Show people your product

So many companies fall into “tell don’t show” when it comes to their product, because the effort it requires to “show” is such a heavy lift. 

It’s a pitfall, because showing your product to prospects can help PLG motions, gain trust, and boost your whole GTM motion and sales cycle. Getting buy-in from stakeholders (and keeping them bought in) is key, though. Especially when you need to show impact and ROI. 

This playbook will give you the tools to build a business case for ungating your product and then proving its impact.  

Step-by-step for starting with product demos and getting buy-in

Where to start with product demos

Step 1: Think about your use case 

• Have one use case in mind to start with, since that will dictate which tooling and product demo setup you move forward with

Step 2: Choose your tool 

• Choose between interactive demos, product videos, sandboxes etc. (This video can help)
  THEN
• Choose which software is best for your use cases for that format 
• • There’s a lot to consider here, like whether you want to capture an HTML demo, budget, ease of setup, etc.

Step 3: Create a demo and test things yourself first 

• Pick a simple flow or a small part of your product to show off. Create a demo of that first to get a feel for how it all works
• Don’t worry about perfection at this stage, the goal is for you to get a feel for it all. This video can help
  

Step 4: Build your business case 

• Identify:
• • The problems your team (and company) are trying to solve
  • Metrics you want to track
  • Outcomes you can deliver on
  • Steps to take to get the demo software set up and onboard your team(s)

Step 5: Chat to your tool provider to get support

• Most tools are happy to chat and help you run through the things from step 3 to make it easier for you

Step 6: Share your business case with your team

• More on this below! 

Step 7: [Optional] Set up a pilot

Step 8: Test, share metrics, and pivot as needed 

• More on this below, too. Testing and iterating is key with demoing, and each decision can be data-led 

What problems do stakeholders buy into demos for?

Most stakeholder buy-in for product demos is around needing to showcase platform capabilities for prospects before they commit to a live demo. Here are some things you might tie to:

• The wrong leads are clogging the pipeline and we have a challenge with self-qualification. 
• • I.e. We have solid awareness but need to help the right prospects experience the product to self-educate and cross from interest > evaluation earlier
• We want to show prospects the benefits of our product against the competition, but have limited opportunity to achieve that. We need to bring down the barriers so prospects see value faster

Best practices (and some pitfalls to avoid)

Best practices

➕ Tie analytics to business value, not vanity metrics 

➕ Set clear objectives, timelines, and success criteria

➕ Start with a concrete problem

➕ Plan for internal training 

➕ Communicate results and proof points 

➕ Pivot and iterate often 

Pitfalls to avoid

➖ Vague criteria 👈 Especially when shared with the team

➖ Overindexing on industry benchmarks rather than focusing on your specific situation

➖ Skipping ownership and operational costs in your plan

➖ Trying to use demos for every team all at once rather than building up  

Metrics to share with your team

KPI examples

Tip: Don’t get caught up in measuring too many of these. Choose 3-5 metrics to focus on, depending on how you are measured and how business objectives are measured. 

• Demand gen metrics 
• • % increase in website conversion rate 
  • xx increase in form submissions (e.g. demo requests)
  • Conversion rates for demo-engaged users vs other users 

↓

• Lead metrics 
• • % increase in qualified leads  
  • Xx increase in app signups
    ↓
• Demo engagement metrics
• • Demo completion %
  • % of users interacting with demo CTA (e.g. sign up)

↓

• Pipeline/revenue influenced by demo engagement
• • % of sales board with demo engagement

↓

• Product metrics (e.g. if using for new feature launches)
• • Feature launch metrics 
  • Activation rate/adoption rate

☝️Another pro tip: Send events to Hubspot (or your CRM) and all of this data gets stronger. E.g. Use demo engagement metrics for lead scoring and add demo data to contacts.   

Example target metrics for a 2-3 month pilot:

• x% more qualified leads from marketing campaigns
• xx increase in demo requests (e.g. from current monthly average)
• x% higher engagement or time spent on platform pages
• Sales team reporting higher quality conversations when speaking to prospects who have already explored demos

What metrics do other teams report? 

If your stakeholders are looking for examples from other teams, here are three metrics HowdyGo customers have reported:

• 1.7x more app signups 
• 1.5x more activations
• >90% demo engagement
• 30% more upsell requests

Example signals and holistic things for you to look for

• Sales feedback 
• • E.g. More high intent/self-educated calls, how they feel using demos in the sales process
• Product understanding and feedback 
• • E.g. qualitative feedback on onboarding flows or feedback from your product team 
• Team receptiveness to demos
• • Internal marketing is always key. Keep a pulse on how the team and stakeholders feel about demos

3 deliverables for product demos that can help your team

Product marketing can create demos for:

1. Enterprise Sales Enablement

• Interactive, personalised guided tours showcasing the product for prospects at the interest stage 
• Sandbox demos for live sales calls, so reps can demo features without needing engineering for demo environments  

2. Personalized Outbound Content

• Personalized demos for outbound prospecting to add a human touch to automated outreach
  
  

3. Multi-Channel Marketing Assets

• GIFs and videos for the website, social media, emails, blogs etc. 

Tl;Dr and More Info 

Showing people your product a lot earlier in their journey can be a huge win for your GTM team, especially if you have a plan for demoing, measuring, and bringing your team on board. If you want to see how other teams have added demos and HowdyGo to their process, here are some stories to look through.