5 Tips for an Effective Product Demonstration
A product-led strategy may be making the traditional product demonstration redundant but for larger ticket sales, the demo is a crucial part of the sales process. This article provides five tips that I have picked up from doing hundreds of product demonstrations around the world.
- Make it interactive
Get in to the demonstration quickly and keep up a good pace. Make it clear that you welcome questions at any stage, pause regularly and prompt for them. If you are a quarter of the way through and there still hasn’t been any interaction, pose a question to an audience member related to the specific area of the product you are demonstrating. For example, “How regularly do you need to…”, “Do you find it difficult to …” etc. Try to select a particular person to ask your question to rather than throwing questions out into the ether to avoid awkward silences. Once the ice has been broken, you should get the interaction for the remainder of the session.
2. Be prepared
A little preparation goes a long way. You can size the amount of preparation you do based on the size of the opportunity. If you are doing the demonstration in person then check the logisitics. Make sure you know exactly where you are presenting and what equipment will be available. How many people will attend? Will everyone be in the room or will some people be remote? It is good practice to drop a note to the meeting organiser the day beforehand and communicate what you need. Follow up by phone if you don’t receive a response.
Carry a range of cables, chargers and connectors in your bag, make sure your laptop is fully charged and consider bringing a wifi hotspot or phone that can tether with a fully loaded data plan. Even hardcopy screenshots of the product can provide a backup if the technology completely fails or you need to decamp to a cafe or hotel reception.
3. Prepare a script — but be prepared to go off piste.
Prepare a demonstration script and build a product demonstration site with sample data to accompany your script. You may wish to create different scripts for different durations or common scenarios. Practice the demo; first alone and then with different internal colleagues. As you hone your demo with multiple presentations, you will become more confident and be able to adapt on the fly as the situation dictates. You may choose to re-order sections, miss some parts out completely or dive deeper into areas of interest.
4. Read the room
Before, during and after the demonstration, be alert to any and all signals from your audience. Who is excited? Who is bored? What role does each person have in the process and what do they need to see to feel comfortable in their decision. Offer follow-up more targeted sessions for key players, a technical demo, security session or an executive summary. Watch out for quieter participants — they may still be a key decision maker and need attention .
5. Supporting materials.
Build up a library of resources that you can provide as follow up material. Sending additional information post demonstration shows that you are pro-active but also keeps the communication channels open to gather important feedback. Prospective customers are not just interested in features, they will also want to explore the implementation methodology, training, service, security and may other aspects whilst forming an opinion. Make sure you have professional, up to date resources that can be used and distributed whilst you have the prospect’s attention.
Delivering effective product demonstrations in different situations and to varied audiences is a professional skill that can take years to master. Like learning to fly, there really is no substitute for experience.
