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Giving a great demo is all about being clear, compelling and creative. If you’re stodgy, stiff and full of boring slides, your prospect will fall asleep faster than you can say “free trial”.
I’m excited to be co-hosting the AppExchange Demo Jam with fellow Salesforce MVP Jeff Grosse. As you might have seen in October’s Demo Jam with winner Drawloop, this monthly webinar series includes 4-5 AppExchange partners battling it out with 3-minute live demos of their apps. When the demos are over, the audience votes on the best one. Join us here for these great Demo Jams, and in the meantime, here are six ways to give a killer demo that will leave your prospect wanting more.
You should never give the same exact demo twice. A great demo is not only about being creative, but it’s about knowing your audience. Get to know the prospect to cater the demo to their needs. This automatically makes it more compelling.
At the same time, you don’t want to be a runaway train, no matter how much your prospect likes the ride. Keep it short and concise, after all, your product should be easy to understand and use, so the demo should follow suit. A short demo piques curiosity, which keeps the prospect engaged and interested in future conversations. That’s a good thing.
Write your script, but never read from it. A script or written elevator pitch will help you cover the key points during the demo. However, it’s important to be conversational and engaging during this time, therefore, learn from the script, but don’t use it as a crutch. Practice makes perfect, so work on your pitch until you know it like the back of your hand.
A picture is worth 1,000 words, so a live demo is worth a googolplexian. In other words, show your product instead of talking about it. Get right into the product experience and demonstrate all of the features and functionality you plan to cover. The more you can show, the better the demo will be.
While you want your entry level sales people to start making calls and demoing, it’s important to have them craft their skill and learn from the experts at your organization. Your big, important demos (as you’ll see in our Demo Jam), should be run by your top performers. These salespeople know how to demo, and they know public speaking 101.
Slides may help you structure your presentation, but unless they’re highly-visual, attention-grabbing and eye-popping slides, you’ll likely slip into a staged, rehearsed demo, which is not memorable. Throw your Powerpoint slides away and jump into the live demo.
Now that you’re knee-deep in demoing live, make sure your desktop is up to snuff. Clean up your desktop so you’re not full of files, folders — or even worse — confidential information. Consider changing your desktop background to your brand logo, or even something that personally ties into your prospect. Skiing in the Alps, anyone? These small changes make a big impact.
Join the Demo Jam live, the third Thursday of every month, and see some of the best live demos in action.
Joshua Hoskins is a Salesforce MVP, a certified Salesforce.com developer and integrations Guru. Director of Product Development at Talent Rover.
