Daniel Hebert’s Post

IMO, one of the worst mistakes sellers make is sending prospects the demo recording after their demo—it’s a complete waste of time. This has been happening a lot to 20 person sales team I'm coaching. At the end of the demo, the prospect asks the AE to send them a demo recording to share with their boss or partner. AE agrees, but nobody ends up actually watching it. Ever since they started implementing the 5 steps I taught them, they've been closing deals faster. Here are 5 steps they do instead: 1. Agree First: Start by agreeing to send the recording. It shows you're cooperative and not pushing back right away. This lowers resistance and keeps the conversation positive. → Example: “Happy to send the recording!” 2. Ask Permission to Share a Concern: Before jumping into your recommendation, ask if you can share a concern. This shows respect and frames your advice as collaborative, not confrontational. → Example: "Can I just share a small concern I have?" 3. Explain Why Recordings Don’t Get Watched: Gently explain why demo recordings often don’t get watched. Use data or past experience to reinforce your point. Keep this light and focused on their success. → Example: "9 out of 10 times, when I send a demo recording, it goes unwatched. It’s not that they aren’t interested, but recordings are often too long, and it’s hard for people to find time to watch them." 4. Recommend a Shorter, More Effective Option: Offer a solution that adds more value. Suggest a short, live demo where the team can interact, ask questions, and see the product in action. This makes it more engaging and relevant for them. → Example: "I suggest we schedule a shorter, 15-20-minute live demo with your [stakeholders]. It’s more effective because they can see the software in real time and ask questions directly." 5. Propose a Next Step: Make your recommendation actionable by suggesting the next step. This keeps momentum and gives the prospect an easy way to move forward. → Example: "Does that sound like a fair next step?" Takeaway: Sending a demo recording might seem helpful, but it often falls into the black hole of 'I'll watch it later.' Instead, offer a live, interactive session—keeping engagement high and increasing your chances of closing the deal.

Founders need to master their demo. Most assume that because they built the tool, they automatically know how to show it. But the reality is, what they're showing is coming across as an admin training session more than a demo. I obsessed about our demo when I was VP Sales at Proposify. The founder at LevelJump did the same. I'm constantly tweaking my demo now at Savio. You want to create a movie trailer that gets people excited. When was the last time you were excited to try something after going through a long training session? Here's how to craft your demo: 1️⃣ Think of your demo as chapters. Each chapter should emphasize a key point of your positioning. You should demo workflows instead of features. And those workflows should solve a problem. 2️⃣ Use this framework to script your chapters: Context > Problem > Solution > Show workflows > Dialogue question 3️⃣ Do short bursts. 60-90 seconds of showing, then have a conversation. Ask a question about how they'd use this. They will ask questions in return. Once the dialogue is over, go into another burst. Do this 3-4 times and you'll have a good demo. Couple quick notes: -The demo is about them not you. Make it about solving their pain. -Don't show everything. Show exactly what they need to see to solve their pain. -Start at the end, then show them how to achieve the end state -Make them imagine using your tool in their world -This is not a training call. Get rid of unnecessary clicks (like don't show how to log in for example) Besides the ability to ask great questions, your demo is probably the most important selling tool you have. Spend time crafting it, and you'll win more deals.

Presales Demo Power that matters to customers can only come from WITHIN! "I need to build a great demo for my customer." "I need to build a great demo for my customer WITHIN 2 hours total time." The second statement requires making intelligent choices. It requires reviewing what is truly important to your customer and discarding the rest. How will you change their world? The first statement is a beginners approach. It will have you working late nights on details that almost certainly won’t matter to any customer. It will have you rambling on and on about everything you built into the demo while your customer gets more and more confused! https://lnkd.in/eHywV2Ya

Don't Demo Too Deep Too Soon You’ll kill your deal. Your prospect asks, "Just show us your product". You jump into a detailed demo, hoping to impress. But the result? Typical results: A. You don't hear back from the prospect. or B. The prospect asked for a second demo because they wanted to invite more people. Both A and B are not what you need to win the deal. What is happening here? Prospects are no experts in buying software. They don't do it often. Very likely, this prospect is in the early stages of their buying journey. They are formulating their needs and using your demo to do this. What they forget is that they need to 'sell' this initiative internally, get funding for it, and make it to the project calendar for next year. When you show a detailed demo, you're not helping them to buy. You are just teaching technology. Your demo will scare the big bosses. They will likely leave the meeting early. Leaving you speaking with people with no decision power. This gets even worse when they ask you for a second demo. You will be forced to do a more extensive demo, as they have seen the 1-hour overview already. You have set up yourself up for a detailed POC type of demo. Your audience will likely be lower level than in your first meeting. People who want to know all the technical details and are not involved in the buying process. From this point, it is nearly impossible to do sales discovery and you have lost the ability to speak to people that matter. Here's how to deal with top-funnel demo requests: 1. Present a high-level, teaser demo showing the solution to a problem in 1-2 software screens. Don't go deep. The goal is to make them hungry for more. 2. Do discovery while presenting the software. 3. Stay at business level, involve the high-level stakeholders in a conversation.

