How to Prepare for Successful Remote Demos - Part 2

We are back! The wait was too draining, right? We know. Don’t worry. The wait will be worth it. Our previous blog on ‘How to Prepare for Successful Remote Demos – Part 1’ lets you know some crucial steps that you cannot miss during a product demo. Here are some nitty-gritty best practices that no one tells you about but can make or break your closing deal.

Don't hesitate to talk about the next steps

Your demo can be powerful, but that does not mean you have cracked the deal. It will not proceed further unless you follow up. Research reveals that, on average, 6.8 people are involved every day in a B2B buying decision. This is a spike from the previous year when the average was only 5.4 people.

If you want to be a successful sales demo expert, you have to schedule the next steps. At least spend 4 minutes of your product demo on this. Allow yourself this time at the end of the demo to explain the post-demo process and set the expectations right for what's come next. 

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Closing a deal without defining the next steps is one thing. But you will feel demotivated for the next demo without knowing the next steps for the current demo. Or you will never understand the prospect's decision-making and what needs to be done to move the deal forward.

Ask them a specific time to connect next, decide what they want to know next, set up a call with a channel partner, or speak further with their team. Also, don't forget to send the buyer champion a well-crafted product demo in the follow-up email.

This does not mean you have to follow the same process for all. If you know the current person is the decision-maker, don't hesitate to ask for a decision and try ending with a close. 

It's not that easy, right? We know. If they are not ready, ask, "What does it take for you to buy our solution?". You can infer some sales objections standing in your way from the answer. Handle them with caution, and you'll get to a close.

Make technology your friend

Giving product demos can be challenging since you have to stare at the screen a lot and wait for their reaction. But don't let any limitations of a remote product demo hit you. Get the help of a few tools that can help you give an excellent online demo:

Screen Sharing Tool: Choose the right product demo software that works for your prospects regardless of their location, platform, technology skill, or browser. If you choose the wrong screen share or demo platform, you have to help your prospects to download plugins, applications or find a new platform that ultimately works with their firewall. Just recall how Zoom offered a seamless platform for all of us to conduct our sales demos during the pandemic.

Recording Tool: It's best to use a Screen Sharing tool with a built-in Recording option such as Zoom. Recording a meeting has lots of benefits for you and your audience. It helps you to return to your recording to review action items, check out missed details from your call or share the recording with others in the team who missed the demo. Not just that. With the help of recording, you can even repurpose notes and create on-demand content for your website or intranet.

Notetakers app: Very important discussion happens over remote product demos such as Zoom. It becomes imperative to take notes to make the most of the discussion. Keep a note-taking system where you can capture knowledge, ideas, and action items discussed during Zoom calls. And Zoom meeting notes have become quite handy to preserve the insights from our meetings.

Master the Mouse Movements

Avoid "Zippy Mouse Syndrome! What? When we present, we tend to move the mouse for ourselves since it follows where our eyes are looking. This results in the mouse cursor wandering wildly around the screen. This can be such a pain to many viewers! Also, don't even get us started on someone circling something endlessly.

‎So, what's the solution? Simple. Move and stop! Just take your hand off of the mouse; it stops moving. Yes! Incredible! Direct the mouse to the place and then take your hand off while you present. First, identify the target location on the screen and then move your mouse there. 

See if can use an annotation tool to highlight the area on the screen helps. This can help you highlight the important areas in your product demo. Also, check the size of your mouse cursor to make it easier for your audience to see and follow your mouse movements.

Learn to manage questions

Find ways to capture unaddressed questions during your demo. It could be a Word or Doc or the note-taking app discussed above. Show your viewers that you have noted down the questions and get a confirmation on it if you have captured it correctly.

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You can use strike-through text to mark questions you addressed in the session. This way, it gets easier to track which questions you addressed and what is still pending.

Keep a clean desktop and avoid alerts

You have no idea how your audience will remember the email previews and other messages appearing on the presenter’s screen during a demo. It is not just distracting but can be downright embarrassing! 

Remember those messages on internal chat where your team tells you silly things about the product or CXO team or even the prospect. Ouch! Cannot even imagine the anxiety. Clean up your desktop and alerts if you want to avoid embarrassing “Ohhhh, my….!” moments.

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Oof! We have reached the end. Follow these 10 best practices, and you never have to worry about losing a deal after the remote sales demo.

How Can Storylane Help You?

Storylane offers sharing your product demo - completely replicated that looks and feels like a real version of your product. With Storylane, you can enable your champions to make the right purchase decision.