“Give me another 5 min, and I’ll tell you your underwear brand”: How to prepare for the best demo in your career

Picture this: you’re about to present your services to a potential client. But wait! Before you dazzle them with your pitch-perfect presentation, there’s one secret ingredient you can’t afford to skip: research. In this article, we’re going to spill the beans on why doing your homework is an absolute must for nailing those demos.

This is the first part of our Demo guide for beginners from our CEO Alex Muntyan. An exhaustive tutorial on what to do during the meeting is coming next week. Stay tuned!

First of all, this is the actual checklist our SDRs use to prepare for a demo meeting. Now, let’s break down each point individually.

Do your research

Proper research before a demo is a must. It will allow you to personalize your presentation and use only relevant examples from your company’s portfolio.

Here are the questions you need to answer:

1. What kind of company is this?
2. What industry does it belong to?
3. How big is the company?
4. What are the main pain points of your prospect?
5. How can your solution help them to solve their pain points?

When showing off your services to a prospect you want to use only the examples they can relate to. For instance, when having a demo meeting with a bank representative, it’s best to talk more about other brands from the same industry and skip the detailed info on your experience with gamedev companies.

Aside from that, take into account the size of the company you’re having a meeting with. Beginner SDRs often want to brag about the huge brands their company has worked with. However, to a small startup founder, this might send the wrong message that your services won’t meet their needs or will be too pricey.

Proper research will also help you to connect with a prospect on a personal level. Browse their social media and try to find some common interests or small talk topics — favorite sports, travels, hobbies, etc.

It is important, however, to keep your distance and stay professional. Once, we had a meeting with a potential vendor for one of our clients, and their SDR at some point said: “Look, guys, I did my research very well. I know all I need about your company and its pain points and about both of you as professionals. Give me another 5 more minutes — and I’ll know the brand of your underwear”.

While this was appropriate during that exact meeting, in any other case, this would have been way too much. So, do your research, but do not push boundaries.

Write a scenario for the meeting

Good research will help you to create a scenario for the meeting and highlight all the points you want to discuss and all the questions you need to ask the prospect. Otherwise, the demo will not go successfully.

Preparation is a crucial step. If an SDR doesn’t have enough time for it, it is important to address this issue immediately — for example, hire another SDR.

Proper research and preparation for demos increase your chances of selling your product dramatically, so make sure not to overlook this step.

Take care of the technical things

To avoid awkward situations and annoyed prospects, make sure to check all your hardware before the meeting and do a quick scan of your surroundings.

If your mic makes weird noises or your WiFi is too slow, the wise choice is to reschedule the meeting and fix the issue. Otherwise, your prospect will leave the demo irritated and will be less likely to purchase your product.

Here are the things you should always check before a meeting:

• your hardware works well;
• your WiFi is fast enough for a video meeting;
• your notifications are off, your smartphone is on silent;
• you have an appropriate background or a virtual one;
• you are dressed appropriately;
• the meeting invitation has an agenda;
• there’s a Zoom link in the invitation.

Technically, all this should go without saying, but we had too many awkward meetings. For instance, one of our potential contractors joined a meeting shirtless and only 15 minutes into the conversation noticed that their camera was on.

Another time, when we were interviewing someone for an SDR position and they were sharing their screen, their spouse texted: “Good luck, honey! I’m sure you’ll get the job 💗”.

While this is extremely cute and wasn’t a red flag for us in that specific case, it’s still better to mute the notifications. Because next time it can be your work bestie spilling tea about the clients — and that won’t look good.

Including a Zoom link in a demo, invitation is necessary — even if you’ve emailed the link earlier. Otherwise, be prepared to lose around 10 minutes texting the attendees and re-sending them the link.

Also, it’s always good to ask which software they prefer — Zoom, Google Meet, or any other. In large companies with strict corporate cultures, it might be a problem for employees to install new software on their PCs.

These foundational steps lay the groundwork for a winning presentation that addresses your prospect’s needs. But hold on tight because our demo guide isn’t over just yet! Next week, we’ll be unveiling the second part of our guide, where we’ll dive into the details of what to do during the meeting itself. From engaging your audience to handling objections like a pro, we’ve got you covered. So stay tuned, mark your calendars, and get ready to level up your demo game.