Sales environments have a long way to go. Today, most revenue teams sit down with a potential customer and show them their product in a generic environment full of dummy data that didn’t resonate with their prospects needs. Without a tool like Saleo, where we can create a dynamic and interactive personalized experience for our customers that allows them to see how your product could work for them, revenue teams are forced to give the same demo over-and-over again, regardless of the company, industry, revenue, or needs. Companies that are trying to solve this problem, are spending hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars in the pursuit of a better sales demo environments. In this article, I will outline 5 reasons why their current approach to sales demo environments is not effective, and suggest ways to make them better.
#1: Personalization is King
Know what your customers want most and what your company does best. Focus on where those two meet.
Kevin Stirtz
The first reason why demo environments are not effective is because they are not personalized. Most demo environments use generic or example data, which means that customers cannot see themselves using the product. This lack of personalization makes it difficult for customers to understand how the product would work for them, and ultimately leads to a lower conversion rate. Being able to directly mirror the pain points your customer brought up during the sales discovery portion of your funnel, allows you to close deals faster, and helps your demo resonate better with your prospects & customers.
#2: Trying to Personalize Existing Sales Demo Environments at Scale Is Expensive
The second reason why personalized sales demo environments don’t work for many companies, is the expense. Before Saleo, we have talked to dozens of companies spending hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars building out custom demos for their clients. This only compounds with more complex SaaS products. For example, we recently talked with a custom in the network monitoring space who was spending nearly a million dollars a year in server costs alone just to let them better demo their products. Additionally, we’ve talked to product leaders at some of the largest SaaS companies in the world spending millions trying to solve this problem for their teams, but coming up short either in execution or personalization at scale.
#3: Limited Data Makes Showing Scenarios That Solve Prospect Pain Points Impossible
Another reason why demo environments are not effective is because they are limited in the scenarios they can show. This is due to the fact that most demo environments are built using development environments, which are often buggy and lack data, or use generically rendered data that doesn’t tell a real story. As a result, it is difficult for customers to imagine different use cases for the product, which limits its potential. It’s hard to tell a story to a healthcare company, when your data was built for sales, and vice versa. Generic data doesn’t do you any favors when you sell to many different verticals!
#4: Demo Environments Plagued by Technical Issues
Finally, demo environments are often plagued by technical issues. For example, data may disappear or new quirks and bugs can be introduced by the engineering team. Many companies who we have spoken with have their demo environment actively in use by their product teams for testing and releasing new features. This can cause frustration for both customers and sales representatives, and ultimately leads to a negative experience.
#5: Take Your Demo Environment From Boring to Fascinating
In personalization of customer experience, the customer is the driver, the company is the passenger and the vehicle is the product/service. If you ever swap roles, you need a big L (Learner sign), and every car around need to keep their distance.
Dateme Tamuno
So what can we do to make demo environments better? Here are a few suggestions:
- Use customer data to personalize the sales experience
- Use production data, or simulate production data to show realistic scenarios that solve your prospects pain points
- Build a dedicated demo environment that is separate from development and production environments
By following these suggestions, we can make demo environments more effective and ultimately improve your conversion rates. Demo environments are an important part of the sales process, and by making them better, we can create a more positive experience for both customers and sales representatives. If you are ready to take the leap, Saleo can help your fix your demo environment in minutes! Thanks for reading!
