Are your prospects reacting unenthusiastically after you’ve invested hours running product demos?

By following these tips in your next meeting,  you’ll organically influence prospects to become excited about you,  your company, and your product.

Before the Demo

1. Adopt proper mindset. Before the demo it’s crucial to have an outcome independent mindset. This is the toughest yet most important tip to follow. If you manage to enter the meeting with this mindset, it will be a lot easier to be relaxed and provide prospect with peace-of-mind, which is ultimately what every buyer really wants.

2. Dig deep. Research and be on the lookout for high-level indicators of where the company stands and where they are trying to position themselves in the near future. For example, notice if a company just received a sizable series c funding round and there are indicators of possible IPO or acquisition. Knowing these details helps understand what type of pressures the team you are selling to is likely to be dealing with.

3. Research Competitors. It’s smart to know if you already work with any of their competitors. You can mention this so that the lead feels their competition already has an advantage.

4. Research Demo Participants. Try to understand your prospect’s personal motivations and fears prior to presenting. For example, if they are new at the company, the success or failure of this product can heavily influence their credibility within the organization and have implications for career advancement down the line. Throughout the demo you will address this concern by mentioning whether your product is already used by established brands or competitors.

During the demo 

Follow a few steps throughout the meeting to ensure you’re putting yourself in the optimal position to make your lead interested in your product.

5. Mention a Time Constraint. You’ve already booked your allotted time with your lead, but it helps to build desirability if you mention having to run to another client directly after this demo.

6. Re-cap a Previous Conversation. Even If you already had a previous qualification call, re-iterating the main pain points will get them to focus on the initial reasons for reaching out and provide context for the product demonstration you are about to provide.

7. Preemptively Neutralize Known Concerns. If you’ve been selling a product long enough, you know there are certain concerns that most/all your prospects have on their mind, whether they verbalize them or not. If you already know these worries, neutralize them upfront before starting the demonstration. Example for a lead-contacts database: “so just to give you a little background on how we source our data, we have hundreds of sources ranging from API’s to strategic partnerships with the top data companies in the world and we are constantly updating the tool to keep the data fresh and accurate.”

8. Gently Disqualify Competition. When the opportunity arises, be sure to mention to the prospect why one of your competitors will not be a good for them. For example, if the prospect explains why a certain feature or area of coverage is absolutely on their must-have requirement list, and you know 100% one or more of your main competitors lacks this capability or is very weak in that area, you should say so. Caution: when doing this, be sure to mention what your competitor is good at. Obviously for this to work you should be selling a product with at least 2-3 major competitive differentiators.

9. Use Video Chat. This is highly recommended during remote demos. It allows you to better read the prospect, see when they are engaged, and adjust your presentation accordingly.

10. Maintain confident body language. Try to keep your body as still as possible and your hands relaxed/out of view. This helps display confidence and calmness which are both key ingredients to projecting yourself and your company as stable and reliable choices that will provide prospect with peace of mind.

11. Record the Demo. Record it as you present and send an edited version to the lead with a ‘next steps’ email- they’ll have something to look back at and share with coworkers, often helping shape their decision in a positive way.

12. Maintain a Neutral Tone. Being overly enthusiastic shows neediness and comes off as unauthentic. Let your tone represent your goal in an authentic manner. It’s okay to get excited when showcasing the product your company worked hard on, otherwise don’t take it over the top.

13. Use Present and Future Tense. Speak to your audience in present and future tense to help shape the mindset where they can imagine themselves using your product. For example: If you’re logging into a SAAS tool you can say “this is where you and your team will login on day one.” Keep a calm voice and demeanor and confidently showcase your product’s features according to your lead’s needs.

14. Make Suggestions. Put yourself in the place of the lead and make a few suggestions throughout the demonstration to help them to visualize actually implementing it. Example: while showing a B2B list-building/lead-gen tool: “We always recommend saving the list so you can share it if needed and save time if you need to use it again.”

15. Don’t Oversell It. If you under promise but over deliver, you’ll find that people not only believe you more, they believe more in the value of the product. Keep your pitch to 1-3 main values that your customers will get with you (and no one/nowhere else).

16. Get Comfortable with Awkward Silence. If you’re uncomfortable and feel like filling the space with chatter, DON’T. Let the silence speak for itself; it will only help your cause.

 Bring it Home

Maintain these steps towards the end of the presentation and you’ll be even closer to making the sale upon completion.

17. Let THEM Ask For Pricing. When you’ve finished the demo be quiet and allow them to ask for a pricing sheet. Remain quiet for a moment while you let them review it on the screen. They’ll respond with their own questions, which is far more effective than you telling them the price.

18. Ask if They Want a Proposal. If they asked a few serious buying questions, don’t hesitate, ask if they want a proposal and be ready to present or send one.

19. Explain the Process Moving Forward. Explaining what steps to take if they want to get started demonstrates you have a well-defined process used for many clients before them and puts the ball in their court. Example: “So the process for getting started with us is super easy: 1) I send over agreement 2) If all is good on your end, sign the agreement and setup payment using included link. 3) Once signed agreement is received and finance confirms payment your account manager will reach out to schedule onboarding session 4) after onboarding session you will receive logins and the account will be activated.”

20. Get Off the Call. Tell the prospect it was nice talking and you look forward to working with them, then finish the call.

21. Send ‘Next-Steps Email.’ Include the proposal, recording of the demo, and clear next steps to follow if they want to get started. Wait 2-3 hours before sending this email, as this will demonstrate that you are busy with other clients.

You’ll find that these tools once implemented will change the way you approach presentations and sales.