4 Tips For Giving An Interactive Product Demo That Closes Deals

Posted by Sophia Duplin

Enhance Your Product Marketing With Demos To Boost Sales

Today's technology industry consumer wants to be highly educated and thoroughly informed before making any meaningful purchase. 

 

This means your sales team needs to be able to show prospective customers how your products work to inspire them to buy. 

 

Product demos allow online customers to get up close and personal with the products they want to purchase. They help potential buyers see the functionality, pricing, and product features that set your items apart from your competition. 

 

Consequently, your customers are left wondering what value proposition your business can offer without a product demo. Unfortunately, this means the probability of salespeople acquiring a new client is slim to none. 

 

So how can you offer interactive product demos that drive sales? Let’s look at the most common mistakes salespeople make during product demos and four tips from marketing professionals that can help you close the deal and increase sales revenue. 

 

 

 

Four Ways To Enhance Your Interactive Product Demonstrations 

Delivering an informative and memorable product demo is more critical now than ever for your sales process. In addition, this session often serves as the last opportunity to show prospective clients that your product or service is worth their time and money.

 

It makes your product demonstration the ultimate 'make or break' moment in your customer/sales funnel. So nail your next interactive product demo delivery and secure that big lead with the following tips.  

 

1. Get In Touch With Your Buyer’s Journey To Understand Your Customers

You need to ensure that your product tour enhances your company’s user experience and offers a value proposition. Consider your customer experience and tailor it to your potential client as you plan your product demonstration.

 

Research your prospective client and understand where they are in the buyer's journey. Here are the steps you need to guide target customer’s through to convince them to make a purchase from your brand: 

  • Awareness: Potential customers realize they need a solution to an issue or problem. 

  • Consideration: Clients have defined their needs and are researching solutions. 

  • Decision: Buyers choose the product they will purchase 

 

When you map the buyer’s journey from their point of view, you can better assess when to offer a product demo and what type of information you should emphasize. This will make your product walkthrough more meaningful to your target audience’s needs. 

 

2. Personalize Your Interactive Product Demos 

Plan the interactive product tour around what your potential client needs. Make it as relevant and personal as possible. 

 

It’s essential to develop an understanding of your prospect’s environment, processes, goals, and challenges. Then, you can create a playbook of messaging sound bites, content to provide, and ultimately, potential presentations to deliver. 

 

A great one would open with: “Before I jump in, let me playback what I believe to be your current process. Based on what I heard, I believe we can improve X. Let me show you a couple of things that will help you understand how we can help.” 

 

This sort of language clarifies that you understand where they are coming from, their pain points, and how to solve the issues at hand – which is precisely what they want to hear! Not only will this show that your brand is dedicated to customer success, but it will make your product demo more meaningful to the potential client. 

 

 

 

3. Prepare Your Marketing Team With Proper Training

If you want your product demonstrations to be effective, you need to train your reps properly. This means going above and beyond using a script as a marketing strategy. 

 

Rely on proper training more than a script. The starting point is structured training. Here are some things you should include in your training modules to better prepare your sales reps:

  • Ensure Reps Know The Product Inside and Out. 

  • Provide A Model Product Demonstration. 

  • Run Role-Plays Based On Anticipated Opening Phrases. 

  • Observe Rep Demos And Give Constructive Feedback. 

 

Strong salespeople deliver great presentations because they know what they are trying to achieve. Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem like the case when demos are memorized from a script. 

 

Scripts are okay, but they aren’t as effective as a salesperson who knows precisely where they want the viewer to be afterward and what product experiences will be most meaningful to their prospective client. That takes proper training for your marketing team members. 

 

So let your sales reps get their hands on the product to test it for themselves. Much like a server tasting the menu at their restaurant, this will give them first-hand knowledge they can use to answer prospects’ questions during the demonstration. 

