Demos without dependency

Not every sales opportunity warrants the involvement of solution consulting/engineering teams (SC/SEs) to fulfil operational demo needs. This case study explores how Tom Josephson’s (Sr. Director Solutions Consulting, TCP Software) team of 105 reps and 11 SC/SEs adopted Storylane to automate early-stage demos, resulting in a whopping 5x ROI in 12 months.

• For one, demo automation helps reps share demos without technical dependency
• For another, it helps SC/SE teams focus on strategic work, not repetitive demos ops
• Interactive demos also engage prospects and accelerate deals across the sales cycle

Why Storylane over the rest

After evaluating multiple demo automation vendors, TCP landed on Storylane for its breadth of product functionality:

• Support for screenshot, video, and HTML demos
• Strong, granular analytics on demo engagement
• Deep Salesforce integration + app for ease of use

"Fundamentally, Storylane had the best functionality; you have HTML, screenshots, video embeds, and the ability to mix media. From a technical side, it has really strong analytics on who’s clicking, how long they’re engaged, etc — all of which can be folded into Salesforce. Across the board, I found that Storylane had the best of what all of the other platforms we were evaluating supported"

How TCP’s solutions team uses Storylane

TCP initially adopted Storylane for “helicopter demos” to support qualification and discovery. Now, TCP also uses Storylane demos as leave behinds, marketing assets, and training material. 

1. Demos for qualification calls

During initial qualification calls, sales reps surface high-level “helicopter demos” based on the particular product functionality the prospect is most interested in.

2. Demos for discovery calls

During discovery, SC/SEs quickly show off a particular feature or use case in action with Storylane demos — avoiding the risks associated with demoing the live environment.

3. Closing deals without SC/SEs

Especially in the case of smaller opportunities where SC/SE involvement isn’t necessary, reps are able to independently close deals within the first call by surfacing pre-built Storylane demos.

4. Demo leave behinds

After qualification, discovery, and the live demo, Storylane demos are shared as leave behinds to maintain momentum between meetings and provide valuable engagement analytics.

“There are a few things I particularly like. Being able to build chapters and stitch together multiple Storylane demos goes a long, long way. Being able to take screenshots, videos, and HTML captures and layer these on top of each other is really, really powerful”

And the results? They speak for themselves

TCP achieved significant ROI within their first year (12 months):

• 5x ROI from deals closed exclusively with Storylane demos and zero SC/SE involvement
• Successfully closed smaller (SME) deals that didn't warrant full SC/SE engagement
• Freed up valuable SC/SE time for more strategic opportunities and larger deals

"Deals closed exclusively with Storylane where we didn't have to fold an SC: we were able to see a 5x ROI through the course of one year. At first blush, that seems like a really strong ROI — and it is. But we also realize there’s way more we can still get out of it.”

Key takeaways for SC/SEs and sales leaders

SC/SEs at first bristle at demo automation — wondering if it's automating their jobs. Demo automation cannot automate solutions teams. Instead, it’s a tool that takes out some of the more undesirable aspects of the job: those generic demos you’re asked to lead, or working with a prospect who isn’t fully qualified but wants to see the product.

Don't think of Storylane as just for demo automation...think about how marketing can use it...how it could be used for training...how you can leverage Storylane to continue momentum for a deal or even shorten the deal cycle.

TCP continues exploring additional use cases as they transition demo creation from SC/SEs to their Product Marketing team with SC/SE input, aiming to further expand their success.