look or feel like a slob - dresses feel like pajamas but make you look like a cute bitch so that's where things are at with me. I rarely wear pants.

Error32

Politicker

0

ISR

I look cute for everyone. For client calls I dress as I would if I were sitting in their office.

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