You can now walk into a Starbucks and order any one of 87,000 drink combinations and the barista won’t bat an eye (although I have seen a few eye rolls…) If customers expect that level of customization from a five dollar investment, imagine what they expect when investing thousands of dollars in a solution?
Yet surprisingly in this era of customized experiences, most product demos still vary little from customer to customer. This may have been acceptable in decades past. But as the sheer number of demos that customers are exposed to grows, the bar continues to rise. A canned demo is evident to all who see it — and about as memorable as what you had for lunch two weeks ago Tuesday.
Even though your solution may address a common set of challenges, when you tailor your demo you make your prospect feel like your solution was designed just for them.
Most sales and pre-sales people realize that customization is important, but tailoring a demo to each potential customer can seem overwhelming. Especially when your plate is already full to overflowing. But customization doesn’t have to be a long, arduous process. Simply by tailoring the following three areas you can make your customer feel like your demo was created just for them:
3 Simple Ways to Tailor your Demo
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Your Opening:
Too many demos open with a generic tour of the dashboard or home page, or worse – company overview. Make a much bigger impact in these valuable first minutes by sharing a specific example of the type of outcome your prospect is looking for. (Or, if you don’t know enough about your prospect, share an outcome from a similar customer.)
Getting your prospect “hooked” early on with a desired end result is one of the keys to a winning demo, according to a recent study of 67,000+ SAAS demos by Gong.IO. Giving your customer a preview of the specific outcomes they can expect to achieve with your solution is especially critical with busy C-level executives who may not sit through the entire demo.
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Your Agenda.
Most agendas are a list of features that a salesperson has determined appropriate for a particular customer. But this is only the very beginning step to tailor your demo. Turn your agenda into a powerful customer-focused tool by using the customer’s language, not your own terminology.
For example, perhaps you have a feature called the Analytics Pro Plus that you’ve determined the V.P. of Sales would find very useful for evaluating sales team performance. Instead of naming the topic after the feature, why not call it “Evaluating Sales Team Performance,” for example.
Remember, most customers don’t care what you call your features. Most don’t even care how they work. What they do care about is how they are going to help solve their problems or achieve their goals. Using a list of topics grounded in your customer’s world, shows a deeper understanding of your customer’s issues and exponentially increases your credibility.
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Introducing a Feature:
Even if you show the same features in each demo, you should be introducing them differently – based on your customer’s unique situation. Set the stage before showing a feature by addressing things like: Where would your customer use this feature? How are they currently doing this process or step? What is the impact on their jobs or business? Using as many specifics as possible during your demo will help connect the dots for your customer and give them a greater understanding of how they can benefit from your solution.
Using as many customer-focused specifics as possible during your demo will help your customer connect the dots between their problem and your solution.
Customization doesn’t have to be a long arduous process. By taking what you know about your customer and applying it in these three areas you can quickly and easily turn a plain cup-a-Joe demo into something more like a White Mocha Frappuccino experience.
Photo courtesy of: Viaggio Routard
