Consumers are the bread and butter of any business. If a company wants to improve sales, it needs to connect with consumers and demonstrate the effectiveness of its products or services through a practical salesforce demo.
Demonstrations help clients understand the value of a product or service to their life or problem. A good sales demonstration defines a product or service in client-friendly terms, highlighting its advantages. Discover what it takes to create a compelling sales demonstration and improve your business's bottom line.
What Is a Sales Demo?
A sales demo is one of the early stages of the sales lifecycle. The demonstration comes after narrowing down a list of prospective clients.
The purpose of the demo is to allow potential customers to see the product or service in real-time. Sales team members walk clients through the item's features, helping them understand that the tool or service benefits their work or life.
Sales teams can use various demonstrations to encourage a sale, from video to high-level technical demonstrations. The important thing is to cater the demo to a specific audience. If your audience comprises non-tech-savvy individuals, you don't want to fill your demonstration with technical jargon and complex system inputs.
Sales Vs. Product Demo
A sales demonstration is different from a product demo. While each event helps create familiarity with the features of a product or service, one occurs pre-sale and the other post-sale.
The sales demonstration is to entice interest and an eventual sale. Salespeople focus more on customers' pain points, demonstrating how their offering can resolve any issues.
A product demonstration teaches customers how to use and benefit from a product or service purchase. Salespeople no longer need to worry about encouraging a sale; they only need to worry about keeping the client happy so they don't lose a sale or valued customer.
Need To Know Sales Demo Basics
Every sales demonstration comprises basic processes and components. A salesperson is the typical professional who delivers the demo to the client. The demo aims to close a deal by showing clients how a product or service can resolve their problems.
Usually, the demo is not a spontaneous event. It often occurs after a client becomes a prospect. Clients become prospects when they complete a micro conversion on a business's website, call a salesperson directly, or request a consultation.
Once a client is a prospect and a demo is worth the time investment, a salesperson needs to determine the appropriate sales demo environment for the demonstration. Some options available to the salesperson include:
Phone call
Automated or pre-recorded video
Email
Live video chat
In-person
Steps to a Great Sales Demo
A demonstration for a client is not something to do on a whim. Demos require preparation and practice.
Salespeople can have a generic, prepared demo as a foundation or starting point, but every demonstration should be catered to a specific prospect. Research the client's needs and pain points, tailoring information to encourage action.
Also, prepare before the meeting. Perform the demo in front of colleagues or family and friends. Performing a demonstration before the demo can help salespeople rework sections that don't work or feel clumsy.
It's essential that prospects feel heard during a demonstration. Salespeople should make it a point to summarize previous conversations with the prospect. They should also show how a product or service addresses any stated issues from those past conversations.
Sales representatives should also provide any necessary background company information. For example, the sales team should embrace those details if a business shares a unique history or interest with the prospect.
Finally, when the demonstration ends, a salesperson should ask if the prospect has any questions. If they do, the sales team member should thoroughly answer the prospect's question. If the client has no further questions, the sales professional should inform the client of the next steps.
Sales Demo Best Practices
The best practices for demo sales include personalization, adaptation, and communication. If salespeople want to entice a prospective client to buy a product or service, they need to demonstrate how the product or service resolves a problem for the client.
Also, salespeople must be adaptable. Clients are not robots and will have questions or ideas that a sales team may not have thought of or rehearsed. To practice adaptability, the sales team should rehearse various scenarios to prepare as much as possible.
Finally, sales teams must focus on communication during demos but primarily on listening. If a demo hopes to convert a prospect to a sale, it must answer all customer reservations. The only way to do that is for sales teams to ignore prepared scripts and listen.
Sales demonstrations play a critical role in converting prospective clients to loyal customers. A demo is an intricate sales dance that involves many moving parts. Consult a local business consultant if you want to help to develop your sales team or to convert clients.