Imagine your prospects are in the market for evaluating and purchasing software to run their team. They do a quick google search, read some reviews and narrow down the list of vendors that seem to solve the problem they’re facing. You made the cut!
They visit your website and get hit with the dreaded button. You know what I’m talking about. The dreaded “Book a demo” button. All that excitement you worked hard to build up, right out the window.
Many prospects don't want to go through the long-winded process of booking a demo call, waiting to hear back from your sales team to schedule a time, and then finally - having to sit through a one-hour product demo all while waiting to find out that the solution doesn’t actually solve their core pain or problem.
Those same prospects want to get straight down to business - to actually use your product at a high level and experience it for themselves before any sales interaction.
Wouldn’t it be great if your sales team actually was able to drive more qualified leads to an initial live demo call, all while having more educated prospects already slightly familiar with the product itself?
Interactive product demos give your prospects the ability to actually use your product for themselves, walking them through step-by-step showing how you solve their core problem and pains.
Let’s dive into why you should be leveraging interactive demos in your funnel and pre-sales process.
An interactive product demo showcases a software product on your website in a live, clickable format so that prospects can interact with your product both on their own time, and in a self-guided way.
No waiting for a live demo from a sales rep.
Potential prospects can explore on their own and get familiar with your solution within minutes.
Here’s an example of exactly what an interactive product demo looks like:
Interactive product demos are meant to usually showcase the value and core pain or problems that your solution solves, and turn those into a self-guided opportunity for prospects to see quickly, interact and better understand exactly what your software does.
An interactive product demo is an excellent way for customers to quickly understand a SaaS product’s core offering in real-time, and in a self-service manner.
Remember how you've heard about changes happening within the B2B sales cycle?
Well - change has already happened - and even more, is on its way.
Here’s a perfect example of one of the changes in the way that B2B buyers buy, and how sales teams need to adapt:
Interactive product demos are completely revolutionizing the SaaS sales process, and giving prospects exactly what they want: to touch, feel and use the actual product first before having a sales conversation.
There are also a few other core benefits to leveraging these demos within your sales process:
Interactive product demos can be an effective way to drive demand for a product because they allow potential customers to see the product in action and get a better sense of how it works and how it might fit into their lives.
This can be especially useful for products that are complex or have a lot of features, as a demo can help potential customers understand the full capabilities of the product and how it might be used in different situations.
There are a few key ways that interactive product demos can help drive demand for a product:
Seeing a product in action can be much more effective at convincing someone to buy it than simply reading about it or looking at pictures.
An interactive demo allows potential customers to try out the product and see how it works for themselves, which can be a powerful way to build interest and desire.
A well-designed demo can help potential customers understand the benefits of the product and how it can solve their problems or meet their needs.
This can be especially effective if the demo is tailored to the specific needs and interests of the potential customer.
A SaaS product demo that is informative, all while being built in a professional-looking manner can help build trust and credibility with potential customers.
This gives the sense that your product can actually deliver its value.
This is especially important if the product is new or innovative, as people may be hesitant to dive into something that they are unfamiliar with.
Interactive product demos can be a useful tool for reducing the time and cost of sales teams in a few different ways:
By allowing potential customers to try out a demo of the product before speaking with a sales representative, companies can pre-qualify leads and ensure that they are only spending time and resources on those who are genuinely interested in the product.
This can help reduce the overall workload of the sales team and increase their efficiency.
Interactive product demos can help educate potential customers about the product, its features, and how it can meet their needs.
This can help reduce the time that sales reps need to spend answering questions and explaining the product, as potential customers will already have a good understanding of it.
An interactive product demo can be a powerful sales tool, as it allows potential customers to see the product in action and understand how it can solve their problems or meet their needs.
This can help sales reps close deals more quickly and efficiently, as they can focus on highlighting the benefits of the product rather than spending time explaining how it works.
Overall, interactive product demos can be a valuable tool for reducing the time and cost of sales teams by helping to pre-qualify leads, educate potential customers, and serve as a sales tool.
Better qualifying prospects prior to a sales call means improving your actual close rate.
Prospects that are qualified coming through to your sales team now are educated on your product, likely know high-level what it does - and have a visual concept already in their mind.
For a streamlined sales experience, interactive product demos are the perfect way for your team to quickly customize engagement with prospects.
Instead of taking up precious time investing in live demos and reaching out to those who won't convert anyway, you can prioritize qualified leads looking for an optimal buying journey.
