Your SAAS Sales Demo Shouldn’t Suck
If your sales demo is well-crafted and you connect with your audience, the solution doesn’t even need to do everything. People will buy based on trust and your industry insight.
The B2B SaaS scene is exploding, and it has been for the past decade. The stakes are high and it has been quite the rollercoaster ride. Startups are popping up every day, it seems, and solutions to various business problems are seemingly endless.
That’s why your sales demo can’t suck.
It takes a lot of work to land a good prospect meeting, don’t blow it.
Make sure you tell your story in a compelling way that excites people and paints a picture of why they need your help to address their needs.
We’re selling to humans remember, not machines.
People love to hear stories. And want to relate to them. When pitching your product, tell a story to connect with people on a real level while you showcase how your product can help them win.
If your sales demo focuses on technical “how to’s” or highlights areas that aren’t what the prospect needs, or frankly are off the mark from what the industry is demanding, then you’re just wasting time.
To put things into perspective, here’s a little history on SaaS sales demos and how they’ve evolved over the last decade:
2005: Discovery meetings were vanilla. They focused on basic info since businesses didn’t have a strong social or online presence where you could find key info. And sales demos showcased every possible feature to illustrate the power of the solution compared to others. The more your system could do, the better you were perceived.
2010: Discovery became more conversational and covered specific business challenges while also sharing how the industry (the prospect’s “peers”) were doing things. Sales demos were still feature heavy but included more ROI-based points plus “ease of use” talk as software development was getting better and buyers expected that. A lot of times you talked about your newest feature and what was on the roadmap.
2015: Discovery took a huge leap. Prospects usually already had a solution, so reps had to uncover weaknesses. SaaS companies also got better with their why story (their differentiator) to inspire people to take action. Sales demos transitioned to visual and emotional appeal with the use of sales decks. It was easier to tell a story with PPT instead of within the software (you still opened the software, but kept it high-level.)
Present day (2018): Discovery is no longer about qualifying but rather understanding. Today’s buyers do their research, understand tech better, and want specific solutions to their needs. They have zero patience for using valuable time to provide basic information that can be found online or with a brief conversation prior to the actual sales demo. Their mentality coming into a sales demo has also changed from “I hope this software can help me” to “In the first 5 minutes, I’ll know if this software will help me.”
Sales demos today should…
Have a wow factor (name a big, relevant change in the world)
Be highly focused on the parts that drive real value, not features. Easy way to know what those parts are: Ask your clients what lights them up.
Have AE’s that are really passionate about the product and what the experience of using the product means for the prospect and their clients. “Passion overcomes most objections” - Sohn
Be proactive when it comes to common objections. If you know what people will be thinking, preemptively address those concerns in your demo. You should never say “Yeah, we hear that a lot.”
The formula for a killer sales demo
It starts with the research you do before the demo, what your demo process or flow is like, and leveraging your discovery notes to hit the prospect’s (very) specific hot buttons.
The best reps act like trusted advisors unlike average reps that focus more on hard selling tactics or month/quarter-end specials to get deals done.
If your rep is perceived as a trusted advisor, they can illustrate how to get from point A to point B with the least amount of resistance while also keeping ROI and value of the solution front and center. They won’t need to show everything the solution can do either.
Every sales demo should start by setting the stage
Say something like:
Today we’ll focus on…[reiterate exactly what was learned in discovery and try to use their words verbatim]. If you’d like to add anything else, we can do that too. Sound good?
This is why it’s best to be well prepared for demos regardless of deal size. Don’t assume you can just run through features and call it a day. People want to know the agenda and if asked, add their own input.
Everything you show in your demo should have a purpose and tie back to your initial discovery call. If something doesn’t tie back, then leave it out.
If you have a standard demo script, throw it out
If you’re hosting a webinar or doing a live presentation to a larger audience, a script is fine. But if it’s a 1:1 prospect meeting, it won’t work.
You will bore people, I promise. They want to know how you can help them specifically. Not hear some canned presentation (bye bye opportunity).
The other issue with having a standard script is that it gets boring for the sales rep, which means they won’t sound excited. Death.
Here’s a simple demo flow to use
PowerPoint* - Be excited and set the stage; get their agreement and any initial thoughts
PowerPoint - Wow factor (name a big, relevant change in the world)
PowerPoint - Supporting facts and information addressing their needs (which also supports industry trends)
Product - Get them orientated; give them a second to see the product
Product - Show top 3 areas and how they help. If they engage and want to see more than do it (if showing multiple products, stick to top 2 per product, if possible)
PowerPoint - Summarize the demo, ask if their needs were covered, and ask for questions
PowerPoint - Share pricing if simple and standardized
PowerPoint - Clarify next steps
*Using PowerPoint is a very powerful tool only if used correctly. A few things to remember:
Make it a visual story
Simplicity is what people remember, no long sentences or paragraphs
No pontificating on a slide, be concise
Teach your reps to speak to the slides/points, not read bullets
For B2B sales presentations, check out Stick who's changing the sales presentation game so you can wow more prospects, www.stick.ai
As you can see, sales demos and the buyers have evolved. The goal in today’s space is to simplify things while being very tailored and focusing on the value drivers versus features. Everyone wants to win and they know that in business today, it takes the right technology and partnership to execute well.
Whether you’re a startup, in growth-stage, or an established company your sales demo is one of the most (if not most) critical components to your success. So if you feel your sales demo needs work, I’d jump on that above everything else.