The way that software is bought and sold has changed dramatically over the years. In the past, it was all about sitting down with the CEO or CTO and showing the potential impact on the business. These days, products need to speak to the actual software users. This development has changed the sales game significantly.
An interactive product demo is ideal for this new era of software sales. For starters, they help you scale your outreach by providing automated sales demos wherever and whenever they’re needed. However, the most significant benefit is that the best way to market a great product is by letting your user see it in action.
Interactive demo software like Usetiful helps you unlock these benefits by providing a no-code, step-by-step interface that allows you to build powerful interactive sales demos. What’s more, Usetiful also lets you go one further by customizing your demos around the individual user.
But how do you do it? How can you build the self-serve demos that your prospects crave?
Read on to find out.
Image by benzoix on Freepik |
Step 1: Get client information
There are a few ways to think about interactive product tours. For starters, if you’re a product-led growth software, they can be your entire sales outreach.
However, in most situations, they act as a self-service option that helps convince your prospects about the utility of your solution. As such, you can use an interactive product demo at different stages of the buying cycle.
If you want to create an interactive product demo that makes an impact, you need personalization. With the right information, you can tailor your sales demo towards a particular niche, company, or even an individual. But to do that, you need some details.
Usetiful’s form feature allows you to build slick forms that allow you to collect prospect information. If a prospect requests an interactive sales demo, you can make a simple form that gets their name, business, and email address into your CRM tool.
Capture and generate leads by using forms in interactive product demo. |
🎯Primary goal: The main aim here is to gather your prospect's information so that your sales team can follow up with them later. However, you can also request information like job title, company size, industry type, etc., to help qualify each lead.
💡Tips for collecting client information
Forms that are short and sweet have higher completion rates. While more information helps your sales team qualify leads, remember that excessively complex forms can hurt your conversion rates.
Always follow GDPR when collecting prospect data.
Where possible, use the data you request to personalize your interactive product demo.
Step 2: Identify needs
Once you have the above information, you can begin to shape your demo around your prospect’s requirements.
In the step above, we outlined the importance of getting your prospect's name, business, and email. However, you can also get other important information if you want to showcase how your product can deliver for your prospect.
Finding out the prospect's use cases is crucial to meet their needs. |
🎯Primary goal: You can use this step to flesh out why your prospect is interested in your self-service demo. For example, if you sell a marketing automation tool, your prospect's goal might be something general, like increasing revenue. Again, you can use this information to focus on revenue-related features in your interactive product demo.
💡Tips for identifying prospect needs
Focus on user pain points by asking questions like “what frustrates you about your current solution?”
Where possible, find out why your prospect is requesting a demo automation.
If you have case studies or testimonials that are related to your prospect’s industry or requirements, you can add them to the demo invitation link email.
Step 3: Personalize your tour
Creating a personalized interactive product demo has many benefits. One of the most important is that it makes your outreach seem less like a sales pitch. Clients have all the information and opinions about your product at their fingertips. What they really want to know is how it looks and feels to use your product.
So, from here, it’s all about using the data you’ve collected from your users. If you know someone's role and their pain points, you can easily shape an interactive product tour.
Personalize your demo experience for every prospect |
The idea here is that you highlight the relevant features that will make an impact for your users. For example, if your prospect works in marketing and their pain point is email list engagement, show how your email automation tools can segment users and help deliver relevant communications with high open rates.
For a deeper dive into how to make an interactive product tour with Usetiful that resonates with your prospects, read this article, 'Show, Don't Tell': How to Do a Successful SaaS Product Demo.
🎯Primary goal: The objective of any SaaS demo is to showcase the features that align best with your prospects' stated needs and requirements.
💡Tips for identifying prospect needs
Focus your sales demo on the benefits it will bring the user, and not just the features.
If possible, pre-load data that is relevant to your prospect so they can visualize the benefits more easily.
Use storytelling techniques to weave a compelling narrative that ties the product features and benefits together.
Step 4: Request Feedback
Product demos are a constant process. They’re never really finished because there is always a way to improve and optimize them for your target audience. However, if you want to make these major or incremental improvements, you need feedback.
Thankfully, Usetiful can help with that.
Asking feedback for improvement will give you insights into whether your solution is a fit. |
Gathering crucial pointers about how to optimize your demo.
Getting a better sense of how your product can solve your prospect's pain points.
Collect feedback on your product, in general, which you can deliver to the development team.
🎯Primary goal: The aim here is to get the feedback you need to make your self-service demos as effective as possible.
💡Tips for requesting feedback
A short, in-app survey will have higher participation rates.
If you need deeper and more detailed feedback, offer your prospect an incentive, such as a discount or a piece of exclusive content.
Analyze the feedback and use it to improve your product, not just your demo automation.
Step 5: Use a CTA
Once your interactive product demo is done and you’ve gathered feedback, there is one more thing for you to do: include a call to action.
Your product tour should have a very clear goal. That could be making a sale or setting up a meeting with your rep. So, place a call to action at the end of the tour so your prospect knows what to do next.
A Call-to-Action at the end of the tour acts as a signpost that lets the prospects know what to do next. |
🎯Primary objective: The purpose of this step is to drive conversions.
💡Tips for adding a CTA
Use incentives like limited-time-only discounts to encourage sales by creating a sense of urgency.
A/B test different colors, fonts, placements, and messages for your CTA.
Use action verbs for your CTA, such as “Request a Quote” or “Get Started.”
Final thoughts
Self-serve demos are a modern solution to the eternal problem of convincing your prospects to buy your product. Sales demo software like Usetiful helps you automate this sales channel, meaning you can engage clients around the clock.
As sales become more sophisticated and subtle, sales demo tools will become a key pillar in your bid to drive revenue. Don’t get left behind by ignoring this growing trend.
If you want to learn more about building an interactive product demo, we’ve got a great webinar on the subject for you to check out.