A successful sales demo process can mean the difference between gaining a new customer or losing the lead entirely. The sales demo is your chance to make the product shine, speak directly to the lead’s pain points, and lay the groundwork for closing the sale. 

Successfully navigating all the moving pieces in a sales demo is critical to lasting success. You’ll need a strong tech stack, effective pre-sales assets, and sales reps trained in overcoming pain points. 

Ultimately, choosing the right sales demo platform and training sales teams to use it effectively can go far in converting more leads into happy customers. So, let’s dive into the world of sales demos to demonstrate why nailing every step in the process is vital to lasting success.

The Role of Sales Demos in the Sales Process

What role does a sales demo play in the overall sales process? Sales demos are when a lead meets with a salesperson to learn more about the product or service, ideally resulting in becoming a customer soon after. 

A sales demo for a software product is often remote, calling for sales demo environments that showcase a demo version of the platform populated with faux data. An effective interactive demo gives the lead hands-on experience with the platform.

Leads will be considering how the demo relates to their specific needs, so it’s critical to have customized demos available. However, they can be based on template virtual environments to streamline the process.

It’s worth noting that while similar, sales demos vary from product demos by being more focused on closing the sale, as product demos can be more technical and have minimal sales techniques.

How Can You Make the Sales Demo Process More Effective?

An effective sales demo creates lasting growth and loyal customers. Investing time and resources into optimizing the demo process is worth the investment, paving the way for lasting success.

So, let’s dive into the core best practices that create a highly effective and scalable sales demo.

Create a Standardized Structure

Standardized sales demos mean successful sales are a repeatable process rather than a stroke of luck or a skillful sales rep. Creating a standard process is a foundational best practice that everything else builds upon, so establish and continually refine templates and processes for demos.

For example, sales reps shouldn’t have to learn how to structure a sales demo every time they prepare for one. Instead, it has pre-made virtual environments for sales demos, outlines for the overall process structure, and an understanding of how to customize these elements for each customer. 

A standardized process allows sales reps to focus on the lead’s needs when preparing rather than the nuts and bolts of the demo.

Embrace a Customer-Centric Approach

You’re likely already focusing on leads most of the time, but rigid sales demos and non-standardized processes deviate from this focus. A customer-centric approach keeps the lead in mind at every step, customizing demo environments, communications, and sales techniques to help turn leads into customers.

Are your existing practices tailored to individual leads at every possible step? Even though your leads might have common pain points, their severity will usually be unique, keeping them front and center highly valuable.

Explore any areas in your process that could benefit from focusing more on the lead, considering customization and creating a frictionless sales process. 

Strategically Adopt Automation Tools

Automation tools for sales demos can make sales reps more efficient and effective. You’re not replacing salespeople with automation but rather equipping them with the right tools to free up their time to learn how to convert the lead into a customer.

There are several sales demo software platforms that leverage automation to enhance varying aspects of the process. Generally, automation will help with pre-sales aspects, such as a personalized email campaign, scheduling, and creating tailored virtual environments.

Explore the different options, focusing on time sinks in existing processes that don’t need the expertise of a sales representative. Adopt what makes sense, avoid overdoing it and possibly create new problems. 

Be Engaging and Offer Interactivity

Leads can often mentally check out of a sales demo if they aren’t engaged, which doesn’t contribute to landing a sale. Software demos should be live demonstrations of the platform, not pre-recorded videos.

Using virtual platforms for sales demos allows the rep to provide a customized breakdown based on how the lead might use the product rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. Offering interactivity goes even further, allowing leads to interact with the platform directly.

Engaging a lead in the sales demo is also partially in the hands of the sales rep. Asking them questions, letting them ask their own questions, and creating a free-flowing dialogue avoids turning sales demos into lectures that can lose leads’ attention and excitement in the product.