Discover how a product demo tool can redefine your sales strategy. As the dynamics of software buying evolve, the role of interactive demos becomes pivotal in shaping successful deals. Dive into our comprehensive guide on how to choose the best product demo tool, ensuring personalized experiences, advanced analytics, seamless integrations, and robust security. Stay ahead in the game with insights that could shape a $2.1 Billion market by 2026. Elevate your sales game now.

What is a product demo tool?

A product demo tool is a crucial tool that can make or break software sales deals. Think of it like the canvas on which a sales pitch is painted. As buyers' behavior changes in big ways, these demos have become even more important in every stage of the buying process. So, if you're a Sales Leader, it's essential to know how to choose the right product demo tool that can support your entire sales journey. Luckily, we've put together a list of the most important things to consider, making your evaluation process a breeze.

The world of demo automation has been growing really fast lately. The rise of product-led growth and the shift to remote work have shown that the old-fashioned way of selling things in businesses isn't always the best. This has sped up how much people are using interactive product demo tools.

As the demand for product demos grows at every step of buying things, experts at Argon Research predict that the demo automation category could reach a whopping $2.1 Billion market by 2026. The recent surge in product demo tools hitting the market is just the start of something much bigger. This means you have tons of options to pick from, like a whole ocean of choices waiting for you.

10 Steps to Consider When Choosing the Best Product Demo Tool

Choosing a demo automation software is not a one-size-fits-all process. Each business and team is different and has different needs. However, asking the questions below is a bulletproof way to find the right tool for you. 

Step 1: Finding the use-case fit: 

There are various product demo tools available but not all can deliver what you need. Before choosing a software demo, familiarise yourself with possible use cases and be clear on how your organization wants to use the tool.  Whether it is for sales, marketing, customer success, or trying to cover the entire sales cycle, look at how well a tool understands and addresses the pain points of this particular use case. Here’s an example of the sales use case:

Read: Top 10 Product Demo Software Tools of 2023

Step 2: The level of customization: 

Customization is indeed an art and it can play an important role when selecting a product demo software

. A good tool should offer customization options that allow you to easily tailor demos to your prospect’s specific situation.For example, while evaluating the level of customization you can check: 

• What elements can be edited - Images, graphs, text, logos? 
• Can the elements be added and removed from the screen? 
• Can you change the language of the product or the narrative easily? 

If the level of personalization is important, you could probably go for an interactive product demo solution rather than a video demo.

Read: Guide to creating personalised product demos

 Step 3: Features specific to your use case: 

Once you identify the implementation of an interactive demo platform for your specific use case, it's time to evaluate how different providers support it. This is a very crucial step for evaluation as at face value, the majority of the tools will look similar and offer features that are on parity. However, the devil is in the details! You need to be very specific in understanding what features will help you move the needle for your use case.  Let's take sales as a use case, you might want to ask these questions: 

• Does the tool have specific functionalities to support lead qualification and discovery? 
• Does it allow internal and external team collaboration? 
• Does it support live demo use cases? If yes - how?
• Do they have sales assist features like speaker notes or live demo analytics? 
• What are the specific features that drive engagement in unassisted use cases? 

All very important questions to ask and this will enable you to evaluate whether this tool will fit your use case or not. 

Step 4: Ease of set up & demo creation:

Across the existing tools, there seems to be a divide in the philosophy of creating interactive demo solutions. Some tools focus on editing capabilities requiring a steep learning curve from the users. Others optimize for faster GTM motions with easy-to-use editing capabilities, keeping the focus on enhanced end-user demo experiences. 

If you want the tool to be used thoroughly day in and out across all your team members including non-technical ones then you should probably choose an easy-to-use solution (like Demoboost). Here you get an easy-to-use demo editor that resembles your PowerPoint drag-and-drop editor. You can insert/edit text, images, pdf, and audio for an improved demo experience. Furthermore to keep your buyers engaged Demooboost offers team collaboration, lead qualification with the choose your journey option, and video narrative for explaining complex things at ease. 

Success often lies in the speed of execution and strategy. It’s important for your teams to get going with tools that offer a minimal learning curve. The interactive demo software you choose should have a minimal setup time so it becomes a unified option for all teams.

