How to Build the Best SaaS Demos

No matter how amazing your product, marketing, and sales efforts are, your SaaS demo is what will make or break the deal. Buyers today want to see a live or recorded demo before wasting time signing up for yet another SaaS product.

Your product demo is the key to helping prospects understand the unique value and differentiation your SaaS product brings to the market. It's truly the catalyst to convincing your prospects to sign up.

But, how do you give an insanely great demo that gets prospects to buy?

In this article, we'll explore three key principles to help you deliver insanely great product demos for your SaaS business.

As some of you may know, I founded ToutApp, a sales engagement platform. We amassed 100K users, and I gave thousands of demos for that product. The principles I followed when giving demos were the same, even as our product and strategies changed.

Now, I am growing 2 SaaS companies and find myself following these principles again for my own demos. This strategy is universal for any SaaS product, whether you are product-led or sales-led.

Principle 1: Jump Straight into the Action Shot

A common mistake most make when crafting a SaaS demo is wasting time on product setup. People usually get bored when the demo starts with mundane parts of the product. When you spend excessive time on product setup, it detracts from the main purpose: Showcasing the value and benefits of your SaaS product.

Instead, you'll want to spark excitement and dive straight into the core "Ah-Ha" moment. Going straight into what the product does allows you to capture your audience's attention from the start, highlighting its key features and functionalities.

When you start with the immediate results your customers get, you increase the likelihood of engagement, conversion, and retention.

Principle 2: Show your Core Product Loop

Every SaaS product has a core product loop. This is the key piece that makes your product 10X better than all your competitors. Whether you’re replacing a manual workflow, an Excel spreadsheet, or a challenging competitor, this is your opportunity to highlight the part of your product that demonstrates significant differentiation.

Showcase how your product functions, how it comes together, and how it outperforms all other options in the market.

Principle 3: Zoom Out to the Manager View

Nobody wants more software. Rather than offering yet another software, focus on delivering tangible results.

In the third part of your demo, illustrate how your product directly impacts the lives and businesses of your customers. You can do this by providing a “Manager View.” Your manager view goes beyond showcasing integrations and features, it allows prospects to connect with the original promise of your product.

Conclude with the final overall transformation they get with your SaaS product. What is the ultimate value they will get from you? Demonstrate the results users can expect through an admin dashboard consolidating all pertinent data and information.

By aligning your demo with the core transformation you aim to achieve, you can effectively convert more prospects through your marketing or sales process.

These are the tried and true principles to building an incredible SaaS product demo. Feel free to share your own demo strategies below and ask any questions you may have!

TK was CEO & Founder at ToutApp (backed by a16z, Jackson Square Ventures and prominent angel investors in Silicon Valley). After scaling ToutApp, it was acquired by Marketo where TK went on to join Marketo's executive team and serve as their Senior Vice President of Strategy. After running a 2-year transformation as part of the executive team, Marketo was acquired by Adobe for $4.75bn.?

TK now spends his time as a Strategic Advisor to 300+ B2B SaaS Founders globally. As the Founder of Unstoppable, he helps other SaaS Founders grow their startups faster through his Weekly Youtube videos and his application-only SaaS Go-To-Market Program.?

Want to learn more about building a proper GTM strategy for your SaaS business? Grab a complimentary copy of my 5-Point SaaS Growth Strategy Guide here.