The Plot

Your prospects do not care about the beginning of your demo. They don't want to see the login screen or hear about the setup.

So, how can you get them interested?

The answer lies in storytelling.

Weaving a narrative around your prospect’s biggest challenges spikes their attention and makes the demo engaging.

In this episode of GTM On-The-Go, Madhav Bhandari, Head of Marketing at Storylane, sat down with Andrew Hatfield, Founder & CEO of Deepstar Strategic, to decode the impact of storytelling in demos.

Your ICP research is bound to fail if you don’t understand the following:

1. Your market
2. What your prospects need
3. How your prospects prefer to be engaged

To ensure it succeeds, you've to make active listening the foundation of your ICP research, gain macro insights from industry experts to understand your market, apply an 80:20 focus between prospects and existing customers, among other techniques.

That's how you shift from scattergun marketing to targeted engagement.

In this episode of GTM On-The-Go, Sonia Moaiery, Director of Product Marketing at Skilljar and Madhav Bhandari, Head of Marketing at Storylane discuss the nuances of conducting, presenting, and acting on ICP research.

Being sales-led or product-led is NOT a binary choice.

If you’re a sales-led org, the worst thing you can do is try to switch completely to a product-led model.

Instead, start layering the product-led aspects to the different growth levers–acquisition, retention, and monetization–in your existing strategy.

In this episode of GTM On-The-Go, Ben from PLGeek and Madhav discuss the nuances of running PLG initiatives in a sales-led organization. They discuss the core ideas that help with a smoother transition and, most importantly, the mindset to have before committing to motion.

You don't wanna miss this one!

Understanding the unique needs of prospects at each stage of their buying journey is crucial.

By tailoring your demos to address their specific pain points, you can significantly increase your chances of closing the deal.

In this episode of GTM On-The-Go, Max LÜPERTZ, Presales Coach @ PRESALES ROCKS, shares valuable insights on tailoring your approach to customer needs. Learn how understanding their search terms and past attempts to solve a problem can help you customize your approach. Discover effective ways to create urgency and outline solution options without hard selling.

Max also discusses managing expectations, demo automation, and leveraging customer champions.

Don't forget to tune in!

How can you boost buyer confidence without overwhelming them?

In today's world, buyers face complex journeys in their decision-making process. They find it challenging to navigate the plethora of information they receive, leading to indecisiveness and, sometimes, lost sales.

The solution to this problem is sensemaking—an approach that removes friction in sales and enhances buyer confidence throughout their journey.

In this episode of GTM On The Go, we talk to Rory Sadler, CEO of Trumpet, as he takes us through the idea of ‘Sensemaking in Sales’

Tune in as we explore how sensemaking can improve the decision-making experience for buyers and help them feel more confident in their purchasing decisions.

Do you want to boost your engagement on LinkedIn and stand out from the crowd?

In the world of SaaS, practically everyone lives on LinkedIn. Everyone craves to build a strong presence on LinkedIn. Be it to build a personal brand or to improve advocacy for their organization, LinkedIn is a go-to Platform for all B2B SaaS professionals.

That said, most of us haven’t figured out the art of commenting on LinkedIn.

That's why we invite you to join us for this week’s “GTM On The Go,” where our own Head of Marketing, @ Madhav Bhandari, chats with the brilliant @Ashley Faus, who heads Lifecycle Marketing at @Atlassian.

Join us as we dig into the “Art Of Commenting on LinkedIn,” the only guide you need to cultivate a strong presence in your niche and make meaningful connections that help you stand out in the crowd!

In this episode, Madhav Bhandari, Head of Marketing at @Storylane.io, talks with Jonathan Bland, Cofounder @ Omni Lab Consulting, a leading demand gen agency for growth-stage startups, primarily specializing in augmenting paid efforts.

With over 15 years of experience in SaaS, Bland has been a driving force behind 4 VC-backed SaaS companies and has consulted with over 100 companies.

Join him as we talk about the tips to build a better pipeline using paid social!

In our first-ever byte-sized interview series, Madhav Bhandari, Head of Marketing at @Storylane.io, talks with Jonny Butler, Head of Marketing at OneUp Sales.

