Imagine your automated demos being so compelling that prospects not only stay until the end but are eager to share them with their entire team. In today’s competitive market, where over 50% of software vendors are investing in demo automation, standing out is crucial. What if you could turn your automated demos into powerful tools that captivate your audience, boost their effectiveness, and drive higher conversions? This article will show you how to achieve exactly that, ensuring your demos deliver results and shine in a crowded field.
The Shift in Sales Dynamics
Today, sellers have fewer chances to influence customer decisions. With abundant high-quality information online, buyers can gather details independently, reducing sellers’ influence. Gartner research reveals that B2B buyers spend only 17% of their time meeting potential suppliers. When comparing multiple suppliers, each sales rep might only get 5-6% of the buyer’s time. Many buyers prefer a rep-free experience – a trend predicted to rise to 75%. Buyers spend 27% of their time researching online. This is where you must make a difference. Think about how you research a new car—you do most of the research independently and only speak to a seller once you’ve narrowed down your options. The same applies to buying software, making it crucial to stand out online. Demo automation can be the key differentiator.
Focus on Product Tours for Early-Stage Lead Generation
Product tours create interactive experiences where prospects can explore the product through predefined click paths. This is typically done by cloning a product’s front-end code and building product tours using a no-code editor. This allows buyers to access a tailored product experience without using presales resources. Creating these tours takes time, so seeing good results is essential. Let’s discuss the common issues with automated demos today. Like in-person demos, automated demos can suffer from being too feature-focused. Presenters can fix things on the fly in live demos, but automated demos don’t have that flexibility.
The Biggest Issue with Automated Demos
The main issue is that demos are often inside out—they start with features and explain how they help the buyer. This approach can backfire because prospects don’t care about features; they care about solving their problems. Prospects often struggle to translate features into solutions for their problems. Lengthy or detailed demos can cause viewers to get bored, stop clicking, and disconnect. The consequences are severe. Prospects disqualify you before you even know they are interested. Low conversion rates happen because people disconnect. Increased costs without seeing benefits are another negative outcome.
Achieving Your Demo Automation Goals
Improve conversion rates of product tours by ensuring viewers engage with every click, see that your product solves their problems, and feel compelled to share the demo or contact you. Increase efficiency by not using your presales team for top-of-funnel activities. Qualify leads more effectively and earlier to reduce an unqualified pipeline.
Improve your demos before automating them
The Four Pillars of Effective Demo Automation
Before diving into actionable tips, it’s crucial to understand the four pillars of effective demo automation:
- Be Customer-Centric. Focus on solutions to problems rather than features.
- Do the Last Thing First. Start with screens that clearly show the solution to the problem.
- Reduce the Number of Clicks. Make it easy. Give viewers an appetizer, not the entire meal. Make them hungry.
- Make it a Conversation. Allow viewers to decide what to see and how deep to go. It’s the best way to give potential buyers what they need and only what they need.
When you apply these pillars, viewers will keep clicking and engaging with your product tour, and they will better understand how you can help them. More importantly, they will forward your automated demos to their managers; they will easily reach out to you for more information or to talk to your sellers
Transitioning from Product-Focused to Customer-Centric
To make your demos customer-centric, get to know your prospects better and let them choose what they want to see. Start by offering options like a menu in a restaurant. Instead of starting with the first screen, guide viewers by job title, which aligns with their high-level goals and challenges. In this way, viewers become the centre of the demo. They can choose their own adventure based on their role and their challenges. In this way, The demo automation shifts from product-focused to customer-centric. You can create demo snippets for each adventure.
Define your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) by understanding their main goals, the problems they face, the capabilities they need to solve these problems, and the value they expect from these solutions. Use this information to create relevant, engaging demos.
Do the Last Thing First
Show viewers the end-result right away. This approach quickly satisfies their needs before they get bored. Think of a jigsaw puzzle—showing the completed picture helps you understand how all the pieces fit together. This is what you should do with your demos. Show the end-result that proves your solution solves their problems immediately to help prospects quickly determine if your solution fits their needs without having to navigate through the entire process.
People buy software for the insights it provides, not for the complex steps to get there. Focus on showing the valuable insights, dashboards, or reports your software can generate. Think about what is most insightful for your target persona.
People buy with their eyes. Ensure the screen is visually attractive and can be resized to full screen for better visibility.
