6 Sales demo call tactics

The sales demo call is one of the most important sales calls in your sales cycle. They are the calls that will determine if you will make the sale or not, and if you can't do them correctly, then you're wasting your time. This blog will cover the best tactics for the sales demo call.

Demo calls are critical to the sales process. In a demo call, you are trying to get the prospect to understand two things:

a) Why they should buy

b) Why they should buy from you

There are certain things you can do during demo calls that can have a profound impact on the success or failure of your sales process.

One of the main aspects of a demo call is conveying your service and product’s value proposition to the prospect. And if you fail to do so, you can just assume that you have lost the deal. Do you know how to communicate your value proposition? 

If your answer is no, you've come to the right place. It's not hard to sell if you know how to communicate your value to your prospect. In this blog, I'll show you how to do it.

What is a demo call?

Sales demo calls are one of the most effective sales techniques to close a deal. Sales demo calls are essentially a live product demonstration, where the salesperson guides the customer through the key features and benefits of the product. Sales demo calls are often included in a sales cycle to determine if the customer is interested in the product and to determine which features are most critical to the customer

The goal is to get them to convert to a paying customer. The prospect can be a business, a new or existing customer, or even a prospect in a completely different industry. The goal is to get them to like your product or service enough that they will want to purchase it.

Who delivers a sales demo call?

The sales team particularly handles a sales demo call, and to narrow it further down; the account manager handles a demo call. 

And if the prospect has demanded certain customization, you can even involve product managers.

When do you deliver a sales demo call?

Sales demos generally occur after leads have been qualified and are early in their buying cycle, but sometimes run-of-the-mill visitors can turn into more serious buyers, meaning a demo may come up at any point during their buying journey. 

So whether you contact prospects who qualify for your product because they're interested in hearing about a new feature or you try to sell them something based on actual features that it's missing, make sure to follow a well-scripted sales call script.

How do you deliver a sales demo?

There are many channels that you can utilize for demo calls. Based on your customer’s flexibility, you can offer any number of options that are feasible for your organization.

Right now, video conferencing platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, GotoMeeting, and Microsoft Teams Meeting are very popular for demo calls.

Alternatively, you can even leverage 

• Phone call
• Email,
• In-person meetings
• Automated pre-recorded meetings and presentations, etc.

What is an effective demo call?

As per Gartner, an effective demo is the one that is able to achieve the following objectives:

• The prospect gets a clear understanding of the use of the product and can visualize the product use for their company.
• The prospect can envision how the product will disrupt their current process and eliminate their pain points.

Now that you know what a demo call is and its basics, you must be thinking about why a demo call is important.

Let us answer this question for you.

Why are demo calls important?

Sales demo calls are a great way to gauge interest, qualify leads, and build rapport. They help you to develop a relationship with your prospects and ultimately generate more sales. Demo calls are a great way to do this. Let's face it: prospecting is a necessary evil. It’s a necessary evil because it is the only way to get your foot in the door and meet your prospects face-to-face. And when you do meet your prospects face-to-face, you have the opportunity to build a relationship and convince them to work with you. And this is where a demo call comes into the picture.

Demo calls give an opportunity to explain your products and services capabilities in greater detail while showcasing its value proposition. But based on your customer's needs, you need to customize your demo call script.

But the demo call necessary isn’t supposed to be a one-way conversation but rather a give and take of information and questions. To enable this, you need to encourage your prospect to ask questions. As their questions are answered, more of the doubt that they might have about your company will start diminishing, and the journey of trust-building can start.

Let’s dive deeper and understand other demo call tactics that you can use for a successful closing. 

6 Tactics to follow for a successful demo call

#1. Gather customer insights

Before the demo call, there are a few rounds of calls before the prospect, such as the discovery call. Utilize the discovery call to understand what your prospect's challenges and needs are. There would be times when prospects themselves might not be aware of their underlying problems. 

During the call, try to gather information like the account and the specific department, the prospect’s role, current processes and technical environment, their challenges and roadblocks, and how your solution would disrupt and bring in any value to their system.

