How NOT to Conduct a Product Demonstration
Mar 11
Conducting product demonstrations (in-person or virtually) is a common sales strategy. However, not everyone does it right. A colleague shared this real-life example of how NOT to conduct a product demonstration.
An inside sales rep (my colleague’s wife) was teamed up with an account executive to conduct an online demonstration for a new prospect. The account executive took the lead and the inside rep was responsible for demonstrating the actual product.
Forty-five minutes after the online demo began my colleague’s wife was still waiting for her opportunity to explain the product because the account executive had not stopped talking about their company.
To make matters worse, the demo was scheduled for 4:00 PM on a Friday afternoon. At five o’clock, the prospect interrupted the sales person and said, “I have a six o’clock appointment and have to go. Send me information.”
The demo was done.
Attempts to schedule a second appointment to actually demonstrate the product failed and eventually the account executive stopped trying to connect with the prospect.
But here’s the kicker…
My colleague’s wife said that the salesperson was completely oblivious to the fact that he was the cause of the problem. He blamed the prospect, called him a time-waster, and complained about being cut off and unable to deliver the full demonstration.
He had absolutely no idea that he was at fault.
Don’t let this happen to you.
Delivering an effective sales demonstration does not mean you talk incessantly about your product or your company. Your prospects are too busy to have their time wasted with this approach.
Skip the background about your company, your clients, how long you have been in business and anything else that is seller-centric.
Instead, focus on showing exactly how your product, service or solution will help your prospect solve a business problem. Keep it brief and to the point and you will close more deals.
Hopefully a bit exaggerated to make your point Kelley.
What I find difficult is getting the prospect to share ahead of the demo what their main pain points are in the process we help improve, so that we can focus the demo around that. Otherwise, the demo is like shooting a shotgun into the woods blindly in hopes of hitting something. You hope you hear an “ouch”, but it isn’t always loud especially if the demo is done remotely and you can’t see faces.
Bob, believe it or not, this example was NOT exaggerated…I wish it was.
You’re right about the challenges in getting people to share their pain points before a demo. I suggest that you invest time uncovering this information BEFORE the demo; otherwise, the demo may not even be needed.
Great point Kelley; I was thinking the same thing. In my opinion, a product demo is no place to uncover prospect pain. The demo should be structured around how it resolves that pain.
Exactly!