An excellent customer experience is vital for SaaS growth. However, too many organizations overlook the power of presales to improve conversions.
Product demos are one of the most powerful presales elements for SaaS companies. When done well, they can answer your prospect's questions about a product or service, meaning your sales team can close deals more quickly and at a higher rate, exploding your growth.
Whatsmore, if you get your product demos right, you can automate a considerable amount of the sales process, freeing up your salespeople to work on bigger deals or even giving you the option to pursue a product-led growth strategy.
Let's explore the concept of presales further and examine how you can use it to boost your SaaS sales. When you've finished reading, you'll understand why the consultancy firm McKinsey suggests that teams with good presales capabilities close around 40 to 50% of new deals.
What are presales?
Presales refer to a range of activities that happen before you close a deal. While presales have some similarities to marketing and sales, it relates to a distinct early phase of the customer experience.
OK, that's fine, but what exactly are presales, I hear you say?
We should first note that there is a bit of disagreement about the precise definition. It can mean different things to different companies. However, to help you understand presales fully, let's explain the situation at most SaaS businesses and see why presales are necessary.
Why SaaS teams need presales
Most software development companies have a significant divide. On one side, they have a highly technical software development team that knows the product inside out. On the other side, they have a sales team specializing in understanding customer pain points and building relationships.
Of course, that's not to say there isn't some crossover between sales and development teams. Some SaaS salespeople have good technical knowledge. Similarly, understanding customer experience has become a massive part of software development, as the rise in user experience (UX) engineers demonstrates.
The disconnect between these two teams isn't always a huge problem. Many companies have gotten by for years without really addressing the gap between development and sales. However, if you want to give an excellent customer experience and stand out in a crowded SaaS market, you need to find a way to differentiate your offering. And that is where presales come in.
Presales employees go by many different names. Some of the most commonly used terms are presales engineers, solutions engineers, or solutions architects.
A presales engineer understands that each company is different. They get that each business has its own requirements and needs, even if they have similar pain points or problems that a piece of SaaS software is designed to solve.
A good presales engineer can understand the context in which a company looks for a solution. They can understand the technical requirements, workflows, the subtleties of the industry and how a software solution can fit within their prospect’s current processes. Most crucially, they also know the right questions to ask when it comes to evaluating a product-business fit.
How do presales engineers work?
Presales engineers take a consultative approach. They meet with clients and develop a thorough technical knowledge of their current situation. They document everything and figure out how their SaaS solution can help their prospects.
In short, they form a deep understanding of the customer's problems and explore how their SaaS solution can solve them.
One of the best ways to boost SaaS sales is by taking your prospects on a technical deep dive. In many ways, there are some parallels with product content marketing. However, instead of how-to guides or articles, presales enablement materials consist of things like workshops, proofs-of-concept, and of course, product demos.
Building a product demo is one of the essential parts of the sales engineering process. Remember, each business has a unique context, goals, and requirements. A product demo is an excellent way for a SaaS business to show how using its solution will help a particular company.
Making product demo videos is a good way to show off the qualities of your solution. However, sometimes it can feel like missing something, particularly if prospects are used to sales demo calls.
The best answer to these problems is interactive product demos. There are many compelling reasons why this type of product demo can boost presales and ultimately lead to higher conversion rates and operational efficiency.
How an interactive product demo can boost SaaS presales
Interactive product demos are excellent presales tools because they are designed to appeal to more technical people in the buying process. Each business has its own software stack and process, so they need a deeper exploration of a solution to decide if it can work for its team.
Aside from providing a great customer experience, interactive product demos also have a lot of benefits for SaaS businesses. Usetiful is a no-code platform that can help you design incredible product demos that can impact your prospects and get them in the mood to buy.
Here are a few of the reasons you need interactive product demos to grow your SaaS business.
It scales with you
An interactive product demo allows your business to scale. Sometimes a company grows very steadily. Other times, especially in SaaS, growth can be rapid. Often, startups have to add salespeople very quickly to maintain revenue momentum.
The problem here is that it's not always easy to find great salespeople. Additionally, no matter how good they are, they need time to acclimate and find their stride. Unfortunately, this can be a momentum killer.
Interactive product demos are pre-recorded. They allow your salespeople to focus on key deals while scaling to meet the rest of your demand.
Qualify leads
Interactive product demos built with Usetiful can be designed to ask questions during the demonstration. This process can help you qualify each lead as they view the product. From there, you can send presales qualified leads to your sales team, allowing them to target warm and high-priority customers.
Make a great first impression
Strong first impressions are a huge part of a good customer experience. Modern brands have figured out that the customer journey starts well before they make a purchase.
A bad customer experience can be fatal. Failure to deliver often means you won't get a second chance. A good first impression, on the other hand, means that your customers will sing your praises. Research suggests 72% of satisfied customers will share a great experience with six or more people; 13% will tell 15!
Making a good first impression builds trust and puts you on a path toward a long-lasting relationship.
Personalization
Personalization has a big effect on conversions. According to HubSpot, personalized calls-to-action (CTAs) outperform their generic alternatives by over 200%. Similarly, the Harvard Business Review suggests a degree of personalization can boost sales by 10% or more.
Usetiful helps you personalize your interactive product demos. It's a small touch that can have an oversized effect. It's little wins like this that make presales such a powerful tool for SaaS businesses trying to increase their conversions.
Product-led growth
Interactive product demos allow you to reduce your sales and marketing and let your product do the talking. Product-led growth was made famous by brands like Slack, Calendly, Atlassian, and Zoom, and the concept relies on the virality of your solution to drive adoption.
If you want to succeed at this approach, you need to ensure that your product provides almost immediate value to your target audience. An interactive sales demo is a great way to do that, even for more complex products.
Using a mix of video, walkthroughs, and tooltips mean your prospects can understand precisely how your product will help them, which should boost conversions and sales.
Better data
One of the best things about building an interactive product demo with Usetiful is that it gives you access to a wealth of GDPR-compliant data. Constant, high-quality feedback is an essential aspect of modern software development, and that goes for your presales efforts too.
Seeing where your prospects are engaged with your demo can show you who is interested while helping you fine-tune your presentation.
CRM integration
Usetiful can integrate with your customer relationship management (CRM) system so you can keep track of prospects and populate your sales pipeline with high-quality leads.
This process can help reduce your sales cycle and focus your resources on the warmest high-quality leads, boosting your conversion rate.
Drive your presales with Usetiful
Presales should be a priority for any SaaS business that wants to boost conversions. When you want to show off the technical aspects of your product and deliver a first-class customer experience, a product demo will do the trick.
Usetiful can help you deliver incredible interactive product demos that will wow your audience and present your product in the best light. By using screen overlay for tools tips, walkthroughs, videos, and more, you can help users go beyond just reading about your product and let them experience it at work.
Learning by doing works because users are engaged. Interactive product demos are way more memorable, so your solution will stay in your prospect's mind.
Throw in our 24-7 sales assistant, powerful user insights, and a high degree of personalization, and you have the perfect way to impress your more technically-minded prospects and motivate them to convert. Alternatively, you can use demos to tee up leads for your sales team in true presales style.
Interactive product demos can take your sales and lead generation to the next level. Try it yourself or get in touch to find out more.