We are kicking off our Demo Heroes series with an exciting interview with Afrida Mahbub, Global Head of Demo Experience at Celonis- a leader in business process optimization software.Come explore Celonis' journey to develop a world-class demo experience for customers and its innovative approach to presenting its product to buyers. We'll hear from Afrida on how Celonis ensures an industry-leading software demo - it's sure to be a truly enlightening event.

Afrida, tell us about yourself and your role at Celonis? 

I am the Global Head of Demo Experience at Celonis, leading a team of Demo Engineers who build powerful software demonstrations, showcasing the value that the EMS (Execution Management System) drives for businesses in a tangible and experiential way.

There are not many organisations that have Demo Experience teams on top of the Presales organisations. Can you explain how your work is complementary to traditional presales?

One of the crucial objectives of a pre-sales organization is to improve the productivity of its Solution Engineers, so they can spend their time doing what matters most- spending quality time with their customers to derive solutions that lead to tangible business value. However, in reality, under-qualified leads coming in through sales channels lead to engagements from SEs that require unnecessary and irrelevant live demos, a stupendous waste of time.

Our job at Demo Experience is first to make sure that every SQL making its way to an SE has had at least one touchpoint with an on-demand demo, so they come well prepared for a more impactful deeper dive. Secondly, to ensure that our SEs are fully equipped to give a stellar live demo at any moment with the least amount of prep- making our SEs some of the best in the industry.

What are the critical challenges in your role?

Scaling our demo efforts with different types of demo assets that cater to the end-end sales funnel is definitely a challenge. We’re constantly on the lookout for creative tools and solutions that ease this effort.

You mentioned that the demo plays an instrumental role in your sales process. Why is that?

Seeing is believing. With a powerful technology like the EMS, it is imperative for us to not just talk about what is possible but to show it to our customers with confidence. Our demos are the true drivers of our value-driven sales process.

How does Demoboost help you achieve your objectives?

Demoboost will help us take our demo experience to the hands of every customer and prospect, giving them a taste of the incredible EMS technology. This self-service approach will not only free up precious SE time, but also empower our sales agents with stellar self-service demos that they can share at every touchpoint.