#48: How To Crush Your Next Product Demo

Read Time: 3.5 min

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Today, I’m going to discuss how you want to run a proper demo. The goal of a demo is to showcase how your product, through your presentation, will solve the unique use cases the prospect has shared with you on the discovery call.

The discovery call is about identifying whether or not they have needs that are relevant to what your product solves, and the demo is about showing how your product can actually solve them. Lastly, the goal of a proof of concept (POC) is to show through a pilot that you can definitively solve their problems.

Always Start With The Customer Experience, Not With The Technology.

~ Steve Jobs

Here are the different slides that you want to incorporate and how to think about each.

Slide 1: Your Logo + Their Logo

• Underneath your logo, put your one-sentence value prop.

Slide 2: Current Situation

• This slide itemizes the challenges, pain points, and use cases they seek to solve, as conveyed on the discovery. It’s the current way they’re handling the situation.

• I frequently see founders add their bios and talk about themselves here. Don’t do this. No one cares. Do not share those details unless they ask about your background and why you started the company. If not, skip it. Prospects are interested in one thing—“How can you solve my problems, and how quickly?” That’s it.

Slide 3: Key Objectives

• You itemize their ideal situation when it comes to managing the workflow. What are their goals? Anything they’d like to improve would go on this slide.

Slide 4: Demo Layout

• Here, you discuss how you will walk them through the demo. It should be based on their highest-priority to lowest-priority needs. In other words, if you have 5 key features and only 3 are applicable, don’t discuss the other 2. Start with the 3 that are most important.

• When you begin presenting, preface all the features you'll show them by pointing to the pain they mentioned on the discovery and directing them to the solution. 

Here's an example.

Following slide 4, you will demo your software. This should not take more than 10 minutes. Once you are finished showcasing the product, you will land on slide 5, Onboarding, and proceed through the rest of the deck. 

Slide 5: Onboarding

• Discuss what onboarding looks like. For example, if the customer were to move forward, what would you need from them, and what would getting started look like on their side?

Slide 6: Expected Results

• Add an itemized list of the expected results when using your product. If possible, use a mix of qualitative and quantitative results. See my example below for some ideas of what the slide should look like. 

Slide 7: Pricing

• Show the pricing tiers and recommend the best fit based on the needs they conveyed during the discovery.

Slide 8: The offer

• The offer would go on this slide. Anyone who has just subscribed can find the issue where I discuss how to craft a killer offer here.

Slide 9: Next Steps

• Add what the next steps would be from this point forward. There are typically 2 options. (1) They’d like to move forward to the scoping call, or (2) they need to circle up internally and discuss if they will move forward. Regardless, make sure you book a follow-up call for a day/time with a calendar invite.

Here Are Five Important Takeaways:

1. A demo call should never be over 45 minutes.

2. Do not add bio slides to the deck. No one cares.

3. On slides 2, 3, and 6, go through one bullet point per slide.

4. When you present, point to the pain and direct to the solution.

5. Less is more. I’ve seen clients close 6 figure deals with simple decks. 

That’s it for today, folks!

See you all next week.

Darren

P.S. If you’re ready to level up, you can book a call with me here