Average reps treats group demos like a demo for their champion + passive attendees.
They focus on the person they know, while new attendees quickly lose interest.
Elite reps treat group demos as an opportunity to drive collaboration and confirm consensus.
It all starts with how you treat “pre-demo” – you want to do all you can to make sure your first engagement with new attendees is not on the demonstration.
Here’s how I’d reach out to someone invited to the demo that I hadn’t met:
“Hi [name],
Looking forward to meeting you on [demo date] for the [your company] demonstration.
Based on my conversation with [prospect] last week, we’re planning on focusing on how we [impact priority outcome].
I want to make sure the demo is relevant to you and I know you’ll have a unique perspective. Do you have 15 minutes today or tomorrow to discuss three points:
- Your involvement in the [current state]
- What’s working well/not working well
- What you are wanting to see in the demo
Let me know when works best!”
I like this template because it’s a valid reason to have a conversation with specific/relevant questions.
And, if they can’t (or won’t) find time, you’ll find some prospects happy to answer the questions via email.
Here’s an example of what it might look like:
Looking forward to meeting you on Thursday for the LaunchDarkly demonstration.
Based on my conversation with Beth last week, we’re planning on focusing on how we increase release velocity.
I want to make sure the demo is relevant to you and I know you’ll have a unique perspective. Do you have 15 minutes today or tomorrow to discuss three points:
- Your involvement in the release process
- What’s working well/not working well
- What you are wanting to see in the demo
Let me know when works best!
Nailing the “pre-demo” makes driving engagement on the demo much easier.
You can call people out by name before showing something you want to make sure they pay attention to:
“Hey Beth – I remember you walked me through how you currently have to manually find inactive flags to clean your code base. What I’m about to show you should save you a ton of time.”
And instead of asking those awkward questions that lead to delayed responses: “Any questions on what I just showed?”
You can ask specific questions:
“John – I know you spend a lot of time getting data organized for experiments. Would love your feedback on what we just walked through.”
In a perfect world, you have one “win” for each individual on the demonstration (unless it’s a massive audience – I’ve had teams run demos for hundreds of attendees, but that’s uncommon).
Which vendor do you think gets better feedback from the group:
- The vendor that made first introductions to new attendees on the demo, and then addressed the demo to the full group
- The vendor that engaged all attendees before the demo, and then highlighted one (or more) specific features for each individual throughout the presentation
Changing your demo from “showing five people a demo” to “engaging five people in a demo” will make a significant difference to your win rates.
Give this a shot on your next group demo, and let me know how it goes!
