Sales rep: We have a demo coming up with Google next week

Product guy: That’s great news. Finally, we’re there.

Sales rep: [silence]

Product guy: OMG! Don’t say you need to create the demo environment from scratch just for this demo… Please… Please…

Sales rep: Hmmmm……

Product guy: [deep dead inside]

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Let’s face it. As product folks, we all have been through the above conversation with our sales or marketing team at some point or other. The frequency increases drastically when a big account pops in for a demo.

No doubt, product demos are a milestone in any sales cycle and every product team feels pumped to showcase what they’ve built.

But generic product demos SUCK big time. One size NEVER fits all.

So the need for custom, interactive demos is more important than ever and the contemporary belief that product demo ownership falls solely on the sales or marketing teams is NO LONGER TRUE. The product team is as involved as the other teams while delivering a great demo.

But the downside is, product folks don’t enjoy building a demo environment from scratch for every demo. Redundant and time sink as they rightly call it.

Mainly because helping with demos affects their daily productivity and directly affects their involvement in the product. As a result:

46% of PMs hate sales reps requesting customized sales tools on an account-by-account basis

35% of PMs must commit to adding features to close a deal

31% of PMs stress about the sales pipeline being below the revenue forecast

Ultimately, the pressure of closing a deal is not just that of sales. Unnecessarily, the ripple effect travels all the way up to the product team. But this should not be the case. Product teams should focus on building. The sales team should focus on selling.

But how?

Meet Interactive Product Demos: Skip the traditional demo drama. Hit the product purpose.

An interactive demo is a self-navigated journey through a product, offering prospects a tangible experience of the product’s capabilities.

Picture it as a test drive before buying a car - you get to experience the vehicle’s features in action and assess its suitability for your needs.

Likewise, interactive product demos allow your product to speak for itself. They provide a hands-on experience that goes beyond the rehearsed pitches and glossy brochures. Prospects get to ‘touch’, ‘feel’, and ‘experience’ the product, exploring its features at their own pace.

This means they can spend less time on parts that are clear and more time on parts that may be confusing. The result? Your product’s value becomes crystal clear in no time, helping to shorten the sales cycle.

Moreover, interactive demos can highlight the intuitiveness and user-friendliness of your product, aspects that are often hard to convey through words alone.

It’s like Tony Stark testing his Mach 16 in the lab firsthand - a direct, engaging, and effective way to understand his suit’s potential.

Interactive Demos Help your Product Team to Save Time and Boost Productivity

While the product team’s involvement in the demo process is encouraging, there’s a catch. Too much involvement halts your product’s progress, while too little involvement sends your sales team for a toss during a demo.

So, it is important to balance it. With interactive demos, you can exactly achieve that by boosting the productivity of both sales and product teams.

For example, if you are selling a complex CRM solution, the need for multiple meetings is inevitable. Instead, you can create an interactive demo and share a link with your potential clients. Here’s how it can help you:

1. Save time by eliminating the need for building custom environments from scratch: As all the interactive demos are customizable and reusable, this eliminates the need to set up custom environments for each demo from zero. A pure delight to the product team.
   
   From the sales team’s angle, they don't have to ping product folks every time there’s a demo. Instead, they can plug in and play around with the interactive demo, making the required changes to suit the prospect’s needs. Result? Product teams spend less time and resources on each deal.
   
   
2. Accelerated productivity in development and innovation: With the time saved from setting up demo environments, engineering teams can redirect their focus towards more critical aspects of product development. This means they can spend more time designing, coding, and testing new features.
   
   This creative freedom can be a catalyst for breakthroughs that might not have been possible if they were still focusing on healing the sales team’s issues before every demo.
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3. Enhanced Collaboration: Just like all roads lead to Rome, seamless collaboration leads to better overall output. Since interactive demos are often cloud-based, they can be accessed by team members regardless of their location. This accessibility fosters better collaboration and knowledge sharing, which is essential for a cohesive and productive team.

Interactive Product Demos Helps You Cut Costs, Boost Conversions & ROI, and Spread Smiles

Imagine this: A prospect visits your website or receives an outreach email from you. Instead of being greeted with a wall of text, they find an interactive product demo waiting for them. It’s like a personal invitation to step into your product’s world and see its magic firsthand.

According to a study by Demand Metric, interactive content generates conversions moderately or very well 70% of the time, compared to just 36% for passive content.

But the magic of interactive demos doesn’t stop there. In today’s fast-paced world, no one, especially your prospects, has the luxury of time to sit through countless discovery calls. By giving prospects the power to explore your product at any stage of the sales process, you’re not just speeding up the buyer journey; you’re making it a delightful experience.

According to a report by Gartner, companies can save up to 15% of their IT spending by adopting cloud-based solutions.

And if you’re using a platform like Demo Boost, you can track how buyers engage with your demo. This invaluable data can help you understand which topics to focus on during your next call, enhancing lead qualification, shortening the sales cycle, and ultimately boosting ROI.

Finally, interactive demos can also help reduce time to value and improve the sales process. These demos can help build trust with buyers before they engage with the sales team, and allow them to opt into the sales process when they are ready. 

Goodbye manual walkthroughs, hello peace of mind.

Interactive Product Demos Works Across Organizations — Not Just Teams

Interactive product demos are a powerful tool that extends beyond just teams and can be leveraged by entire organizations. They provide a dynamic, engaging, and hands-on way to showcase your product.

In the context of an organization, these demos can be used in various departments such as sales, marketing, customer service, and training. 

For instance, sales teams can use them to demonstrate the value proposition of a product to potential customers. Marketing teams can use them to create engaging content for promotional campaigns. 

Customer service teams can use them to help customers understand how to use a product. Training teams can use them to train employees on new products or features.

Finally, interactive demos offer a unique opportunity to analyze your demo performance. By monitoring how your prospect engages with it, you can identify which parts got them hooked and which parts might need a little more work. 

This feedback loop is crucial for continuous improvement and creating demos that not only engage but also convert.

This when scaled not only benefits teams but your entire organization.

For example, a software company might use an interactive product demo to allow potential customers to explore the features of their software in a simulated environment. This allows the customer to see firsthand how the software works and how it can benefit them, which can be much more effective than simply reading about the features on a website.

In conclusion, interactive product demos are not just for teams; they are a strategic tool that can benefit entire organizations. They provide a more engaging and effective way to showcase products or services, leading to better communication, improved customer experience, and increased conversions.

To wrap up...

In the ever-evolving business landscape, interactive demos are the magic wand that transforms the traditional sales process into an engaging journey, spreading smiles all along the way.

Therefore, organizations should reconsider how they view and utilize interactive demos. They are not just a sales tool, but a strategic resource that can significantly impact product development, customer satisfaction, and organizational efficiency. By leveraging interactive demos, organizations can enhance their product offerings, improve customer experience, and ultimately drive growth and success.

So, it's time to embrace interactive demos and watch your business reach new heights!

Finally…

We invite you to explore the implementation of interactive demos in your organization’s processes. Experience firsthand the dynamic, engaging, and hands-on way they can showcase your products or services. See how they can lead to better understanding, improved engagement, and ultimately, higher conversion rates.

Don’t hesitate to reach out for more information or consult with experts to discover the full range of benefits interactive demos can offer. Remember, they are not just a sales tool, but a strategic resource that can significantly impact product development, customer satisfaction, and organizational efficiency.

Start your journey with interactive demos today and unlock the potential they hold for your organization. The future of product showcasing is here, and it’s interactive!

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