How To Run Effective B2B Sales Demo's
Prospects hate jumping through hoops to see a demo.
They are tired of long discovery interrogations.
Delivering a good buyer experience in 2023 is crucial as a sales rep.
Doing a long discovery call before a demo isn't necessary anymore. Still, a lot of SDR and BDR organizations still handle it that way.
But, … there's a better way:
Run discovery & demo in one call.
So prospects get what they want (the demo) while you also get what you want (the discovery)
This is especially important for SDRs and BDRs who struggle within the discovery phase for whom it is hard to do discovery.
Benefits of combining sales demo and discovery calls
It’s more fun and more effective (show + tell + ask)
You provide immediate value to your prospect and give something back in exchange for their time (the demo)
You gain permission to ask deeper discovery questions (= more trust because you show already something)
You can validate your product fit much faster (= better discovery and better structure)
You deliver a great buying experience with value. (time = money)
You trigger more interest.
You can ask gap questions
You have higher chances of setting the next steps
Demo Structure
1. Select 3-6 key product features for the demo
2. For each feature run this framework:
a) Highlight a business problem the feature solves
b) Briefly demo how the feature solves it
c) Quantify the business impact
d) Ask a GAP question
Example of a GAP question: "How does this compare to how you work today?"
Example Demo: Slack | by Christian Krause
The 1st of Slack’s 6 key features is: Channels.
Here’s how I would run the Disco Demo framework for Slack:
1) “A lot of CTO's we speak to share that their core technical team communicates poorly. Information is often out of context and it takes time to consolidate it from separate silo'd systems” - highlights a business problem
2) “Slack solves this for you through channels. Channels are a novel way to communicate as they pull information from different systems and bring them into context. Channels can be organised by departments, teams, projects or other topics.”
- brief demo with value talk track
3) “With Channels we see that technical teams communicate 35% faster. For the average employee this saves them 45 minutes of productivity/day, which they can now use for value-adding work.” - quantifies the business impact
4) “John, how does this compare to how your engineers communicate today?”
- GAP question
PRO TIP
Our brains get bored quickly. Studies show that 9-10 minute pitches are ideal.
Break your presentation into multiple parts to make it entertaining.
A prime example of this technique is Steve Jobs' masterful presentations, where he strategically incorporated a change every ten minutes or less, whether by introducing a new speaker, showing a video, or incorporating a dynamic element that brought the brain back into focus.
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