Does your sales team have the skills to close sales? Product demos can be the difference between a sale and a lost opportunity — read this to see how!

If you’re selling, you already know that your product demos and sales demos are critical to closing deals. Demos are a fantastic way to show a prospect exactly how your product will meet their specific needs and displays how the product or service can put an end to pain points and support their business operations.

Demos work well if your team is truly skilled at using them — but for many sales teams, this isn’t the case. Your sales team has likely already put valuable time and resources into building relationships, vetting potential customers, and engaging with them, so make sure you’re getting the most from your demo.

What you should get out of your product demo

The idea of creating a great demo may be intimidating, but this can be a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate how your product specifically addresses customer needs and potential concerns.?

First, let’s cover the objectives of a product demo:

1. Gain a clear picture of how your customers make purchase decisions. The demo is an opportunity to familiarize yourself with the buyer’s organization, and your reps should be able to identify key stakeholders, their decision-making criteria, and timelines.
2. Build a relationship with the buyer. With a demo, you can show the buyer that you understand their pain points — and how to solve them. This way, you can build trust and provide a good buying experience.
3. Introduce the buyer to your customer success team. This introduction will help your team give your customer an early understanding of how the product will be used.

Tips for pulling off a great product demo

Successful product demos don’t happen by accident. A successful salesperson will have a unique combination of product knowledge, sales ability, and relationship building — and can do it all quickly.

Here are some tips for a great demo:

1. Know as much about your customers as you know about your products. This means knowing exactly who you are talking to, their customers, and their partners.
2. Ask smart questions to know the needs of the customer. Ask questions that define their goals, what they want to achieve in the short term, what they like and do not like about their current tools, and what criteria they will use to make a final purchase decision.
3. Customize the demo to tell the customer a story. Make sure the story goes beyond presenting the features and benefits of your product to tie each feature or solution directly to the customer’s goals, needs, or pain points.
4. Use visuals to show that your presentation will work for the customer. Don’t simply walk through menu pages — use every and any visual that will outline the customer’s current situation and how that will change once they select your product.

Rate your team: 12 levels of demonstration skills?

A lot is riding on the success of demos. Rate your team on these 12 skill levels.

1: Follows the “standard” script

Most new hires go through basic training on the company’s products and systems. This should merely be a starting point, but many salespeople stick to this script for years.

2: Customizes the message based on the prospect

The next step is using market- or industry-specific data. This can be as simple as a pre-built demo for each industry.

3: Customizes the pitch, based on discovery information

This involves discovery and guides what to include in the demo and what to leave out.

4: Communicates business value

Communicating value is a key step in successful demos because it shows the prospect exactly what they stand to gain.

5: Manages and explores prospect questions

Knowing what to answer when is an indicator of successful question management. Knowing why questions are being asked can be trickier.?

6: Communicates enhancement and new feature requests

Salespeople may learn in pitches that a client needs a new feature. This should be communicated to product developers with the understanding that such requests must align with product roadmaps and not become a distraction.

7: Uses biased questions to outflank the competition and reengineer vision

A biased question leads the prospect to conclude that your product is their best choice. Biased questions can support vision reengineering.

8: Uses storytelling to reinforce key ideas

Storytelling is a key sales skill that creates stickiness — prospects remember key messages and even relate them to their organization.

9: Differentiates vision generation from technical proof scenarios

These sellers use customer success stories and product data to satisfy their prospects, then move into discovery.

10: Reuses demo success scenarios

Mature sellers recognize the importance of altruism and mutual enablement, sharing what works with their peers and motivating entire teams.?

11: Applies these skills to a broad range of demo scenarios

There isn’t just one demo — each demo depends on the customer and their specific needs.

12: Translates skills into a cohesive demo methodology

Pros know what assets and skills can be reused, combined, and repurposed to leverage efficiencies.

How does your sales team score??

Most veteran sellers label themselves as “advanced” or “expert” when it comes to demos, but most are likely actually operating at levels 2 or 3. Is your team honest with its skills? Perhaps it’s time to up-level your skill sets and see how far your demo skills can go.

Great Demo! provides a range of unique workshops, seminars, webinars and coaching to help software organizations achieve their sales and marketing objectives. Get started today!

Book a consultation with me to discuss how we can help level up your team's software demonstrations. https://tidycal.com/ppearce