Robot

AE (Account Executive)

New company, first demo.

What is up sales savages?

I just joined a SaaS company about 3 weeks ago and already have my first demo with Univision. I mean large enterprise conversations are expected but I need your advice.

Is there a specific action I should take on my very first demo call for a new company?

Background, it is a new tech I am getting into, so I am fresh on the concept for our product.

☁️ Software Tech

📚 Resource

🔍 Discovery

24 comments

Sort by:

Kinonez

Celebrated Contributor

War Room Enthusiast

Practice, practice, practice. Weather is in front of a mirror, family members or coworkers, this is what will make the difference. Practice will lead to confidence and that is as close as you can get to perfection. Be yourself, own the room, get as much info as you possibly can!

Robot

Politicker

AE (Account Executive)

I totally agree and this approach has led to 200-300k deals in previous companies. My goal with this post was to mainly get a handle on best practices/success stories from your first demos when you joined a new company.

Kinonez

Celebrated Contributor

War Room Enthusiast

I see, hope these insights helped! Now keep bringing those deals in!

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

Ask the top AEs at your company...we are all helpful, but applicable knowledge is hard to gather from folks who don't know your sales motion in full detail. Do you have e a ride-along buddy to help?

Robot

Politicker

AE (Account Executive)

So yeah the director of sales will be on my call and will help pick up slack on the technical side. (I am still learning products, which is heavy developer knowledge.)

Justatitle

Big Shot

Account Executive

First call sets the tone for everything else. I love getting to why us why now why anything at all? And understanding the person on the other side of the calls motives for being willing to speak with me

CaneWolf

Politicker

Call me what you want, just sign the damn contract

Are you working with a sales engineer? If so, pick his or her brain.

Robot

Politicker

AE (Account Executive)

Negative, this is a small org there is only 2 other salespeople.

CaneWolf

Politicker

Call me what you want, just sign the damn contract

How long is the call? And the expectation is a demo, right? Just want to be clear?

Robot

Politicker

AE (Account Executive)

30 min and most likely this will be a discovery call since it was fed through our lead sourcing as an inbound, and the prospect set up the call through our calendly link. They already have a trial of our product running for another 2 weeks.

CaneWolf

Politicker

Call me what you want, just sign the damn contract

Ok, definitely set expectations in an email ahead of time so they're not expecting a trial walk-through. After discovery, get with those other sellers and pick their brains on how to best present value. Ask any account management folks about the areas customers actually see the most value.

Don't try to demo the product in detail. You'd be much better off keeping it simple feature-wise and knowing customer use cases instead of every feature of the demo. The "don't show everything" mindset is your friend here.

Robot

Politicker

AE (Account Executive)

Yes, that is what I needed. Ok, so I will need to sharpen my play, get discovery questions confirmed, and dig into their challenges.

1nbatopshotfan

Politicker

Sales

It may be redundant but have you practiced with the other sales team members? You mentioned below that it’s a small org with no sales engineers.

Focus on every qualifying question you have.

Robot

Politicker

AE (Account Executive)

Yes, I am recording my pitch/demo and reviewing with the team every day.

mitts2

Politicker

Account Executive

Do a bunch of role plays beforehand and ask a bunch of discovery questions. The more you can get the customer talking about themselves and their challenges the better, even if it means getting a limited time to "demo" your tool. Gives you an easy next step.

UrAssIsSaaS

Arsonist

SaaS Eater

I second this, just dig dig dig and lean on your director to cover the technical side until you get up to speed.

Robot

Politicker

AE (Account Executive)

That is my plan today is to sharpen my discovery questions.

SaaSguy

Tycoon

Account Executive

Do a lot of discovery

Robot

Politicker

AE (Account Executive)

Right, I am sharpening my qualifying questions.

SaaSguy

Tycoon

Account Executive

Not just qualifying questions. Figure out the "why" - why are you having the conversation? why would they buy? and then what happens if they dont?

The cost of inaction must be higher than taking action (buying) to close a deal for the most part.

Diablo

Politicker

Sr. AE

1. Try to do a few demo internally
2. Try to get as much from your prospects as possible - their goals, pain points, how they feel you are one of the potential solutions etc.
3. Loop in your manager or one of your AEs to shadow that call so they might bump into any difficult you face during call (this can be a good learning experience).

Robot

Politicker

AE (Account Executive)

I have been thrown into the firepit before and this is just another one of the scenarios but I will luckily have my team watching the recording and giving feedback as well as my sales director will be on call.

Flippinghubs

Opinionated

Account Executive

we use gong internally so id just burry my self in listening to the best at the company do it and then build my workflow

DungeonsNDemos

Big Shot

Rolling 20's all day

Hope it worked out!

Bravado is a community of trusted sales professionals endorsed by their customers.

Products

The War Room Jobs Salary Guide Tech Sales U

Company

About Us How It Works Blog Bug Bounty

Contact

Press Careers

If you are hired as a contract sales rep by a Bravado customer, we may ask you to prove access to the employee email account provided to you by that customer. This data will be shared with customers to track your sales productivity; customers can use this data to confirm you meet the minimum activity requirements to pay out your ramp stipend and commission.

Robot

New company, first demo.

24 comments

Related posts

What did your first 30-60-90 Days look like as a new Team Lead

Current and Previous BDR/SDR(s) -- What are 3 things you wish your company trained you within your first 2 weeks of onboarding?

SDR / BDR Involvement post first demo