In technology and B2B sales, one of the most important things for any salesperson to do before a meeting is define their Product Demo strategy.
The right product demo strategy is one that easily breakdowns the complexities of a particular software or product for a prospective customer to understand within few seconds. This helps generate more interest in the product.
The core value of any technology product can only be showcased effectively with the right product demo strategy after all.
Given that in B2B Sales, every sales cycle is longer and requires the inputs of multiple stakeholders, what are some of the essentials that you should keep in mind when defining (or re-defining) your product demo strategy?
Here are 5 Product Demo tips that might help:
1- Your Product Demo should Align to Your Prospect’s Business Problems
In a recent SalesTechStar interview, Jim Dickie of Sales Mastery had said, “It is important to make sure we look at each opportunity and align it to the customer’s journey. It is not enough that you decide who you want to engage, and why. You need to also know why they would want to engage with you. If you can’t do that you shouldn’t be pursuing an opportunity.”
In sales, it is the responsibility of the sales team to uncover and identify a prospect’s business problem while also discussing various ways in which a prospect can benefit from the use of a particular technology or solution.
This helps plan a more defined product demo strategy that allows the prospect to understand the impact the product can have on their process and business outcomes.
- Takeaways:
->Product Demos should be properly aligned to your prospect’s business needs
->A generic demo at the pre-discovery stage can be used to generate initial interest
Read More: SalesTech Star Interview With Jim Dickie, Research Fellow At Sales Mastery
2 – Personalized Product Demos are Best for Sales Qualified Leads ONLY!
Time is money in business. Not only are salespeople constantly struggling to fit as many meetings into their calendar as possible, jostling for a prospect’s time can be quite the uphill task in itself too. Given this, and keeping in mind that personalization is a key requirement to any successful product demo strategy, what will help more is creating deeper personalization for product demo meetings for prospects that are filtered as ‘highly qualified’.
- Takeaways:
->You cannot present a personalized product demo without understanding what your prospect’s business problems and core challenges are.
->Managing an effective sales pipeline starts by prioritizing sales leads.
3 – References/Use Cases: How do customers use your Tech?
With so much easy access to information, it’s easy for prospects to have an unintended perception of a product or technology that they haven’t previously used but have read or heard about. The lack of knowledge about the product often leads to this perception.
Using your meeting time effectively, fit in generous amounts of references and use cases with brief examples of how other customers are using different capabilities and features of the product while taking your prospect through your product demo.
- Takeaway:
->Include interesting ways in which your prospect’s key competitor’s are using similar technologies to drive sales and revenue in order to pique more interest!
Read More: Videos For Sales Outreach? Yes, Please!
4 – Your Product Demo HAS TO BE Engaging
For most sales reps in B2B and technology sales, the 30-minute meeting is the most-craved-for goal. Once you get that time on your prospect’s calendar, the real work begins!
Your product demo and the entire sales conversation has to be engaging enough to ensure a two-way communication throughout those 30 minutes.
- Some of the most effective ways to ensure this:
->Speak your prospects language, speak their terminology!
->Jargon works, but only up to a point: remember, if you use jargons they don’t understand and they don’t ask you what it means – its your loss!
5- Your Closing Statement Matters MOST!
When you close your product demo or any sales conversation for that matter, you must ask your prospect something that will help move the sale forward. There is no better time than after a product demo to try and close a sale or take the next step.
Read More: E-Commerce Marketing Strategies: For 2020 And Beyond
Conclusion
For technology sales, there is nothing more powerful than an impactful product demo.
Additionally, here’s a video by Dan Martell that focuses on 5 tips you can use to demo your SaaS product and get customers buying faster! Happy watching!