Software companies rely heavily on live product demos and sales presentations to close deals. A chance to show the benefits of the product to a potential buyer is important and often rare.

Product demonstrations are essential in the software sales process and a no-brainer for improving the deal closing rates. While ineffective demonstrations can harm sales, the ones done right will prove quite successful.

But live product demos have moved on, and it’s now possible to bring physical products to life in a more interactive, immersive way powered by video, text and live chat.

What are Online Product Demos?

A product demo demonstrates the significance of your goods or service to an existing or potential client, including key benefits and features. 

Online meeting tools are often used to provide demonstrations, as they include important features such as screen sharing, audio and video conferencing, live chat, and more. Many firms are still utilising general-purpose online conference technologies such as GoToMeeting, Zoom, or Hangouts to conduct these demonstrations but, as it stands, new online customer experience solutions are springing up that cater to a particular use case, offering on-demand sales help, automatic scheduling, and CRM reporting.

Why Use Online Product Demos?

Intimately knowing the product

A see-and-feel effect is used to pique the audience’s attention during a product presentation. It is especially true in the case of products that have a distinct style, such as online services that pay attention to their user interface design and want to showcase their ease of use. Most of the time, the prospect’s attention is more likely to be drawn to your goods if they can see, touch, and experience them, using them in their personal use cases. This is where online product demos shine.

A tangible product

Product demonstrations are a convenient way to demonstrate a product version that is close or identical to the final product. The product, sample, video, brochures, and other items used in a demo solidify the idea that it very much exists in a functional form. They provide physical proof that successfully supports what the salesperson from your company would claim and market. A common assumption is that all salespeople exaggerate the product’s benefits and never report anything negative. However, experiencing the product yourself provides a final stamp of approval by demonstrating to consumers what the product can achieve.

Demos serve as a problem-solving test

Since clients can personally operate the fine-tuned and curated demo that you prepared for them, they can try fixing the problems they run into on a daily basis through the help of your online services. With higher ticket items, many variables come into play that you can only experience as you employ a demo. Some products require extensive testing, and demos fill that niche perfectly. As the clients effortlessly navigate through their problem being solved in real-time, they are a lot more likely to convert to paying customers of your product.

Reasons Why You Would Want to Avoid Them

Window Shoppers

In many cases, clients will take a test and demo of a product, but they will not buy it. The firm has little to gain by spending time on non-potential customers. This can effectively be avoided by targeting your most important leads through Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. CRM applications will help you funnel out the target customers who are most likely to convert and give them the final nudge in the right direction that they would need to become paying customers.

More Resources

As effective as they may be, Online Product Demos can become rather costly, both in terms of time and company resources. As they have to be for each customer and require a lot of research, fine-tuning, and presentation, smaller companies sometimes steer clear from this method.

How do you prepare an Online Product Demo?

Do your Due Diligence: Research

Research your prospect thoroughly before engaging in an online or in-person demo of your company’s products or services with them. Before preparing a demo, who will be watching your product demo, their position, and their day-to-day issues are all important questions to ask yourself. 

The Customer Comes First

As is commonly said, although a long set of features listed on your webpage is useful, it often won’t help you sell your product or service. If you want someone to buy your product, you need to explain how it will benefit them. Design the content and highlight the benefits of your products in the demo according to the customer’s needs. 

Don’t Be Shy To Ask

Product demonstrations that focus on the customer’s specific requirements are more effective. However, you must first ask prospective customers what they want from your product offerings to have a thorough understanding of their requirements. As a result, we recommend beginning each product demonstration with a brief Q&A session.  Clarify whether your deductions on the problem the client faces are true, and inquire about any specific capabilities they may be looking for.

How Storey can help

Storey can bring your products to life with interactive demonstrations.

Instant or scheduled live video product demos can educate your customers and build confidence in your product features and benefits.

The Storey Virtual Retail Solution can move demos on from canned video content and library images, enabling you to host demonstrations that directly address customer questions and increase your website conversion.