How to increase demo requests for your SaaS

Innovate how you offer personal demos to your prospects by empowering them to explore your product independently. Learn how to drive up demo requests!
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Personal demos are integral elements in the sales pipeline of any SaaS sales team. With your sales targets, required demo requests and conversions, the aim is to move your warm leads further down the funnel by showcasing the product first-hand and indicate how it will solve the prospect’s pains and challenges.

However, the typical demo strategy creates unnecessary frictions with leads getting increasingly frustrated by outdated demo method, resulting in prospects dropping out of your pipeline.

So, how to increase SaaS demo requests?Β Let’s take a look at the general approach to the demo stage.Β 

Not all leads are equal. Your aim is to move your Leads along and down the funnel. Obsess solving the prospect’s pains and challenges, than pushing your latest product features to all leads equally.
Not all leads are equal. Your aim is to move your Leads along and down the funnel. Obsess solving the prospect’s pains and challenges, than pushing your latest product features to all leads equally.

Frictions with traditional 1-to-1 SaaS demos

The problem with traditional demos are the unnecessary hoops a lead has to jump through. After tapping the “Get Demo” button, they generally need to go through a qualification call with a SDR before finally connecting with a salesperson who will be leading the demo.

This process creates several unnecessary frictions:

  • Time-consuming
  • Demos are not personalised
  • Knowledge gap on prospect’s challenges and pains
  • Resistance engaging with a sales person

It’s time-consuming, demos are for the most part not personalised and more often than not the Sales person doesn’t know the prospect’s particular challenges and pains (no matter their preparations).

And let’s be brutally honest: Hardly anyone wants to talk to a salesperson when they’re in the headspace of evaluation and comparison. It’s often too early in the process. In fact, the sales person can pose a risk for the prospect to lose interest and drop-out altogether.Β 

When augmenting your personal demo offering to your lead generation funnel, product demos are generally more effective at the inflection where the prospect is in the consideration and decision stage. They’re in the mindset of exploring options and researching solutions. They may or may not have build a shortlist of alternative solutions.Β 

With that in mind, let’s reconsider how you are offering personal demos.Β 

Personal Product Demo augmented to Content Strategy for Lead Generation
When augmented to your lead generation content strategy, personal product demos are generally most effective when your prospect is between the middle and bottom of funnel.

How to increase SaaS demo requests

Un-gated Explainer Video

  • Provide a concise, one-minute video that clearly describes what your product does. By keeping it un-gated, prospects can access this introductory content without any barriers. If you have clearly defined target audiences, create one for each.

Short Demo Video

  • Offer a brief, 2-3 minute demo video that showcases the core functionalities and features of your product. Again, make this video un-gated, ensuring easy access for interested prospects. Create a video for each of your primary target audiences.

Deep-Dive Demo Video

  • For a more thorough demonstration, create a longer video that explores your product in detail. This video can be as long as necessary to provide a comprehensive overview. Publish it both on your website and YouTube channel to maximise its reach.

Weekly Live Demo

  • Host a live demo session on a weekly basis, requiring prospects to register in advance. This session allows prospects to ask questions and engage directly with your team. By following up afterward, you can gauge their interest and offer them the opportunity to connect with a salesperson.

Put it to test!

Adopt this approach and you will bypass the frictions traditional demo approaches can create. The combination of un-gated explainer videos, short demo videos, deep-dive demo videos, and the live demo sessions ensures prospects can access relevant information at their own pace, while still offering an interactive session for deeper engagement.
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πŸ‘‰ It goes without saying that you should include CTAs on each video and related touchpoint offering the user to contact your team directly. πŸ‘ˆ
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Put yourself in the mindset of your potential customers and build your demo strategy around their preferences and needs:

Give your prospects a level of control.

By adapting to their needs and preferences, you will boost the chances of converting your warm leads further down the funnel and closer to sealing that deal.

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Written by

Picture of Cornel Lazar

Cornel Lazar

Fractional CMO, strategist, advisor. Prev. Senior Growth Architect at BCG Digital Ventures. Interested in Innovation, leadership, disruption & change.

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