Great sellers are product masters. We talk a lot about leading with value and not overwhelming buyers with feature function demos. But the irony is that the best value sellers - the ones selling the biggest deals, with the least discounts - work the hardest to know the product inside out. Killer AEs can hold their own doing a shift on the Customer Support team. Killer AEs embrace work that feels like "Customer Success" work, because they are passionate about their customers adopting the product, to achieve the value they sold, faster (and to unlock expansion deals). Killer AEs could lead end-user trainings. But their demos show less product than others. Product masters show the most powerful feature/s, and describe its value with the buyer's language, validated from previous discovery. Product weaklings give harbor tours, and hope something sticks. If you're reading this and don't feel like you know your own product better than any other AE on your team, here are five things you can do starting Monday to level up. - If your demos are run by SEs, insist on owning a part of the demo. - Shadow and helping a Support rep for a few weeks (Bonus, make good friends on the Support team, and they'll help when your customer really needs extra attention). - Is there a product certification designed for Sales Engineers, Support or another function? Get your hands on it and get certified. - Figure out who runs the best demos in your company, and watch and annotate the last five. - [This one is my favorite] Teach a peer how to demo how your product solves a major business problem. "You teach what you need to learn."

Coaches & Course Creators If you are just starting out - the best way for you to get clients in your pipeline is outreach. But cold dms, asking prospects to book a call is not going to work. I'll show you how to cold/warm outreach with a twist. 1. Build a lead magnet. 2. Build a sales funnel for your lead magnet - with primary objective being capturing emails of interested leads. (Use systeme.io ) 3. Build a list and do manual outreach on LinkedIn or use HeyReach to automate connection requests and messaging. 4. Start off casual - address the pain point and show how you can solve it. 5. Your only goal must be to get them to your sales funnel and sign up for your lead magnet. 6. This warms up your lead and builds your mailing list. 7. Once they see the amount of value provided - ask them to book a complimentary call.

Effective sales coaching is crucial, but as a sales leader or founder, you might not have the time to review every call or demo. 📲 🔵 Wonderway streamlines this process, helping you provide targeted feedback efficiently. This ensures your sales reps perform at their best without overwhelming your schedule. Crafting personalized emails and LinkedIn messages is time-consuming.   🔵 Twain AI assists in generating professional and relevant outreach, saving time and optimizing communication.  By training your team and utilizing the right tools, you can enhance your sales strategy and keep costs low. What tools do you use to enhance your sales strategy? 💻 #salestools #sales #coldemail #salescoaching  

“Thanks for the demo. Can we get a trial so our team can play around with the platform?” Pretty common question to get after your demo. How most reps respond (I did this a ton personally earlier in my career): “Sure, I can get 30-day trial set up for you. I’ll follow up in a week.” You follow up, and they say: “been pretty busy, haven’t had a chance to access and test it out” You follow up again: *crickets* Never heard back. Closed lost. .................................................. Here's how to turn things around (helped me a ton) Prospect: “Thanks for the demo. Can we get a trial so our team can play around with the platform?” AE: “If you don’t mind me asking, what are you looking to accomplish via a trial? *understand the why first* you’d be surprised how easy you could address it in some cases (without having to go through a trial or pilot) Let’s say they respond with Prospect: “It’s a required part of our evaluation process for any technology vendor.“ AE: “Got it. There are 3 things we align on with our customers prior to the start of a trial / pilot so they can maximize use of the tool during this period. Could I walk you through it?” Prospect: “Sure .” AE: “1 - map out the use cases prior to the trial / pilot to ensure we're aligned to what you’re looking to solve for. 2 - defining your success criteria and if met, next steps in terms of a roll-out across your business segment. 3 - team calls and exec alignment what we find is questions usually come up when teams access the trial. Rather than go back and forth over email and to ensure the best experience, We usually have 2-3 calls over the course of the trial which include an exec alignment call between your sr VP and an exec on our side to make sure you have everything you need to make the best decision for your business. Is that an unfair ask?” ……………………………………….. If they’re ok with that, I’ll send them a doc (or email) outlining: Customer stakeholders X X [Your company] stakeholders X X Use case description 1st use case: X 2nd use case: X Success criteria X [specify metric if needed] X [specify metric if needed] Ongoing engagement [including exec alignment] 1st call: xx/xx/xx 2nd call: xx/xx/xx Customer exec sponsor X [your company] exec sponsor X ………………………….. Don’t give away trials or pilots Understand the why first and be strategic in your approach. Take control of your key deals.

Now THIS is how PLG should be done with free trials of SaaS solutions.

Virtual selling isn’t going anywhere, and the challenges are real: scattered content, robotic pitches, and feedback that’s too vague to help. In our latest article, we share 5 practical ways to improve sales enablement in a virtual selling environment—so your team can deliver impactful messages, personalize their approach, and continuously improve their performance. Read more about how smarter tools, better coaching, and actionable feedback can make all the difference: https://lnkd.in/eqHqJ8gM #SalesEnablement #VirtualSelling #SalesCoaching #SalesPerformance #AITraining