Next Steps? After the demo…

what's everyone in SaaS doing after their demo as a next step? mostly in the event that they came in through outbound and aren't fully evaluating.
I'm an AE at a Series A startup. Currently we get them into a sandbox account if they express interest after the demo but aren't quite actively ready to buy. Our sandbox is garbage and is likely hurting us having that as a second step. 

just trying to get a general idea of what other companies do for next steps after the demo for prospects that are just kind of looking to see what's out there but don't have a timeline or a buying process defined on their end yet. wondering what we can do to give them more of that "wow, I really need this tool in my life" feeling to encourage them to take a serious look into buying. 
I'm hesitant to go straight to pricing because we haven't fully sold them on the value and the pricing will likely scare them away...although it's usually what they ask for as a next step.
for extra context - BDR schedules initial meeting with AE and AE does qualification/discovery on the first call along with the demo...
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6
SaaSguy
Tycoon
5
Account Executive
Sounds like you should be qualifying more before getting to the demo stage. 

Disco -> Demo -> Sandbox/POC -> Closed Won

Legal and procurement should be happening in conjunction of POC and wrapped up hopefully at the end or shortly after.


If you truly have no idea what to do after a demo have a "Strategy call" just solicit feedback on the demo and try and iron a plan or roadmap for installation. 
jefe
Arsonist
3
🍁
Great advice here.

Also, ALWAYS do a full disco. I make sure that is its own call whenever possible. 
CatMom
Politicker
1
Account Executive
Love that strategy call idea!! 
braintank
Politicker
4
Enterprise Account Executive
This isn't the way...
CatMom
Politicker
2
Account Executive
What isn’t the way? Me looking for ideas/inspiration on a sales forum app?
CatMom
Politicker
2
Account Executive
Or do you mean the context I shared on how we do things currently? If that’s what you mean, I totally agree 😅 we have a temp contractor as a sales vp right now only focused on restructuring BDR processes so the one other AE and myself are left to our own devices to figure out the best way to sell this product…are other reps just out there doing a demo, giving pricing, and expecting them to buy? Highly doubt that…so what’s everyone doing in between the steps to show the value and get the prospect on board with doing more discovery? Should we try going to the c-suite, do we just put them in a nurture campaign and hope they want to buy later on? Maybe this requires too much detail on our company and what we sell for anyone to share ideas but thought it was worth a shot!
braintank
Politicker
3
Enterprise Account Executive
Doing a demo then sending people into a crappy sandbox won't work.

It's a pitfall a lot of series As fall into. Show the demo, they say "this is cool", you give them keys to lackluster demo environment with no exit criteria nor buy in from decision makers, and eventually they stop returning your calls.

Agree you need to focus on building value, which can be tough early on.

My company is different stage, but our typical process is:
- Discovery call / needs analysis- Demos- go/no-go on 30 day PoV- pov readout and proposal
braintank
Politicker
2
Enterprise Account Executive
I'd be more focused on figuring out value than getting BDRs at this point. If people aren't buying, more calls won't fix it, you're just pissing in the wind.
CatMom
Politicker
2
Account Executive
Totally agree. Thank you for sharing this. I really love the idea of discovery before demo!
braintank
Politicker
2
Enterprise Account Executive
Why demo if there's no pain?
1nbatopshotfan
Politicker
3
Sales
This is fantastic advice @braintank high value. 
braintank
Politicker
5
Enterprise Account Executive
Don't mean to sound alarmist, but I'd start putting feelers out. Series A's with no product market fit and inexperienced leadership are going to struggle the next 12-18 months.

See also:  https://bravado.co/war-room/posts/strategies-for-uncertain-times
CatMom
Politicker
1
Account Executive
Ugh. You’re probably right. I just got here 😩don’t want to have to start all over again but definitely a responsible thing to do. Thanks for being the one to tell me something I don’t want to hear but need to hear!
braintank
Politicker
2
Enterprise Account Executive
Better to be in control of the narrative then get clipped out of the blue. If you start now you have the luxury of being employed and being able to be picky
1nbatopshotfan
Politicker
4
Sales
If the sandbox is shit, it’s more like a quick sandbox, zing! 
CatMom
Politicker
1
Account Executive
Dad joke of the year ☝🏻
CatMom
Politicker
4
Account Executive
Thanks @SaaSguy @jefe @braintank @Sunbunny31 !! Rly appreciate the responses. Spent some time digging into it this weekend and had a total epiphany…I got so sucked into “the way we do things here” I didn’t even realize our entire pitch and gtm is all just feature selling. Zero value selling…the features feel like they’re solving some problems but definitely haven’t been digging into the core problems challenges so that we can provide real solutions. Working on a game plan with the co-founder and how we can re-position our messaging and the way we demo the product. Really appreciate you all calling out the missing value/lack of discovery!!
Sunbunny31
Politicker
3
Sr Sales Executive 🐰
Others have pointed out full discovery before demo.  What I'll say about sandbox/trial sites is that they're only valuable if there are clear metrics for success.  What are they trying to learn from the sandbox/trial?  Is it to get hands on and .... what?

Because if the environment is garbage, they obviously are going to connect that to your product being garbage, which is not going to work well for you.   So, if your prospect is hoping to get an idea of an end user experience, maybe the better path is to demo a use case start to end.   Or if they want to try out administration, have someone walk them through that as they do it, to make sure they are getting what they want out of a sandbox.    

Even when trial environments are great, it's very tricky to just let a prospect in.   If they don't have goals for what they want to learn about your solution or test out, it's not going to be satisfactory.  You have to control that experience, and frankly, skip the step if it doesn't make sense.
SaaSguy
Tycoon
3
Account Executive
Yep! You need concrete success criteria so that when you execute successfully you can use that as leverage to get the deal closed. 
braintank
Politicker
2
Enterprise Account Executive
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