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Adding Capacity to Presales Teams by Eliminating Demo Lag Time

Company Information
Company size:
500
Presales team:
5
AE:SE Ratio:
7:1
Avg. Sales Cycle:
3 Months

21 Days
to 0 Days

Demo lag time reduction

20+ hours
per week

Presales capacity increased by

90%

Unqualified demos reduced

The Challenge

Too Many Unqualified Demos Creating a Presales Bottleneck

Visma | Raet understood that buying their solution was a complex process for their buyers. They also knew their buyers wanted to see the product early in their journey, which required their presales team to execute a lot of demos. Their desire to help customers see their product soon became a
bottleneck though, as prospects had to wait for solutions consultant availability to see the product, which took three weeks or more from their initial conversations with sales reps. Visma | Raet’s solutions consultants felt this burden weigh on them as they tried to keep up with the several demands on their time while trying to meet the demand for demos. Their frustrations began to rise as they realized that many of the demos bogging down their calendars were repetitive intro demos for prospects ranging from those who were either improperly prepared, or totally unqualified for a live call.

As tensions between sales and solutions consultants rose, Visma | Raet sought a solution to help their buyers see their product by scaling their SC team’s abilities to deliver intro and FAQ demos.

“There was a lot of back and forth between sales and presales to schedule demos. We wanted to show buyers the product, but availability was scarce and we found that we kept delivering the same demo over and over again because prospects could not get all stakeholders involved in the first call. It became an unmanageable load to do this many intro demos weekly.”
Jeroen de Haas
Medior Solution Consultant

The Solution

Qualifying Prospects for Live Calls Using Demo Automation

Visma | Raet implemented Consensus as a means to alleviate their presales bottleneck by giving buyers instant access to demos. Sales reps sent demos upon request to pre qualify prospects for live calls. This Demo Qualified Lead (DQL) strategy shielded the solutions consulting team from spending time on repetitive intro demos and helped sales understand the interest and urgency shown by customer buying groups. Once the demo was watched, sales would engage the solutions consultants for live demonstrations in which prospects could ask specific questions about Visma | Raet that connected to their personal business problems.

“Instead of waiting two or three weeks for a live demonstration that was not always the best use of an SC’s time, we wanted a tool that would put the power of the demo into the hands of sales reps to let our product do the talking.”
Peter Kuijt
Manager Sales Operations & Partners

The Result

Eliminated Demo Lag Time

Using intelligent demo automation effectively removed three weeks (or more) from the sales cycle. By creating content libraries with intro demos, FAQ demos, and other content sales regularly asked for, solutions consultants were able to impact the buyer’s journey earlier in the process at scale. Instead of waiting on sales reps and trying to squeeze additional demos onto an already crowded presales calendar, sales reps were able to send demos customers wanted to see on demand.

"The back and forth between presales and sales after initial calls to find a time for a demo virtually ended. Now sales reps send a demo immediately after they talk to a customer. When the prospect meets with a solutions consultant a couple of weeks later, they talk about specific points of our solution related to their problems."
Jeroen de Haas
Medior Solution Consultant

Unqualified Demos Disappeared

Empowering sales reps to send demos on demand brought another positive impact to the solutions consulting team by shielding them from demos that had little chance of progressing. Before Consensus, the team estimated that 50% of the demos they executed were underqualified or totally unqualified because a prospect lacked authority, was the wrong persona, or had no urgency to progress the deal forward. After implementing Consensus, they saw that rate reduced to 5%. Leveraging demo automation allowed Visma | Raet’s teams to see who was truly interested in their solution and therefore ready to speak with solutions consultants. In fact the reduction in unqualified demos and the prioritization of DQLs gave Visma | Raet’s presales team more than 20 hours back in their work week to focus on impacting the buyer’s journey with customized content, in depth discussions, and solution scoping that normally took place weeks later.

"The first step in the buying process for us is a Consensus demo. We ask sales reps did you send a demo?’ or what did they think of the demo?’ to ensure that every live call has meaning for both our customers and our team members."
Jeroen de Haas
Medior Solution Consultant

Improved Cooperation Between Presales and Sales

As with any new tool, there was reticence to adopt Consensus among other groups. The sales team hesitated at first, but soon became comfortable with sending demos to prospects and now do it proactively to understand how prospects are viewing their solution and who else gets involved in the buying process. The ability to discover new stakeholders sooner, see how buyers prioritize content, and even close deals without engaging presales for live calls became a boon to rep empowerment and improved the communication and collaboration between the teams. Because they no longer had to wait weeks to get a live demo, sales felt enabled with the right demos to share with champions and buying groups alike at any point in the sales cycle. On the flip side, solutions consultants now felt like their calendars were filled with meaningful customer engagements instead of repetitive intro demos that showed little promise of turning into revenue down the road. Tensions eased between teams and working relationships improved with newfound focus, alignment, and eagerness to meet buyer needs.

"A lot of people get involved when buying our solution. Being able to know who we’re selling to and how we align the live discussion has helped our teams work together beautifully. Now that SCs are not bogged down with intro demos, the teams work harmoniously together to help buyers complete deals."
Peter Kuijt
Manager Sales Operations & Partners

Key Takeaways

  • Intelligent demo automation adds to the capacity of presales teams to focus on the tasks
    they do best
  • Scaling presales empowers sales reps to confidently send product related demos on
    demand shortens the sales cycle
  • Implementing a DQL strategy ensures the best leads get worked first and maximizes your
    chances of generating revenue

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Presales » Customer Stories » Visma | Raet

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