What’s a “light switch demo?”
It’s when your product has a single feature that can crack open a proper conversation. You don’t need an hour-long demo to set a vision – instead, you have this one incredible capability that unlocks a world of possibility.
When you show it live, people go, “ahhhh… that’s what you do!” The light bulb suddenly turns on and you illuminate a world of possibility.
You can use a light switch demo on an early call. It’s not a replacement for the full demo – it’s just the quick overview that sets the context for your discovery conversation. It’s helps to set your customer at ease so you can have a proper discovery.
This kind of demo typically takes just 3-5 minutes. You get into it by offering to “set up the call for success by sharing a quick overview on how we drive value.” The champion sees this one killshot capability and realizes there’s a huge ROI to be had if they choose to work with you.
So keep it quick – get right to the magic moment.
Here’s an example:
It shows off our ability to manufacture data for your demos. It’s not my value proposition, it’s not my demo script, it’s not my full set of capabilities.
It just helps raise the perspective of what’s possible. It moves my prospect’s mindset from “what do you do” to “hey, how else could I use this?” The remaining 20 minutes of a half hour meeting go fantastic.
https://app.getreprise.com/launch/D6z41XL/
So you’ll notice this ‘demo’ is simply a single feature that Reprise can offer. It’s not our full set of capabilities; it’s just about that “game changing/what makes us different/solves that one thing” part of what we do. It creates a need for discovery now that this new world of possible exists.
“Now that you know we could clone demos and fill them with segment-relevant data, or that we could create a self guided demo and let your SMB customer self shop, or that we could give you demos that never go down and don’t need a sales engineer to tweak every time? Now that you know that – can we have a discovery chat? Like, how can I help you?
Anyway, how do you use this as a seller?
You can use it to help your prospect realize that a measly 30 minutes isn’t enough. This helps get them to agree to open up for a real discovery conversation with the rest of this meeting, and then book more time to go deep on all the product possibilities next time.
A light switch demo works to flip a tough prospect into an early fan. Show this one feature off, see the light in their eyes go on, and then have a good call.
Joe Caprio is a cofounder at Reprise.
He also advocates for ICW, ask him about it!
