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Product Demos That Sell: How to Deliver Winning SaaS Demos
This is the no B.S. guide to presenting software like a pro.
If you're a SaaS startup founder or sales rep, you'll learn
Ensure prospects attend your demosDiscover why your demos fail to close the dealBetter differentiate yourself from competitorsCustomize your demo to your prospects' needsImprove your demo-win ratesDeal with questions and objections during the demoExpertly handle bugs and demo failsGiving successful product demos is not rocket science. Anybody can do it—if you've got the right blueprint.
If you're a SaaS startup founder or sales rep, you'll learn
Ensure prospects attend your demosDiscover why your demos fail to close the dealBetter differentiate yourself from competitorsCustomize your demo to your prospects' needsImprove your demo-win ratesDeal with questions and objections during the demoExpertly handle bugs and demo failsGiving successful product demos is not rocket science. Anybody can do it—if you've got the right blueprint.
87 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 29, 2016
158 people are currently reading
319 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
April 14, 2016
This is book is "content marketing" so you gotta go in with that in mind. Although many attempts at content marketing results in shit content, I thought this book had a couple of takeaways and it was a short read.
I found the advice in this book to be no-nonsense and practical. The book stresses preparation, being concise, showing competency and passion. As a guy who works in Product instead of Sales I was pleasantly surprised that the book did not promise shortcuts or "tricks". The author was opinionated and those opinions seemed to be informed by experience.
I found the advice in this book to be no-nonsense and practical. The book stresses preparation, being concise, showing competency and passion. As a guy who works in Product instead of Sales I was pleasantly surprised that the book did not promise shortcuts or "tricks". The author was opinionated and those opinions seemed to be informed by experience.
November 30, 2017
Notes from the book:
Here’s the difference: when you give a demo, you help a prospect understand the value your product can generate for them and you help them make a buying decision. It’s sales. Once somebody is a customer, you might want to give them training on how to become proficient in using your product and getting the maximum value out of it. However, until the prospect becomes a customer, you’re selling, not training.
The purpose of your product demo is demonstrate value, not features and functionalities. Nobody cares about your product’s features. What that means is that when you’re giving your product demo, you need to focus on how your product is going to help your prospect: •create value •save time •increase revenue •solve problems
“Your product is only as good as the problems it can solve for someone. What I want to hear during a demo is what problems you are solving and for who[ m], not a laundry list of features in your product.”—Ryan Leask, Manager of Data Engineering at Facebook
Start with a killer feature of your product that serves an important need for your prospect. Based upon the qualification process, you know what their pain points are, you know where they're itching.
If your software has different options for handling a certain workflow, then it’s best to first inquire what the prospect prefers.
How can you make sure that your three most important points still stick in your prospect’s mind? Just ask them one of these questions: •What were the highlights of this conversation for you? •I’m wondering, what was the most interesting thing that you’ve learned in this conversation? •I want to ask you, in the pitch today, what did you find most impactful? What were the things that you’re taking away? •If somebody asks you tomorrow to describe what we discussed today, how would you summarize our conversation?
You need to be calm and collected, not falling apart. The message you want to implicitly convey is: This isn't a big deal, it can easily be fixed
Here’s the difference: when you give a demo, you help a prospect understand the value your product can generate for them and you help them make a buying decision. It’s sales. Once somebody is a customer, you might want to give them training on how to become proficient in using your product and getting the maximum value out of it. However, until the prospect becomes a customer, you’re selling, not training.
The purpose of your product demo is demonstrate value, not features and functionalities. Nobody cares about your product’s features. What that means is that when you’re giving your product demo, you need to focus on how your product is going to help your prospect: •create value •save time •increase revenue •solve problems
“Your product is only as good as the problems it can solve for someone. What I want to hear during a demo is what problems you are solving and for who[ m], not a laundry list of features in your product.”—Ryan Leask, Manager of Data Engineering at Facebook
Start with a killer feature of your product that serves an important need for your prospect. Based upon the qualification process, you know what their pain points are, you know where they're itching.
If your software has different options for handling a certain workflow, then it’s best to first inquire what the prospect prefers.
How can you make sure that your three most important points still stick in your prospect’s mind? Just ask them one of these questions: •What were the highlights of this conversation for you? •I’m wondering, what was the most interesting thing that you’ve learned in this conversation? •I want to ask you, in the pitch today, what did you find most impactful? What were the things that you’re taking away? •If somebody asks you tomorrow to describe what we discussed today, how would you summarize our conversation?
You need to be calm and collected, not falling apart. The message you want to implicitly convey is: This isn't a big deal, it can easily be fixed
September 14, 2017
I'm new to demoing so I don't have a lot of references to judge this book and its contents. Everything that I read makes sense.
If we are going to judge by authority, Steli Efti, has the track record to write this sort of book.