Provide context for the screen you show, explain what they are looking at, how it helps solve their problem, and the value it brings. Use the “hamburger technique”—first provide context (the foundation), then explain what they see and how it helps solve their issues (the meat), and finish by explaining the value of solving these issues (the toppings).
Don’t forget to explain what’s on each software screen with pop-ups. Viewers are seeing this for the first time. They don’t know where to look. You make them focus on what matters most. Highlight a few options, but don’t try to be complete. Your demo is not a training.
Don’t make the product tour demo too long; you’ll lose viewers. Before they get bored, give them options to continue exploring by showing more, reading white papers or case studies, or talking to someone. Make it easy to buy from you. Have that call to action quickly, before they disconnect.
Reduce the Number of Clicks
Top-of-the-funnel buyers are looking for an appetizer, not a full meal. Show an easy, frequently used pathway with your software. The more viewers have to click, the more complex your product looks. Start with the end result to reduce the number of clicks. Make them hungry for more by giving them just enough to pique their interest. Show a brief, frequently used pathway in your software to demonstrate ease of use.
How do you know what to include? Revisit your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) research. Define a logical starting point in your software and show how easy it is to navigate to key screens. In demo automation it is crucial to explain the context of each screen, highlight essential features, and end with the value each feature brings. Preparing viewers for what they will see next prevents confusion and maintains their engagement.
Before clicking to the next screen, you want to give viewers a heads-up, to prepare them. You don’t want to confuse them with a screen they don’t know; give them explicit foolproof instructions. Your software doesn’t look easy if they get lost in your interactive product tour. The more viewers have to click, the more screens they have to see, and the more complex and cumbersome your software looks. Break your automated demos into small segments and provide options to go deeper and deeper and deeper. Let viewers choose their journey.
Make It a Conversation
Enable a dialogue by offering options and letting viewers choose their journey. Provide a menu with options or allow viewers to select which elements on the screen to explore further. Allow viewers to decide which elements on the screen they want to explore further. Highlight these elements and provide additional clickable items with more details.
You could also provide a list of common questions and let viewers pick the ones they have. Research shows that 60-80% of the questions asked during sales demos are the same, so include these common questions in a list and let viewers decide which topics to explore more deeply. For all answers, use a short demo flow using the techniques above. At the end of each topic, provide options again to interact with you.
Always offer the option for viewers to ask more questions. They might have a question you didn’t anticipate, allowing you to contact your potential buyer and provide additional information. Visualize these concepts by letting viewers click on or hover over elements to get more information. Provide options at the end of each flow to explore further, read white papers, or contact someone. This keeps the product tour demo interactive and engaging, mirroring a real conversation.
Finally, ask for contact details at the end of the interactive product tour. Send viewers an email with a summary of what they have seen, how much value they will enjoy, and finish it with a success story of a similar reference customer. Then, ask the sales team to follow up.
7 Actionable Tips for Successful Interactive Product Tours
Now, summarize the seven actionable tips to help you create more successful interactive product tours that meet your goals.
- Make your product tour buyer-centric. Speak their language and show the solution to their problem immediately.
- Let viewers choose their own adventure by providing menus of options frequently, allowing them to select what interests them most.
- Ensure each automated demo addresses a single problem with a single solution to maintain focus and clarity.
- Focus on insights, not the process—illustrate the end result and clearly explain what viewers see to demonstrate value quickly.
- Wrap each function in context and value to help viewers translate features into their own world by providing relevant context and highlighting the value.
- Prove ease of use with short pathways to key screens. Reduce the number of clicks and only share requested information.
- Enable a ‘dialogue’ by offering options to explore further. Let viewers dive deeper if they want, but don’t force them.
Conclusion
The key to successful demo automation is to be customer-centric, engaging, and interactive. By applying these tips, you can create automated demos that not only inform but also inspire action. Imagine prospects being so impressed by your product tour demo that they eagerly share it and reach out to you for the next steps. Turn your product tour demos into your most powerful marketing and sales tool.
Ready to transform your automated demos? Contact us today for a consultation or to learn more about our demo automation services. Whether you need reviews, coaching, consultancy, or workshops, we’re here to help you design compelling interactive automated demos that drive results. Get in touch now, and let’s start enhancing your demo automation strategy.
Natasja Bax Owner
Leveraging years of experience in presales and training/coaching, Natasja directly pinpoints the areas in need of improvement and maximizes the performance of individuals and teams in an energetic and uplifting manner. Her feedback is personal, honest, and always focused on the best results.