How do you track and manage your product demonstration pipeline and conversions?

Tracking demonstrations and measuring return on investment (ROI) for presales requires a balanced approach that accounts for top funnel lead generation as well as deeper stage, more technical demos. To effectively track demonstrations, implementing a system that captures the data on the number of demos, type of demo, and outcome is important. My experience is using CRM to do this tracking early stage, vs mid stage, vs technical demonstrations, as well as other tasks such as RFP activity. In doing so, it's important to strike a balance and monitor investment into top funnel selling activities, vs, the later stage, more technical demonstrations, and ensure adequate time is available for both.

To proactively manage your demo pipeline, start by clearly defining the stages of your demo process, such as "Demo requested," "Demo scheduled," "Demo delivered," "Demo follow-up," "Demo closed," and "Demo lost." This structured approach ensures a consistent workflow, helping your sales team operate efficiently. Additionally, it enables you to track progress and performance effectively, allowing for data-driven improvements in your sales strategy.

Both volumes, and duration need to be monitored. I've learned that while some groups might demand larger volumes of activity, the time demand is lower than other groups. An example of this might be customer upsell activity vs new customer acquistion work. Demo volume is also important to monitor, especially in today's environment where resources are usually pooled. This ensures proper allocation of resources across different sales groups, and also helps in analyzing effectiveness of SE to rep success rates. Lastly, ROI is a tough metric to calculate for presales; however keeping a calculated ratio on time spent per rep, and per sales group, compared to the revenue helps with sales leadership alignment ensuring invested time is yielding.

Tracking activity directly within the CRM allows for easier performance metrics, as this is ultimately where our wins and losses are recorded and revenue is tracked. In my experience, using the CRM tool to support the SE request, through to the documentation and tracking of notes, is the most effective use of these technologies, as opposed to having disparate tools to do this. Calendars still continue to be tricky to manage, especially in pooled resourcing models; however, whether using Microsoft or Google calendars, there are easy ways to use APIs to analyze team availability and support capacity planning.

Follow-up is crucial for winning or losing deals. Buyers can't see everything they need pre-sale, leading to unanswered questions or the need for revisiting. Ready resources for buyer evaluation and capacity planning are vital. A library of post-demo documentation, click-through experiences, and videos helps buyers get the information they need without consuming human resources. Efficient follow-up ensures buyers are supported in making informed decisions.

To nurture your demo leads effectively, provide valuable and relevant content such as educational blog posts, ebooks, webinars, and podcasts that highlight your product's benefits and features. Enhance credibility by sharing social proof through customer reviews, ratings, and testimonials, and incentivize purchase decisions with discounts, coupons, or free trials. Lastly, offer personalized content, including case studies, success stories, and tailored recommendations to address specific goals and challenges, fostering rapport, trust, and loyalty to increase sales conversions.

To effectively manage your demo pipeline, continuously test and refine your demo script, delivery, audience targeting, tools, and follow-up strategies. This process helps identify the most effective approaches for your product, prospects, and sales team, ensuring maximum impact. By optimizing these elements, you can save time and resources by discarding ineffective methods and focusing on what drives success.