Understanding How Demo Automation Supports Buyer Enablement

There is one aspect of buyer enablement that is near and dear to our hearts. Can you guess what it is? 

Automated and interactive product demos.

Buyers are restlessly waiting to get their hands on your solution. Sales engineers would love to be able to provide demos for every customer who wants one, but there’s simply not enough time and resources for them to meet that demand.

Not only are intro demos time-consuming, but many of them are delivered to customers who thought they were ready to commit but quickly realize they aren’t as far into the buying process as they assumed.

Luckily, you don’t have to leave customers on read. You can enable them to see your products on their own with a bit of automation. 

Pros and Cons

Live demos have a time and place. We’ll never dispute that; we do live demos for most of our deals. That said, demo automation and interactive product tours offer benefits you can’t get from a live demo. Below are the pros and cons of live demos, automated demos, and interactive product demos.

Live Demos

Pros	Cons
Get to see customer’s reactions.	The loudest customers might not actually be champions.
Conduct full discovery and have the opportunity to ask probing questions.	You have to find alignment with multiple calendars and time zones.
Uncover how to personalize the message for this buying group fully.	Key members of the buying group may not be able to attend.
	You can’t control the narrative when stakeholders try to repeat highlights later.
	You risk needing several in-person demos if the buyer demands a demo early in the cycle.

Automated Demos  

Pros	Cons
You don’t have to wait on sales engineers’ schedules.	You’re not in the room with the viewers, so you may miss out on their reactions.
Demos can be used over and over, making them scalable.	Demos will have to be updated every time the product changes.
You get insights into the topics prospects want to know about, which you can use to personalize future meetings.	It might not cover all the deeply technical questions stakeholders have right away.
They reduce the number of unqualified demos.
Stakeholders can watch demos anytime on any platform.
Are shareable, helping uncover hidden stakeholders.
Stakeholders can personalize their experience to their unique needs.

Interactive Product Demos

Pros	Cons
You give the customers a taste of your product without giving them full access.	Not every stakeholder will care about how the solution functions.
Connect the “what” of your product with the “why” you explain in your videos.	Demos will have to be updated every time the product changes.
Reiterate key value propositions with different forms of media.	It might not fully showcase every feature stakeholders want to experience.
See what areas of your platform customers interact with most.
Are shareable, helping uncover hidden stakeholders.
You don’t have to wait on sales engineers’ schedules.
Demos can be used over and over, making them scalable.

6 Demo Types

Automated demos can do a lot for you and your customers, but there’s more to it than recording one, slapping it in an email, and forgetting about it. There’s some strategy to what kind of demo you should send and when. 

We’ve done the research and found six types of demos that fit into different points of the buyer journey.  Having these demos in your arsenal enables you and your buyers because buyers no longer have to wait on you, and you get insights into their interests.

We’ve written a whole blog series and guide on the six demo types and where to use them, so we won’t go into it fully here, but these demo types basically break down like this:

1. Vision demo – your basic intro demo.
2. Micro demo – bite-sized demos centered around one topic.
3. Qualifying and Discovery demo – a deeper than micro but still doesn’t cover everything.
4. Technical demo – DON’T AUTOMATE. This is the live demo.
5. Closing demo – answer any remaining questions and address emotional ROI.
6. FAQ demo – prepared answers for frequently asked questions. This is the only demo type not tied to one specific stage.

Selling Between Meetings

The beauty of automated demos is you don’t have to wait for in-person meetings to engage with buyers, and they don’t have to wait on you to get answers to their questions.

It’s a staple of buyer enablement. Buyers want to do their own research, but they also want demos. Having demo creation software allows you to provide your customers the freedom to explore your solution on their own.

Sell between meetings with automated demos and interactive product demos.

Demo Creation Best Practices

So that’s the why and when to use automated demos and interactive product demos. To bring it all together, you need the how. 

At Consensus, we have a list of best practices we use when creating demos that we want to share with you.

The best practices for demo creation are:

1. Demo Engine – This is how you handle demo requests in your organization whether it’s internally or from customers.
2. The anatomy of a demo – What you cover in the demo and how you cover it. 
3. Demo guidelines – These cover the look and sound of the demo as well as any policies your demo creators need to follow. 
4. Demo templates – Creating a uniform set of slides to present a unified front.  
5. Adding in a “Try” step – If you’re using interactive product tours, let your buyers explore the product independently.

Automated demos will never replace the live demo (that’s why it’s in our six demo types!), but it is a crucial piece for enabling buyers. In fact, when used in the right places, automated demos will make your live demos a much better experience for your buyers and your revenue team.

Your customers want to see the product as soon as humanly possible, but very few organizations can deliver that swiftly. Your presales teams will burn out if they constantly get tagged to deliver intro demos. Instead of making customers wait (or worse – jump through hoop after hoop) to get a demo, meet them where they are with an automated demo or interactive product tour. 

Customers get the information they want, and you get a first look into their needs and interests, so you know how to steer the next conversation. I mean, it doesn’t get more enabling than that!

Want to see what else demo automation can do for your organization? Check out our extensive resource center, view a webinar, or even watch your own demo on demand.