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Welcome to the new readers of Rocket GTM đ
Iâm Alfie, Head of US Go-To-Market at Spendesk and B2B SaaS Advisor.
I help technical founders go from MVP to $10M ARR. I talk about go-to-market strategies through this newsletter, my podcast, and 1:1 consulting with founders.
Today weâre talking about demos.
Founder-Led Sales
Youâve done the hard part of building a kick ass product and getting people to your website. Theyâve booked a demo. Hereâs how not to f*** it up.
Demoâs are not onboarding calls
Itâs easy to think that a demo should be a full demonstration of your product. But theyâre not.
What purpose do demo calls serve?
Demos act as proof that your product can do what you say it can. The inâs and outâs of how every feature, button, or tab work should be reserved for your onboarding call. Customers donât need to see exactly how you add users, they just need to know that you can.
When you change the question from âhow can I best demo my product?â to âhow can I best prove my product does what I say it can?â it opens up a world of options.
The customer doesnât need to know how everything is done, but they need to leave the call confident that it can be done.
Salesforce were famous for only demoâing a few presentation slides in the early days. You donât physically need to go into all the tabs and click on every button. You are not presenting a laundry list of all features your product has.
Iâm not saying to ditch your demo for a presentation deck, but you need to turn your demo into an interactive story. That story must be about business outcomes, not features.
As much as you want to show off your baby, you have to trim the fat. You canât add simplicity, you can only remove complexity. That means focusing on what matters.
If your demos sound like this:
âSo you can do this, and this, and if we click here we can do that. Oh and I forgot to show you this and we can also do that too. Cool isnât it! What do you think?â, then keep calm and read onâŚ
Demo outcomes, not features
People donât buy what you can do, people buy what you can do for them.
They care about how your product influences business outcome.
The saying goes âcustomers donât buy a drill, they buy a whole in the wallâ. Or more specifically âcustomers donât buy a drill, they buy the ability to hang a painting on the wallâ.
They donât want to know all the functionality of your drill, they want to know if they can put their damn painting on the wall and if drilling a hole is the best way to do it.
If you donât know why they want to drill a hole in the wall, the only thing you can pitch is features. You have no âfuture stateâ to sell toward. Thatâs why the discovery call is the most important part of the sales process. Otherwise youâre just flying blind.
When you demo without discovery, you have zero control over the deal. Demo without discovery is the cardinal sin of sales. You must discover your customerâs desired business outcomes before you can demonstrate how your product can achieve them.
Discover their desired business outcomes before demonstrating value.
Think of it this way, if you demo a drill without knowing why they want to put a hole int he wall youâre just going to list of features without knowing whether theyâre useful or not. Youâre leaving your prospect to figure out how all these features are relevant to them. If you leave your customer to their own devices you drastically reduce the probability of winning the deal.
Dont: demonstrate features and leave your prospect to figure out if itâs useful
Do: demonstrate how you can achieve business outcomes, by putting features into real world context.
Example:
Donât say this: âOur drill has a versatile 30 piece set that includes a wide variety of bits and accessories for drilling. Itâs cordless so compact and lightweight.â
Say this instead: â Youâve just moved into a new apartment, and it sounds like you need to put up a few different items. Our drill has a 30 piece set that can help you drill holes for photos, paintings, and even heavy mirrors. What items do you need to hang next week?â⌠âSounds like youâre hanging about 10 different pieces. Our cordless drill will let you put them up in minutes without faffing about trying to find plug sockets, do you know how many items are close to a plug socket?â
The second option focuses on delivering an outcome. It contextualizes features in a desired future state. Donât force your customers to figure out âhow does a 30 piece set help me put up my painting?â.
Customize to Visualize
No one wants an out-of-the-box demo of your product features. They could find this online, or through a pre-recorded demo. In fact, if your demo could be replicated through a pre-recorded video then youâre doing it wrong.
As I said, youâre demoâing how your customers can achieve their desired outcomes, and not individual features. The sales person adds value by enabling the prospect to visualize what their life would look like if they used your product . And guess what? You canât do that unless you know what outcome theyâre trying to achieve.
Every part of the demo should be customized to help the prospect visualize.
Example:
Context: Spendesk cards can be distributed to individual employees, but budget owners approve requests.
Application: Weâll ask âwhich team is your biggest spender?â ⌠then weâll ask âwhoâs the manager for that team?â. Then weâll say âokay, so Jen will receive a notification on her phone with Simonâs request, sheâll be able to review the marketing teamâs budget and cross check that Simon is within budget before approving?ââŚ. âyouâll have a full audit trail of the request and approval so when the auditors come knocking you can show youâve been compliant.â
Youâre helping your prospect visualize the promised land with real world examples. Itâs a lot different from saying âyou click this button to make a request, then youâll approve it, oh and hereâs the screen to track the history".
To turn your demos into powerful tools of visualization first you must discover their desired business outcomes, then ask poignant questions like:
âWho would use this?â
âHow would this help you achieve X outcome?â
âYou said your team does X, how would you use this product to do Y?â
Engagement
One issue with just listing off a bunch of features is that youâre talking at your prospect, and not with them. The talk-to-listen ratio skyrockets. You gotta talk less and listen more.
30% talking to 70% listening is a good benchmark.
The goal of a demo is not just proving your value, but also continued discovery. You canât discover new information if you donât let your customer speak.
Discussing features into the context of your prospectâs business outcomes is a good way to encourage engagement, but you also need to check in with your prospect throughout the call.
âIs this landing well with you?â
âAm I barking up the wrong tree here?â
âHow would you roll this out to your team?â
âWhat am I not showing you that you want to see?â
âNow that youâve seen a demo, how would you describe this to someone whoâs never seen it before?â
Wrapping it up
First you must discover your prospectâs desired outcomes. What are the business outcomes youâre trying to impact. If you donât know what business outcomes are, your demo is already dead.
Then you must prove that your product can achieve those business outcomes. Donât mistake demonstrating outcomes with demonstrating feature lists.
Ensure your demo is customized to the prospect. Help them visualize how theyâd use the product. Think about buying a house. Houses sell quicker when you can imagine your furniture inside.
Make sure your prospect is engaged. If their screen is off, theyâre on mute, or taking other calls youâve got a problem. Engaging demoâs require work from the prospect. Engage them with questions. Challenge their ideas. You need their feedback as much as they need your demo.