Micro demos are the next step for buyers who liked what they saw in your vision demo and are hungry for more. They need more information but aren’t far enough in their journey to benefit from a full product demo. Micro Demos are your chance to show prospects a first look at the product, the benefits and solutions, and also to earn the next level of discovery. Remember, it’s not about showing prospects everything they might want or need to see. The trick is showing them nothing they don’t want or need to see at that point in their journey.
Using tools that provide intelligent demo automation allows prospects to continue their own research without jumping through hoops or waiting for time to clear up on your SE’s schedule. These types of tools enable your sales teams as well. If the demo creation software feeds information back to you, these Micro demos effortlessly gather discovery information for you about which topics are critical to that customer and who the key stakeholders are.
Introducing the Micro Demo
The goal of the Micro demo is to provide customers small snippets of information about the features they’re interested in while eliminating irrelevance. This is a short, sharp demo. Remember that the value equation is a function of impact relative to the time required. By reducing the duration and maximizing impact, you will maximize the value of the interaction. Even though prospects are looking for deeper levels of information, it’s important to avoid overwhelming them by only showing them features and functions they’re interested in.
That’s where the name for this Micro demo comes from because these demos can be made up of several one topic demos that when grouped together cover all the pertinent information without adding any fluff. Because the buyers are still doing the early stages of research, they’re looking for easy ways to disqualify vendors whose solutions don’t fit their needs.
This is why including demo creation tools is so important to your internal sales enablement plan. Giving the customers the ability to select the topics most interesting to them allows them to self-qualify as a lead as long as the demos employ some analytics that allow you to track who watched what and when.
Where Micro Demos Fit in Your Sales Model
Micro Demos are generally used early in the buyer’s journey. This is where automation is key because prospects want a demo, but aren’t committed or qualified enough yet to endure deep discovery or merit a live demo. Vendors that supply prospect requirements on-demand also differentiate themselves from vendors who hold prospects hostage to a calendar for every interaction.
What are buyers thinking at this stage? Buyers want more information about the ways your solution will solve their problems, but don’t yet need a full product demo.
What should you deliver? Concise, personalized content that is tailored to their specific needs and challenges.
Where does it fit in your sales model? Still early in the process, probably around the 2 or 3 week mark. This type of demo can be used for you to qualify the customer while they qualify you at the same time.
Live vs Delegate vs Automate? Micro demos don’t merit the scheduling and resource requirements of a live interaction. Automating these demos not only allows you to send them on-demand to customers, but it offers insights into buyer behavior and even aids in stakeholder discovery. If automation isn’t available, consider delegating these to AEs.
While they’re not first in the buyer’s journey, we recommend you create automated Micro Demos before any of the other demo types when you begin developing your demo library. They are easy to build and maintain while allowing you to preserve the deal’s momentum by selling between meetings and ensuring more productive live interactions with prospects.
For more tips for getting your demo library up and running, check out the Definitive Guide to the Six Demo Types.
