Most demos are boring, mainly because the person giving them focuses on their product and its features and tries to impress the listener. But there is a simple truth—as humans, we are more often than not obsessed with ourselves. So, when a salesperson starts by telling us how mesmerizing their product or service is instead of trying to get to know us and our pain, some of us yawn, and others even get irritated. 

As a salesperson, you obviously don’t want to irritate or bore your leads. These eight tips can help improve your demos, build a warm relationship with your leads, and close more deals. 

Let’s go!

1. Open with a personalized set of discovery questions

Do your homework by collecting as much information about your lead as possible before starting your meeting with them. LinkedIn is a good place to start. 

Based on your research, pan out their main pain points. These will be your assumptions. You can then confirm or disprove them while you ask your discovery questions (disco) during the demo. 

Asking disco questions is tricky - many salespeople fall for the generic and boring questions and thus irritate the lead in front of them. Asking highly personalized, clearly contextual disco questions has two benefits: 

• Shows the lead you took the time to prepare 
• Helps you dive deeper into your lead’s day-to-day and their pains

How you formulate your questions matters. Here is a list of examples that can guide you through formulating great disco questions: 

‍Don’t: “Please introduce yourself.”

‍Do: “I’ve noticed through LinkedIn that you are [role] and a promoter of a healthy lifestyle. What else would you like to share about yourself and your role generally?” 

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‍Don’t: “How many people work in your company/department?”

‍Do: “I saw on LinkedIn that you have around 100 employees in the company. Is that number correct? How many people work in your department?
Follow-up question: “How are your departments structured?”
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‍Don’t: “What challenges are you facing?”

‍Do: “With other companies like yours, we’ve seen challenges X, Y, and Z. Do you relate? Which challenge resonates the most with you? Is there anything else that is more pressing or problematic? 
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‍Don’t: “How does X process work?”

‍Do: “Looking at process X, what is it that you are not satisfied with?”
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‍Don’t: “Who manages the budget for this?”

‍Do: “Normally, [role] or [role] gives final approval for these kind of things. Whose approval do you need to get this signed? What’s the process of getting their signature? 

2. Summarize what you’ve just heard them say 

Whether you go straight into the demo on your first call or do a separate meeting, summarize what you learned from them through the discovery questions. This will allow you to recap their most critical challenges and give them a hint about what’s next. 

Try to tailor your demo based on what you’ve learned so far versus throwing a generic demo at them. 

After summarizing, ask, “Did I miss anything vital, or did anything change since the last time we talked (assuming the discovery call was separate from your demo)?” 

Asking this question is a way to learn more about their specific needs and tailor your pitch further. 

3. Pick your battles by showing the most relevant features first

Your product could have all the amazing features associated with solving several pains. However, starting with the most relevant features is highly advisable. 

After you summarize your lead’s challenges, say something along the lines of, “Okay, let’s now look into each of the challenges you mentioned and explore solutions for them. Here is the solution to the first one…” 

Another route you could take is asking a specific question about one of their pains, “How are you handling that issue right now?” Once you get their answer, you can start showing your solution and presenting all its benefits.

4. Help them visualize the outcome before you show them around

Before sharing your screen and clicking around, establish the value of the feature by getting your customer to visualize it. 

An example can be, “Imagine getting up to 80% open rate on your emails with automatic, highly personalized AI-powered email generation. That’s exactly what I’m going to show you…” 

An important next step is to orient them to the screen share. Ensure they follow you while you present and understand what you are showing when. 

5. Ask a follow-up question to see how they evaluate the feature

Sometimes, especially with highly technical products, it’s hard to grasp from first impression what the feature’s full list of benefits is. That’s why, after showing them the feature, instead of asking a generic “Does this make sense to you?” question, ask them something like, “From what you’ve seen so far, how do you see yourself leveraging this feature to solve problem X?” 

6. Tell a success story from another client whenever applicable

Case studies and customer success stories are never enough. You don’t have to go in and present the whole story from A to Z; however, if you feel that your lead doesn’t seem impressed or is not fully grasping the benefits, telling a brief success story from another client can help a ton. 

7. Meet objections with grace

With all the hard work you put into explaining how your product will be the perfect solution to their challenges, it’s sometimes hard to get rejected or simply hear objections. Don’t assume everyone will like the feature/product you are presenting. 

When you hear an objection, don’t rush to explain yourself. Instead, ask them how they solve the problem today and why they think your solution wouldn’t be helpful. 

Ask them to elaborate on how your solution compares to how they’re solving the issue now. 

8. Find out who is in charge and suggest next steps 

Sum up your demo with a light statement: “From what we’ve discussed so far, I think we have a few interesting use cases that are worth exploring further.” Pause to see their reaction to this statement. 

Next, ask them what the next steps would be to implement a solution to those challenges. Your lead might request time to think about it or discuss it with their team or manager. That’s totally fine. 

However, make sure to lay out the following steps and suggest options. Depending on your initial judgment about this first demo, suggest another demo with the team, a disco chat with their manager, or something else. Your lead needs to acknowledge that you expect to establish the next steps. 

‍Wrapping up

‍Nailing the perfect demo is less about dazzling with your product's bells and whistles and more about making a genuine connection. The eight tips we've shared are your roadmap to turning every demo into a meaningful conversation rather than a one-sided pitch. 

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If you’re wondering how to easily capture leads for your demos, give Luna.ai a spin. It’s an all-in-one AI-powered platform for sales automation. Luna.ai will prospect based on your requirements by looking for perfect leads in its 300M database of professionals and will automatically do email outreach that guarantees demo bookings. This way, you’ll have time and headspace to focus on preparing for your demos and nailing them!