Step 5: Understand the technology: 

With the advent of demo automation industries, you will find a lot of tools available that are powered by different technologies. Here your use case fits and goals play an important role in helping you understand whether this is the right technology for you.Some key things to evaluate before you choose the platform:

• Is it just a video or an interactive demo (HTML-based clone of your product)? 
• If it is an interactive demo - can you only build journeys from HTML screens or can integrate multimedia - for better engagement and storytelling? 
• Does it support only text, or also video narrative for stronger relationship building in the un-assisted use cases? 

The most innovative tools allow you to build multi-channel journeys. You could start with a personalized video demo, followed by a static image overview of a process, and then jump into the interactive HTML screens of your product- all that is accompanied by a video & text narrative. This way the engagement for demos is better (avg. Demoboost demo NPS is 89!)

Don't underestimate those little additions. The extra touches go a long way! 

Step 6: Advanced demo analytics: 

If you can’t measure, you can’t improve it! This makes perfect sense while you evaluate the product demo software for your needs. Your prospects accessing the demo should give you three important wins

• Ability to qualify your prospects and understand their needs/ interests
• Ability to analyze their actions, and get deeper behavioral insights.
• Ability to define the winning flows and messaging  

A good demo platform will provide insights into user behavior, help you understand frictions and usage, and inform you of the demos that are generating revenue. 

Here are the important questions to understand analytics capabilities:  

• Do you provide lead analytics? 
• What are the exact KPIs you are measuring? 
• Do you track step-by-step journeys? 
• Do you aggregate all the demo sessions to evaluate demo performance?  
• Do you provide decision-makers maps?

There might be an abundance of data available in the automated demo universe. Make sure that the provider you are choosing gives you the relevant info that helps you sell better.

Step 7: Integration with other tools: 

A product demo software that integrates with your existing tech stack allows for a seamless workflow. Integration with other tools you use enables you to effortlessly incorporate the demo tool into your existing processes. Thus avoiding the need to switch between tools.

Check if your product demo software has a good integration match with your tech stack. This will enable your teams to have consolidated data and seamless workflow. 

Step 8: Enterprise-grade security: 

This refers to a set of security standards and practices that ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of sensitive data and systems. For example, Demoboost is the only 100% GDPR compliant and also ISO certified. Furthermore, it supports single sign-on (SSO) and Role-based access control (RBAC) along with other security features. These are a set of security standards provided by an enterprise environment.When choosing a tool you want to tick that box off before you even get deeper into the conversations, so you can focus on selling and leave the security to the provider.

An enterprise-grade tool reduces the risk of security incidents, protects sensitive data, and ensures the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of your system.

Step 9: Priceless customer support: 

It is an essential component to evaluating your product demo software purchase because it can impact the value you are getting from the tool.  Good customer support 

In order to reap full benefits from your demo platform, you will need a demo library of read-to-use demo templates. A lot of demos tailored to the use case, persona, use case, etc. have to be mapped out and built, and for many organizations that is a daunting task. Enquire whether you are getting assistance in the demo creation process.

Demoboost provides greater value here with its free and unlimited customer support. The customer-success teams promise instant time to value by creating demos even before you sign the contract and provide playbooks at no cost.

Step 10: Flexible pricing: 

Flexible pricing can be an important consideration when selecting a product demo software because it can impact the overall cost and the ability to tailor the pricing to meet your specific needs.

Enquire about the pricing model based on your use case. You can check by asking: 

• Do you charge per seat or do you charge for demo views?
• Do you charge for support teams? 

It’s good if the platform you choose has a flexible model to support you. 

Read: How to Give Product Demos that Sell? [Steps & Tips]

The decision is yours! 

A good demo can win deals for you! It’s all about how you show the product to prospects and how you influence the purchase decision. Choosing the right interactive product demo tool can set a smooth sail to success.

By considering the factors outlined above, you can find a tool that is easy to use, customizable, provides detailed analytics and reporting, integrates with your existing tools, and offers comprehensive support and training resources.

With the right tool in hand, you can create engaging and effective product demos that will help you close more deals and grow your business. If you are still in doubt, give Demoboost a spin and find out how it can help you create a story to win deals