Letting automation do its work enables more focus on core responsibilities from within the sales process - thus ensuring better quality control and efficiency!
They’ll have time to actually formulate questions and concerns prior to a sales call, meaning less required potential sales touches to close prospects, as well as more qualified prospects on the phone with your sales team.
Sharing the power of your product to potential prospects goes beyond a simple description. Customized interactive demos can bring it all together, enabling you to demonstrate how exactly your features enhance their business and make them more successful.
When done right, this approach effectively educates prospects about what makes the solution unique while engagingly showing off its strengths.
Discover fast what your prospects actually love and use, or dislike.
Creating an interactive product demo, gaining access to amazing analytics data, then using it to drive insights that improve performance.
Uncover user interactions such as feature preferences or duration of time spent on the demo–which can be used for A/B testing different versions against one another for continually improving conversion rates.
You can also gain key insights into how you should tweak less-used or untouched parts of the demo in order to increase engagement and ensure you’re solving the core pains of your prospective customers with your solution.
This is crucial feedback for companies to gain from a pre-sales perspective no matter where you are in terms of your user base.
There are three core types of product demos:
1. Interactive product demo
Interactive demos allow potential buyers to try out a simplified version of your product without any technical setup.
These demos give users the opportunity to get a feel for the product before making a purchase and require no coding or engineering to set up.
Check an example out below powered by Lancey,
2. Video demo
Demo video software enables you to demonstrate the functionality of specific features to prospects without the need to set up a separate trial or demo environment.
You can efficiently create multiple videos for various features in one sitting and reuse them as needed.
This software makes it simple to create, share, and understand even the most complex products through video demonstrations. Loom and Vidyard are great for this purpose.
3. Live demo
Live demo software allows sales reps or sales engineers to demonstrate a product in real time over an online meeting.
During the demo, the presenter will share their screen and highlight various product features based on the prospect's specific needs or challenges they are trying to address.
You’ve more than likely sat through a live demo before using Zoom, Google Meets or another similar tool for screen sharing. Work great for larger deal with tons of stakeholders and technical usecases.
There are many use cases for implementing software demo tools such as Lancey, but here are a few of our favorites:
Embedding the demo directly on your website, and breaking it out by use cases for different features and benefits can be a huge value add to your landing pages.
Utilizing the demo directly on your website is a great way to showcase the demo and something that marketing teams can leverage to help build a funnel around.
Giving prospects a better idea, and letting them actually use parts of the product before a live demo with your team allows them to better educate themselves, and come better prepared for your actual live demo call.
Personalized demos can be highly effective in preparing customers to simply ask better questions and be more informed about your actual product’s solution.
Utilizing product demos in outbound cold emails allows you to showcase your product as you’re working to build trust with prospects, and to pique their interest in having a further conversion.
Driving paid traffic that has a specific problem to a page where you allow them to see how your product actually solves that pain is very, very powerful.
Using demos in email campaigns, such as nurturing a newsletter is a unique way to stay in front of your audience and continue to provide value, and nurture them before they’re ready to have an actual conversation.
There are a few key elements that are important for interactive product demons to be a good customer experience:
An interactive demo should be easy for potential customers to use and navigate, with clear instructions and a logical flow.
If it is difficult or confusing to use, it may turn potential customers off and reduce the effectiveness of the demo. User experience always comes first, exactly as it does for your actual product.
An effective demo should provide potential customers with a helpful walkthrough about the product and its features, and focus on the core pain it’s going to solve.
This includes using interactive elements, and a solid dive into the actual core features of the product itself to display its power and usefulness.
A demo should be tailored to the specific needs and interests of the potential customer in order to be effective.
This could include highlighting features that are most relevant to the potential customer or demonstrating how the product can solve specific problems or meet specific needs.
Interactive product demos can also be broken out into separate demos which highlight the specific desired features, outcomes, and core pain that each of your personas encounters - keeping it super targeted to their core problem and challenge while skipping everything else that might be irrelevant.
Here are a few of our favorite demos that really highlight the full potential of providing a fully interactive experience for your prospects:
Interactive product demos have completely changed the B2B buyer journey.
By providing prospects with an interactive product demo, they can quickly determine if your solution is right for them and if it can solve their core pain.
This saves everyone time by allowing the prospect to actually touch, feel and use the features of your product in a live environment instead of waiting through long demos that may not even solve their problem.
As a result, prospects come to live demos and sales calls better informed, and are closer to actually becoming happy, paying customers.