I think it’s interesting how much it covers around the demo, how much is about qualifying the attendees, scheduling, etc. It seems like a lot of what’s involved in having a successful demo is not the demo itself.
One issue I had is that the book sometimes have to get very descriptive. Maybe a book is not the best source to learn how to demo and this is something that should instead be delivered as a video course or in person.
If we are going to judge by authority, Steli Efti, has the track record to write this sort of book.
I think it’s interesting how much it covers around the demo, how much is about qualifying the attendees, scheduling, etc. It seems like a lot of what’s involved in having a successful demo is not the demo itself.
One issue I had is that the book sometimes have to get very descriptive. Maybe a book is not the best source to learn how to demo and this is something that should instead be delivered as a video course or in person.
July 24, 2017
Regardless of being content marketing e-book and consequently having a sales agenda of the Close.io CRM tool, this book is good. It is to the point and perfectly short, providing neat pointers on giving a great product demo. When preparing to give my first ever demo, I found this extremely helpful. Thanks!
January 27, 2019
Some insights but it's essentially a sales pitch.for close.io
Some content which is useful most if which you will already know if you have ever delivered a saas demo.
The book (very short read, more of an in depth blog post) is pitching close.io software. Yet, if you can skip past that and ignore the sales pitch garbage end it has a couple of take a ways.
Some content which is useful most if which you will already know if you have ever delivered a saas demo.
The book (very short read, more of an in depth blog post) is pitching close.io software. Yet, if you can skip past that and ignore the sales pitch garbage end it has a couple of take a ways.
March 28, 2018
Short and sweet
Good read for saas founders or sales reps who want to give better demos. I highly recommend the blog mentioned at the end of the book for discovery call and sales objections help too.
Good read for saas founders or sales reps who want to give better demos. I highly recommend the blog mentioned at the end of the book for discovery call and sales objections help too.
July 13, 2017
Just ok
There were some good takeaways in this book, but it didn't wow me. I got a Demo to Win much more useful.
There were some good takeaways in this book, but it didn't wow me. I got a Demo to Win much more useful.
January 4, 2018
A lot of the writing is freely available online, but it may not be worth the time to hunt it down.
November 18, 2018
Lots of good advice and delivered in a concise, effective way.
January 5, 2019
Some handy tips and ideas
March 29, 2019
Good knowledge and practical tips on improving your demos.
June 9, 2019
Efficient and summarized tips on doing superior demos. The beautiful thing about this book is being always straight to the point, no excess content or write-ups, it just speaks to what you want
November 19, 2019
Lots of best practice stuff
September 29, 2020
Very good information for those doing any software for virtual demos.
April 14, 2021
Extremely concise advice for building a great product demo strategy from prospecting to closing. Learned many great points to improve my own demos.
March 30, 2016
Great read for all SaaS sales professionals. Key reminders/new learnings I had were:
-always be mindful of the potential customer's time and limited attention span
-dig deeper with your questions to save you time and provide more value for the prospect
-get the prospect to tell you their main highlight from the demo before ending the call
The only thing I would've liked to see is best practices around how to deal with keeping your demo within a short time limit with multiple stakeholders on the call. Steli briefly touched on this but I would've liked to hear more about it as it can be a reason demos go over time, especially if you want to ensure everyone is involved and engaged in the call.
Great quick read and even if know you a lot of this stuff, there are great reminders you can gain insight from so it's worth reading.
-always be mindful of the potential customer's time and limited attention span
-dig deeper with your questions to save you time and provide more value for the prospect
-get the prospect to tell you their main highlight from the demo before ending the call
The only thing I would've liked to see is best practices around how to deal with keeping your demo within a short time limit with multiple stakeholders on the call. Steli briefly touched on this but I would've liked to hear more about it as it can be a reason demos go over time, especially if you want to ensure everyone is involved and engaged in the call.
Great quick read and even if know you a lot of this stuff, there are great reminders you can gain insight from so it's worth reading.
April 8, 2016
There's not a lot of books that literally pay off, but if you do software sales, this one definitely will. Perfectly covers the fundamentals of before, during, and after. I will be recommending this to others in my boat.
February 5, 2017
Some good tips, but also a promo for authors own products
Some good tips on demos and presentations. Much of this is by own experience common practice but there's some golden nuggets in there to pick up. Quick read, interesting and has a few new ideas for my own demos.
Some good tips on demos and presentations. Much of this is by own experience common practice but there's some golden nuggets in there to pick up. Quick read, interesting and has a few new ideas for my own demos.
March 6, 2016
A quick and practical proposal about how to perform better when demoing. I found it clear, useful and insightful. Never stops to think "What am I missing"
April 1, 2016
Shot essential and full of value
July 11, 2016
Book is very good "checklist" what to avoid, and on what to focus when preparing and giving product demo.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews