Consensus Consensus
Consensus
Consensus Light Version Logo 3
  • Buyer Enablement
  • Platform
        • Interactive Video DemosEasily shareable and always available
        • Demolytics™Tantalizingly good stakeholder insights
        • Supporting ContentConveniently mapped content for each demo
        • OverviewIntelligent demo automation
        • IntegrationsCarefully curated integrations that work where you work
        • SolutionsPlatform tuning for teams across the funnel
        • SecurityGlobally reliable — way more fun than you think
        • ToursCreate on-demand product tours
        • Illustration of a calculator

          CALCULATE YOUR ROI
          WITH CONSENSUS.

          LET'S GO
  • Pricing
  • Resources
        • BlogThe #1 blog for Presales
        • Research & GuidesData and insights to help you scale
        • CustomersReal disruptors seeing real results
        • DEMOFESTThe best event for presales best practices
        • WebinarsThe how-to hub for scaling presales
        • Cost of Demo CalculatorDo you know the cost of your demos? Find out now
        • PodcastAnswers to burning Presales questions
        • Buyer Level AssessmentGauge buyer champion’s change project difficulty
        • Filter by Custom Post Type
          Posts
          Webinars
          Demofest Videos
          Podcasts
          Infographics
          Filter by content type
          Custom post types
        • Choose Your Own Demo feature image
          Choose Your Own Demo
  • Company
        • AboutOur WHY to everything we do
        • Press releasesSplash worthy buzz
        • CareersHigh-growth with high rewards
        • Consensus Partner NetworkJoin the network
        • SupportConstantly up-leveling customer users
  • Solutions
        • PresalesAutomate repetitive Presales functions and scale instantly
        • ChannelsOnboard and enable channel partners fast
        • SalesShorten sales cycles and improve close rates
  • Talk To Sales
  • Watch a Demo
  • Sign In
  • Watch a Demo
  • Sign In

The Evolution of Software Product Demos

  • Blog
  • Garin Hess
  • July 22, 2015
  • automation, demo automation, demolytics, Interactive videos, presales, sales, scaling presales
Consensus

 

evolution-software-product-demo-twitterGiving product demos has always been an essential part of growing sales in the computer software industry. As computer and software technologies have evolved, so has the manner in which companies demo their products.

In fact, looking back, we can see how certain technologies created quantum leaps forward, each time changing the ways companies demoed their products. By recapping the many different evolutions of the product demo, we can predict where today’s technologies may take us in the future. Let’s start from the beginning…

1940-1975: In-Person Demos

For the first couple of decades in the IT era, beginning around 1940, computers took up entire rooms, most software was custom built, and the sales cycle was long and complex. During this time, doing a product demo often involved bringing sales prospects to your office—at your expense—and showing them in a face-to-face exchange what your company was capable of.

1976-1989: Floppy Disks, Laptops, and the Start of Mobility

In 1976, the floppy disk was introduced. The introduction of floppy disks and personal computers represented the first quantum leap forward in how software products were demoed to prospects.

Rather than always meeting face-to-face, companies could now put dummy versions of their software on these new disks and send them to prospects. Companies could then get on the phone with their prospects and walk them through the product. Floppy disks also allowed salespeople to become mobile: now, companies could fly sales reps around the country to meet with prospects to demo their product for customers. This became even more prevalent in the early 1980s as laptop computers became more powerful.

1990-2003: PowerPoint Brings Scalability

After acquiring Forethought, Inc., which pioneered a program called Presenter, Microsoft made Presenter its own and released its now famous PowerPoint. PowerPoint was originally designed to create engaging presentations, but technology sales teams began using it to create images, charts, and content to demo their software products.

This jump forward introduced something into product demos that had been difficult to achieve with earlier technologies: scale. Companies could now send out their PowerPoint decks (as electronic files or in a hard copy format) quickly, easily, and cheaply. For many years, PowerPoint was the dominant product demo tool.

2004-2012: Live-Screen Sharing and the Beginning of an Era

In 2004, the demo game completely changed. Citrix combined a couple of their existing services to offer GoToMeeting. (Although WebEx had shipped in 1996, online screen sharing ability did not enter the picture until about the same time as GoToMeeting.) Screen sharing technology immediately became the de facto method of demoing products, and that technology still pervades to this day.

Sales engineers and account executives could sit at their desk and do live demos for 10 prospects a day. GoToMeeting was interactive, responsive, and provided the salesperson that most desperately desired sales demo capability—a personal touch. As this technology has evolved, so has the demoing experience. In fact, supporting and helping companies do better live demos has evolved into a boutique industry. It could be argued that this technological evolution represents the largest leap forward in the history of how companies demo software products.

The 2010s: Scalability Becomes the Issue

Things have remained largely unchanged since the introduction of live-screen sharing. There are some companies that still use slide-based technologies to demo their products, but engagement with that regressive technology continues to decline as prospects’ patience for slides wanes. And, as marketing and lead generation technologies continue to evolve, screen sharing technologies are creating problems for companies. The two biggest challenges it creates are the inability to scale live product demos, and the dearth of meaningful data around how prospects interact and engage with live-screen sharing demos.