 

4. Make The Product Demonstration Meaningful 

After all of your marketing team’s lead generation efforts, you’ve finally found customers who are interested in your products. You need to get them to convert, so focus on what matters to them. 

 

Walking the viewer through the entire process can be painful for everyone. Rather than boring your audience with meticulous details, focus on the big points. 

 

Think about what your prospects really want to learn, how you can help their workflows, and cut to the chase. They’ll appreciate it, and it will be more concise, helpful, and enjoyable.

 

The demo is the part where everything comes together – or falls apart. That's why it's so important to get it right. Take the time to prep, understand your prospect, and tie your product back to their needs. 

 

This way, you'll have a realistic likelihood of closing the deal and having your audience walk away feeling like that was a great use of their hour. 

 

But sometimes things just do wrong: integrations don’t connect, or products fail during your product demonstration. Let’s look at some common product demo mistakes and what you can do to prevent them. 

 

 

What Are Some Common Mistakes During Product Demos?

Product demos have the same elements as any sales presentation. In addition, they offer an opportunity for product-led growth and allow you to showcase a new product for your target audience. 

 

However, instead of just pitching the product’s benefits, you are showing an audience how it works. This means there is room for things to go wrong, like technical glitches and product malfunctions. 

 

Take a look at some of the most common mistakes salespeople see during interactive product demonstrations and what you can do to avoid them. 

 

Common Mistakes

How To Avoid

Focusing Too Much On The Product And Not Enough On The Prospect

  • Acknowledge Customer Pain Points

  • Offer Solutions For Prospect 

  • Set Context By Referencing Prospect’s Role 

Setting Unrealistic Expectations 

  • Revisit Key Takeaways From Previous Interactions. 

  • Offer 2-3 Specific Examples Of How Your Product Offers Value 

  • Ask Customer What Areas Of Their Work You Can Help With

Talking For Too Long For Your Customer's Attention Span

  • Ask Questions Often

  • Pause To Allow Prospects To Absorb Information

  • Use Simple, Direct Language

  • Incorporate Augmented Reality

Not Communicating The Next Steps To Take With A Strong  Call To Action

  • Identify The Decision Maker And Plan To Follow Up Using Your CRM

  • Summarize The Product Demo And Highlight Key Points

  • End Demo With What The Prospect Can Do To Move Forward

 

If you have technology or product malfunctions during your product demo, simply be sure to talk about the functions you were unable to show during the demo. Again, be sure to focus on the prospect’s unique use case to ensure they see the value in your product. 

 

Next, record a perfect demo to share. Finally, incorporate any new information you discovered and clarify that you've solved the challenges faced during the live demos to your potential client. 

 

Not only will this show prospects that your company can think on their feet, but you now have demo videos to use for email campaigns, during onboarding, and to embed on product landing pages. 

 

Give The Perfect Interactive Product Demo To Boost Sales 

A product demo is so much more than just showing how your product works. It’s about offering a unique value proposition to prospective clients and convincing them that your brand has the solution they are looking for. 

 

Plan your product demonstrations using these four tips, and you’ll see more conversions and higher revenue. 

 

Interested in launching innovative product demos? BeaconLive can help! We offer customized, white-labeled virtual experiences focused on quality for any sized audience. 

 

Contact us today for more information on how our virtual platform can help enhance your interactive product demos to impress your customers and improve your sales. 


 

Topics: Marketing, Sales & Summits

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FAQs

What is an interactive demo?

The Interactive Demonstration is a training technique in which the instructor uses steps to actively participate with trainees. It can be used for new skills or practices, and it's easier for your audience because the presentation is catered to their specific needs.

Why do a product demonstration?

A product demonstration is a great way to let prospects know how your solution can solve their pain points and make them more successful in the job.

How long should a product demo be?

The average demo is way too long, clocking in at around 60 minutes. This may seem like a lot of time but it's not when you consider how few people actually watch demos these days. Try to keep your product demos to 30 minutes of less.