The Essential Guide to Sales Demo Software
When someone says “sales demo”, a Zoom meeting is likely what comes to mind.
But with the growth of product-led, sales demos don’t always amount to a 30-minute screen share. They can take on multiple forms, depending on the state of the software, the company’s goals, and customers’ preferences.
This guide will explain what sales demo software is and break down the differences between discovery, sales demo environment, and live demo software.
What is sales demo software?
Sales demo software is a suite of tools that helps teams deliver better software product demos. Despite the name, it’s not just live demo software, but tools that encircles the entire process - from discovery, to the sales demo environment, and the live demonstration.
Below, we’ll explore several types of sales demo software and provide examples you can integrate into your sales process.
Sales discovery
Discovery helps you reveal what prospects are interested in, their pain points, and what they are looking for in a solution.
Proper discovery can serve as an outline for future demos, giving sellers a sense of what key points to bring up during the sales process and how to frame potential ROI.
Sales discovery software
Software tools can be used to assist sellers during and post-discovery. Sales discovery software often includes templates or outlines to keep sellers organized during the call.
Lucidchart
In enterprise sales, it can be helpful to have a champion walk through their “current state”. As they talk, sellers can note major gaps in the prospect’s process that your product can fill.
Translating that to a diagram in Lucidchart can be a powerful way to help your prospects visualize cracks in their approach and see how using your product would enable a better future state.
Accord
There is so much to ask on discovery calls, but very little time, meaning sellers need to be strategic with their questions.
Accord allows sellers to create repeatable discovery templates, helping the calls feel more like a conversation rather than a boring survey. What’s more, sellers can use meeting notes captured in Accord to define structured plans for the rest of a prospect’s journey.
Gong
Reps can’t possibly remember everything they said in a call, let alone what prospects said. Recording and transcribing discovery demos using tools like Gong can help reps improve their discovery skills over time and uncover insights they didn’t catch during the call.
Gong can also surface lines of questioning that resonate particularly well with buyers or discovery techniques that top performers use.
Google Slides
As obvious as this sounds, Google slides or Microsoft PowerPoint can be simple ways to ensure discovery sessions stay on track. These slides can contain videos, or be more free-form, where sellers type into the slides live as stakeholders clarify and verify information.
One caveat to using slides or videos during discovery is that they aren’t the same as seeing products in action. Many prospects want a live demo一or even to get their hands on your product一so they visualize how it can fit into their workflow.
Sales demo environments
Sales demo environments are controlled demo environments that are pre-populated with data to better demonstrate how your product will work for a customer.
Demo environments work best when the product is not ready for a live demo. Sometimes a product or feature isn’t fully released yet, or there some bugs still crop up here and there. Demo environments eliminates those risks of bugs or showing incomplete features.
Sales demo environment software
Demo environments are only as good as your dummy data. Sales demo software allows sales reps to create ideal demo environments that are specifically tailored to a prospect’s needs.
Mockaroo
Mockaroo has an extremely intuitive UI and can generate 1,000 rows of fake data at no cost.
GenerateData GenerateData has a wide variety of export types (.csv, JSON, .xls, etc.) and country-specific generation options.
Navattic
Navattic enables any member of a sales team to create controlled, consistent, demos that can be customized and reused. These gold stand demo environments can be personalized in minutes using a no-code editor.
Navattic guided interactive demos can also be used as follow-up material post-live demo, to send to a prospect before the call, or on your website.
Figma prototypes
Sometimes you may want to show a new product that’s not quite ready. In that case, you can have a “demo” environment spun up as a Figma prototype.
Within a prototype, prospects can click through various screens to see how your product might look in real life.
Powtoon
Another option if you don’t have a polished product to show is to use an animated video platform like Powtoon. Marketing and product teams can create pre-approved templates for sales teams to personalize with prospects’ logos and prospect-specific CTAs.
Live sales demo
A live demo is often thought of as the traditional demo where a sales rep walks through their software product, either over a video call or in person.
Since live demos still make up a significant portion of the sales cycle, they must be as effective as possible.
Live sales demo software
Showcasing your product remotely in an engaging way can be tricky. The software highlighted can draw attention to the features you think prospects will appreciate most and help you gauge their live reaction.
Limelite
Sometimes demos can be hard for prospects to follow. Limelite turns your cursor into an engaging spotlight with a hotkey.
Loom
Live demos can be a lot to take in, so consider sending a video recap rather than another email. Loom is a free online video platform sellers can install as a Chrome extension.
With the click of a button, sellers can record themselves summarizing the main points of a demo, answer any outstanding questions, or even capture a quick screenshare to reinforce how part of the product works. When you’re done, copy the link, then paste it into an email, text, or LinkedIn message.
DemoDesk
Instead of just talking at a prospect for an hour, try pulling them into the conversation. DemoDesk acts as a live meeting room where you and your prospect can engage collaboratively, turning a one-sided demo into an engaging conversation.
Livestorm
Livestorm is a browser-based platform for live, pre-recorded, or on-demand online events. Livestorm is unique in that besides streaming a live demo, you can use it to send emails, chat with your audience, create registration pages, launch polls, answer questions, and even track and analyze engagement.
With so many sales demo tools out there, deciding which ones to use can be overwhelming. So don’t be afraid to get creative with the tools you are already intimately familiar with.
For example, at the beginning of a live demo, ask your audience to use the raise hand feature on Zoom whenever they have a question. You could also try sending polls during the call to encourage participation.
Not only do these strategies save your sales engineer from awkward silences or loud, distracting interruptions, they also makes the call more interactive.
Sales demo software can greatly enhance a prospect’s overall experience with your sales team, catering to their needs and highlighting your product to push them towards each next step in the buying cycle.