Sales Demo is the one chance your sales reps get to showcase your product and make the client see value in acquiring the product. For every sales rep, the sales demo is the moment of truth. However, as important as it is, many things can go wrong in a sales demo, and it more often ends up in a make-or-break situation.

In any sales demo, a prospective customer is a keen listener. So, your sales reps not only have to be aware of these pitfalls, they have to master a few tips and tricks to keep the attention of a prospective customer. They need to employ every trick in the trade to ensure the customer does not feel lost. Any shortfall in a sales demo can be easily exposed. In the sections that follow, we cover some of the most important sales demonstration tips and tricks for your sales reps, so they can demo to win.

Sales Demo To Win

Here is a compilation of the ten most used sales demonstration tips and tricks and sales demo best practices to close a sale. With these tips, you can learn how to prepare a demo to win and how to land that sale effectively!

1. Research and Personalise

It is a well-known fact that customers like personalisation. Any customer would want a product or solution that works directly on their pain points and needs a little customisation. It is akin to product development, where a good chunk of your time goes into product design. Like a good and efficient design, well-done research on the prospective client goes a long way in ensuring a sale.

It isn’t a bad idea to know the perspectives of the decision-makers as well. If you know exactly what they feel about the pain points in the business, you will know how to place your product in the demo. Research should also include a thorough study of the domain, the pain points and the competing products and solutions in the market.

Knowing what a competitor is offering or not as part of their solution is crucial when dealing with the customer. Remember that your customer will go through multiple products and solutions before the final decision. Giving the impression that you are aware of all the products and services in the market makes a great impression on any prospective customer.

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2. Sales Demo Plan

Keep a demo plan ready. Sales demos usually do not go exactly as planned. A plan B or plan C will be ideal to have.  Rehearsing or dry running a sales demo plan would be a good idea. A rehearsal helps you keep firm control of the presentation deck and related tools like screen sharing. It also helps in using tie-down questions at the right time.

3. Sales Demo Agenda

A well-planned sales demo should also include a clear agenda. Letting the customer know what to expect from the sales demo and how you would go about it before starting the sales demo helps build trust. 

4. Avoid a Cold Sales Demo

While a few clients like to keep sales demos to the point and short, many of them would like a human touch to the sales demo. Avoid making it sound like a dry sales pitch. Some good rapport building should be used to get the customer warmed up to the sales demo.

This is where the research aspect comes in. You will know how to get the customer warmed up well enough for a sales demo if you have done enough research. Checking on how their day has been and how ready they are for a comprehensive demo will help you gauge their mood and make adjustments accordingly.

5. Recall and Summarise Past Conversations

Prospective customers would be impressed if you record and review important conversations from past interactions and summarise them before starting the sales demo. This, to some extent, sets the right expectations and keeps the customer on the sales path.

6. Focus on customer challenges than product features

A good way to get an implicit buy-in from the customer is to emphasise how your product is a good fit for the business problems that the customer is looking to resolve. Focusing on the business challenges that your product can resolve than just harping about your product features will be the best way to get about in any sales demo.

7. Make the sales demo and slides interactive

An interactive sales demo that is attentive to opinions and queries from the prospective customer while keeping the response simple and short goes a long way in winning the confidence of decision-makers.

8. A successful Case Study

If you have a major client in your bag already, with due permission, make full use of it. Build a case study around this client and use it during your presentation to prospective clients. Knowing that a major player in the market is using your product, the prospect client gains confidence in your product or solution. Showcasing your understanding of the business challenges and how your product helped overcome those challenges will go a long way to seal the deal.

9. Prepare for Objections

If you are well prepared to counter objections and counter questions from the client, you will come across as well prepared and diligent. Clients are more like to relate you to the product or solution on offer. The more well prepared and diligent you appear, the better.  

10. Include a CTA

Call to action or CTA is one of the most crucial parts of any sales demonstration. It defines the next step the customer needs to take to engage your product or solution. Without a well defined and appropriately placed CTA, a prospective customer will most likely not initiate a deal from their end. 

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Conclusion

A quick question after a sales demonstration on how the client would like to take it forward would be a good idea. If it ends up with a call to a follow-up meeting, then ensure that you decide on a date and time not later than a couple of days. It goes without saying that being available on the phone to every prospective customer is critical to closing a sale. Provide them with other forms of reaching out to you or your team.

In other words, make it easy for them to contact you and finalise the sale. In addition to these sales demo best practices, using a multi-channel engagement tool like NeoDove enables hassle-free communication with your customers using their preferred channel.

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