Butler has an impressive track record of delivering results across demand generation and growth marketing across his 10+ years of experience at companies like Leadfeeder and Dealfront.

He shares with us his insights on one of the most pressing questions every new senior marketing hire at a growth stage SaaS org has had - What should we focus on in the first 90 days? What are some of the best lead-generation activities in 2024? And a lot more!

I don’t know about you, but I've yet to come across a piece of marketing that’s as simple yet persuasive as a call-to-action button. It’s incredible how a few well-chosen words within a colorful little box can make all the difference between a customer’s curiosity and conversion. 

Arguably more important than its design or copy, however, is the placement of the CTA button. That is to say: the accessibility, frequency, and positioning of your CTA all play key roles in turning views into clicks. 

While there’s tons of research on CTA placement for websites and landing pages, we thought it might be helpful to conduct a similar analysis for the CTAs that go on interactive demos. We examined conversion data across 19 companies and thousands of demo sessions to arrive at 3 actionable insights that I’ll be covering in this edition of Storylane Labs.

Summary Statistics

• Sample size: 19 companies
• Avg interactive demo conversion rate: 26%
• Avg CTA frequency: 3.04
• Avg number of unique CTAs: 1.3
• Most common CTA position: End of demo/flow

Our research finds that the average CTA conversion rate with interactive demos is 26%. To me, this is already pretty great given that even the most successful landing pages convert at around 10%. 

But what’s really staggering is that the best performing demos in our analysis achieved conversion rates of a whopping 52%. Fifty. Two. Percent. Keep in mind that these aren’t small ask CTAs either — I’m talking heavy hitters such as “Get a demo” and “Book an onboarding call”.

So what are these demos doing so right with their CTA placement that over half their sessions proceed to the next desired action? Here are three learnings:

Insight #1 -  Persistence pays off

Rather than a sporadic sprinkling of CTA buttons, the most successful demos deploy a persistent CTA throughout the length of the flow. No matter how hard we try, we’re never going to know exactly what a user is looking for until we chat with them.

Accordingly, it’s that much more difficult to predict and place a CTA on the exact steps of the product demo that will resonate most with a user. Using a persistent CTA ensures that no matter where a buyer is along your demo, they have access to next steps. 

Insight #2 - What’s better than one? Two!

15% of the demos in our analysis achieved conversion rates greater than or equal to 50%. Every single one of these demos employed two CTAs: a primary and a secondary.

Intuitively, I’d assumed that a single CTA ensures a focused ask, which in turn translates to improved conversion rates. However, the data reveals that surfacing a couple (2) CTAs at the same time can actually drive up conversion rates. 

But here’s the catch: There must be a hierarchy in CTAs; they can’t both be “big asks”. 

For example, a dual CTA of “Book a demo” and “See pricing” is one big ask (Book a demo) and one small ask (See pricing). This is not demanding too much of prospects, and in fact, there’s a good chance they proceed to book a demo after they visit the pricing page.

“Book a demo” and “Start for Free”, on the other hand, are two big, big requests. I’d be over the moon if a prospect follows through with one of them, but asking for both is asking for too much. Try to avoid this. 

Insight #3 - End on a high note 

Finally, and this one may be a little more obvious, is to end your demo with a primary CTA. The value of finishing strong is easy to appreciate, and the data agrees.

If you decide against deploying a persistent CTA on your demo, placing a CTA on the final step will help make up for it by encouraging users to proceed to next steps.

This may be to book a demo, start a trial, or maybe even explore other demos of your product — regardless, this placement works well. Note that this concluding CTA may (and should) be placed at the end of every flow as well; not just at the end of the overall demo. 

And there you have it! As an added bonus, here are two of the highest and lowest performing CTA copies each from our analysis. Of course, context is paramount when it comes to effective copy, but these may nonetheless be helpful when you’re building your next interactive demo:

Highest converting CTAs

• “Get a demo”
• “Learn more”

Lowest converting CTAs:

• “Let’s talk”
• “Start free trial”