Companies that invest in marketing automation tools feel the first pain point deeply, since their sales teams have to do more product demos as their lead production increases. Because individual salespeople can only do so many demos, time becomes their limiting resource. The demos-per-salesperson ratio is difficult to change, and presents a major scale challenge. The more leads companies have, the more demos they need to do for prospects, and the more salespeople they need to hire.

2013-Present: The Next Quantum Leap: Interactive Video

Luckily, a solution to these two challenges does exist: automated interactive demo videos.

If you want to process an increased number of leads, you need to educate those leads early in the sales process to engage and qualify them into prospects. However, most companies immediately push for a live demo, which introduces scalability problems. Automated interactive video allows those leads to engage in an asynchronous and personalized demoing experience. In addition, automated interactive demos allow for your product demo to be socialized organically among the key stakeholders throughout a prospect’s organization. Live demos will always be important, but when they’re preceded by automated interactive demo videos, they are more effective and contextually rich because your prospect’s entire buying panel is now well-educated on your product.

But what about data? The result of the automated interactive demos is a wealth of rich data that you can extract that reveals how your leads are interacting with your product demo, and their level of education and engagement. You can find out what is important to them and what is not, how much they engaged with the video, and how they socialized your product through the buying panel.

This wealth of never-before-seen data adds richness to your sales conversations, and when coupled with sales and marketing automation tools, can be incredibly powerful in helping you successfully navigate a sale.

What’s Next?

While we believe that CONSENSUS is a new quantum leap forward in product demos, we’d love to hear what you would like to see in this next big evolution of demoing software products. We’ve seen previous evolutions in the history of product demos, so now, we ask: what’s next?

PrevLet Prospects Make Your Life Easier
My $40M Bet That Took TenFold To a $1B ValuationNext
  • Tags: automation, demo automation, demolytics, Interactive videos, presales, sales, scaling presales
Consensus is Intelligent Demo Automation that scales your presales function.
Watch an Automated Demo

More Interesting Posts

How Buyers Think – Overcoming Emotional ROI
May 9, 2023
Burning Presales Hot Tips
Burning Presales: Hot Tips from the Podcast
April 27, 2023
The Micro Demo
Micro Demo: Giving Prospects a Small Taste of What’s Possible
April 20, 2023

Presales » The Evolution of Software Product Demos

Platform
  • Buyer Enablement
  • Overview
    • Interactive Video Demos
    • Demolytics
    • Integrations
    • Solutions
  • ROI Calculator
RESOURCES
  • Customers
  • Blog
  • Dojo
  • Webinars
  • DEMOFEST 2022
  • DEMOFESTx
  • Podcast
  • Buyer Level Assessment
COMPANY
  • About
  • Support
  • Careers
CONTACT US

info@goconsensus.com

801.653.0028

Talk To Sales

LAUNCH DEMO

© 2023 Consensus Sales, Inc. All rights reserved.
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service
Key Activity Gap Analysis

The Definitive Guide to the 6 Demo Types

Download ebook

Research: 2022 SE Report

The Rise of Demo Automation Aargon Research

The Definitive Guide to the 6 Demo Types


Research: 7 Immutable Strategies for Scaling Presales


6 Demo Types Infographic


5 Burning Presales Problems Sales Leaders Observe

2021 Sales Engineering Compensation & Workload Report

Let us know where you want to see us next year!

Windows 95


Filter by Categories
Articles
Blog
Channel Development
Entrepreneurship
Event
Guides
Marketing
News
Awards
In the Press
Press Releases
Outreach
Press Releases
Sales
Business Development
Buyer Enablement
Presales
Filter by Customer stories Category
Customer Story
Featured
TP2
Filter by Tags
Artificial Intelligence
Automation
B2B Sales
best practices
buyer enablement
Company
Deep C
demo automation
Demo types
DEMOFEST
Demolytics
Demolytics best practices
Interactive videos
Marketing
Presales
product News
Research
Sales
scaling presales
test tag
Tips
Filter by Research Category
Appendix
Buyer enablement
Featured
Guide
Infographic
Research
Filter by Demofest Category
2020
2021
2022
2023
London
Silicon Slopes
Silicon Valley
Filter by Podcasts Category
Featured
Podcast
Filter by Webinars Category
Buyer
Presales
Webinar
Filter by Tags
*Best practices
*Buyer enablemen
*Buyer enablement
*Scaling presales
6 demo types
analytics
automation
b2b
b2b sales
best practices
Blog 2
business development
business strategy
buyer enablement
channel
company
customer insights
Customer Stories
data analysis
Deep C
demo
demo automation
Demo Types
demo video
DEMOFEST
demolytics
Demolytics Scaling Presales
demos
digital presales
digital transformation
disruption
dojo
EBook
faq
industry analysis
Infographics
innovation
interactive demos
Interactive videos
market trends
marketing
new demo player
outreach
podcast
presales
Presales Sales
presentation skills
Press
press release
product demo
product demonstrations
Product News
remote
Research
sale
sales
sales teams
scaling presales
Table of Contents
technology trends
Tips
virtual event
webinar
wfh