Demos That Sell

How to become the vendor of choice.

Happy Thursday to 9,628 SaaS sales professionals!

In today's newsletter we break down a simple but powerful framework for sales demos. This will help you to drive buyer decisions and beat the competition. Let's go👇

A Pivotal Moment

The demo is a pivotal moment in any sales cycle. Here's why:

Before the demo you are still able to mold the buyer's perception of your product or service. And with that, the value you can deliver.

After they have seen the demo, their perception is pretty much set. You can still make small corrections... but you can never go back and erase the image they have of you.

That's why the demo is such an important moment in the sales cycle - do not take it lightly!

Be Clear On The Next Decision

One common mistake I see across sales demos:

the salesperson is unclear about the next step. They are unclear about the next buyer decision. Demos drive decisions, but if you are unclear about the outcome it can backfire.

Here are some examples of buyer decisions throughout the sales cycle:

• To agree to a next step (or not)
• To introduce you to a stakeholder (or not)
• To buy or not to buy (a.k.a. staying with the status quo)
• To declare you vendor of choice (or not)
• To choose you vs. a competitor
• To kick off a pilot, POC or similar

How would you demo in each of these scenarios?

Food for thought :)

Creating A "Wow" Effect

Another common demo mistake is "saving best for last".

You are starting with the least powerful features, and ending with the most powerful ones. You build a nice "tension curve", like a Hollywood movie.

The problem: your buyer is falling asleep. You lost them.

You must create a "wow" effect in the first 5 minutes of your demo. You do this by showing your MOST powerful capabilities FIRST.

Here's how to do this:

1. You jump right into the capability that exactly solves the customer's problem. (This requires thorough discovery beforehand). This tells them: "Wow, this is exactly what we need. But how did we get here?" --> If the customer starts asking lots of questions, you've done a good job! They're invested.
2. For the rest of the demo, you unpack all the other features step by step. You started at the destination, now you show them how you got there.

What this does: every feature shown after the destination adds more value.

If you had done it in reverse, all the features in the beginning would seem of little value. The context would be missing.

Solve Exactly, And No More

The worst thing you can do in a demo is trying to show EVERYTHING.

Less is more in a demo. You only want to show the capabilities that will EXACTLY solve the customer's problem. Nothing more, nothing less.

Here's why showing more will backfire:

More features = more complexity. More complexity = more cost & effort

Showing too much will inflate your pricing model. If you show 100% of your capabilities, but the customer only needs 20%,? You will have a hard time justifying your price.

Keep your demo lean and to the point. Solve problems, no more.

Value Mapping

Value Mapping is simple but powerful technique to structure your demo flow.

It ensures you hit all the important points of solving the customer's problem. It also positions you as the vendor of choice next to your competitors.

Next week we will dive deeper into Value Mapping. Make sure to look out for my next email!

I hope you liked this newsletter! Please shoot me a message with some feedback.

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