This information would better help you design the call follow for demonstration.

#2. Customize the demo call based on your customers

After completing your research and having a good idea about what each client needs, you'll have a better feel for how to approach them. Consider you're selling a food truck that primarily sells breakfast burritos. If it were my business, I'd send prospects information on the different kinds of burritos I offer and highlight what their customers are saying online. 

I'd also want to zero in on their special event days like game days at local arenas because that's obviously going to be a big part of their business since it's so popular in this area. The important thing is that you take the extra time to get inside the head of these prospects and really present them with something tailored for their particular circumstances using specific details about their business, not just vague ideas or facts about what your product does.

There are 3 types of customization that can be done:

Full Custom: Full custom demo calls have to be customized entirely by keeping the prospect’s company, their processes, and their data in mind.

Semi-Custom: These include some minor changes such as logo change, one or two feature changes, etc.

Non-Custom but relevant: For high velocity and high volume sales, it is not possible to always customize the sales demo. That is why you can create a general deck that is applicable to the specific niche.

#3. Keep the demo simple

Few things make your customers happier than knowing that their time is valued. Avoid rushing through your sales demos in an attempt to show a potential customer every single feature of your product, because it will likely cause them to become overwhelmed and confused - but rather, present only the features that are most relevant to their unique situation and let them know up front when you will be getting around to presenting each of those features. 

Doing so will allow you to structure your calls like a direct sales approach and help keep the call on track so it can progress in a timely manner. When you’re asking for information from a potential customer at the beginning of the call, it’s important to let them know that they have time to ask detailed questions at the end of the demo- but if they have any questions at any time before then, they can feel free to interrupt you or ask you without feeling as if they’re bothering you (they won’t be).

#4. Show how your product can solve their problems

Again, this goes back to personalization. Don't highlight generic information that can be viewed as a sales pitch or advertisement like, "Here's a whole list of all the things you can do on our platform." (Unless it is actually true!)

Instead, paint a picture for your prospects by talking about specific examples that match their needs and go over the information you already know about them, such as their given situation or problem of theirs you've previously heard about, again asking yourself how your product could apply an automatically orchestrated solution into the said predicament that would be in everyone's best interest - where everyone is represented by you of course otherwise alternative products might also apply to your prospect as well which would negate the need for yours -, ending with a positive outcome in mind whereby they're convinced and satisfied with their purchase.

#5. Consider your demo script as a guideline

It’s a good idea to have a series of points and features written down in advance. You can list them as bullet points or make a more detailed outline, but it should be more of a scaffold to build the call around rather than a word-for-word reading. Let the other person take the initiative in showing interest in certain topics. If they do so, dive in with them and add those points to your bullets or outline!

#6. Leave time for feedback

Another thing that is very crucial is saving some time in the end for prospect feedback. Usually, this is not the case. Usually, only 30 secs are left where prospects don't really get time to give feedback. That is why it is important for your sales call and allocate time for every aspect of the sales call.

And remember the following on the demo call

1. Make sure you set the right tone for your call. Remember that you don't know how the prospect will react and react accordingly. If they are calm and collected, be the same. If they are aggressive and pushy, be the same. If they are on the offensive, be on the defensive. The key is to mirror their tone and be the same. It allows you to control the conversation and the tone. 

2. Be prepared and have your story down. The worst thing you can do when you are dealing with professional salespeople is to be unprepared and not know what you are talking about. If you have a demo and you know the ins and outs of your business, make sure you are prepared. If you have a demo that you are not completely familiar with, make sure you have questions and know the details about the product and your company. 

3. Know your competition. Having a good knowledge of what the competition offers will help you to better position your product and service. Using Convin’s call analytic solution can help you with this.

Parting words

Ultimately, you should use the best sales call tactics that work for you. You should always be testing and trying out new methods, doing new things, and fine-tuning the way you do things. You want to be the best you can be and the most effective person in sales.