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Demos Reimagined: The Strategy and Tech Behind Scaling a Demo Program
October 28, 2024
Last week, we hosted our first annual “Demos Reimagined” event, featuring presales leaders and practitioners from top enterprise software companies, along with thought leaders and industry experts on all things demos. Below are the key takeaways from each session and the recordings on demand.
The event gave us all a nuanced look at demo program growth, tools, and approaches that have transformed how organizations present their products and engage prospects. The sessions explored:
- The evolving role of demos in the go-to-market (GTM) lifecycle
- How to optimize them for maximum impact
- How to use them to drive scale across go-to-market team
- How demos improve conversions and revenue growth
- And more.
Presales leaders and practitioners shared their secrets on career advancement, strategic alignment with the rest of the organization, and learning from their demo failures.
One of the biggest takeaways? Demo skills and strategies can only take you so far. The technology and demo environments you use are starting to play an even bigger role in GTM success, especially when trying to scale a demo program.
Why Demos Are Critical to Modern Sales
As highlighted in the opening remarks, the demand for efficient and impactful demos has skyrocketed in recent years. This change is driven by the increased complexity of products, the demand for quick value demonstration, and the need for sales and marketing teams to work in sync. Demos are no longer just a sales tool, but an integral part of the GTM strategy, affecting all stages of the sales funnel from lead generation to conversion.
To respond to these trends, modern demo technology has evolved to provide tangible business outcomes at scale. By customizing demos, presales and sales teams can drive even greater engagement, providing value not only in early-stage prospecting but also in nurturing customer relationships throughout the sales process. This shift has enabled teams to move beyond outdated methods like slide decks and over-generalized presentations, offering their prospects more interactive, personalized experiences with the product.
Key Sessions and Insights
Below are the highlights of each of the Demos Reimagined sessions, including on-demand videos so you can watch the full session.
How interactive demo technology will change your (prospect’s) life
David Yockelson, Distinguished VP analyst at Gartner, delivered a comprehensive session on the impact of interactive demo technology in the enterprise. From guided, interactive demos, to live sales demos, to sales leave-behinds, to PoC/sandboxes — demos have a role in every stage of the sales cycle. Depending on a company’s demo needs, Yockleson showed how different interactive demo technology can be tailored for specific stages of the buying process. For example, more advanced demos — which closely replicate real products — have become imperative during later sales stages, while for top-of-funnel prospects, lower-fidelity demos can drive initial engagement. He emphasized that businesses should consider implementing demo creation technology that will meet their needs over time to streamline their sales efforts, improve buyer experiences, and drive growth.
Presales influence: Enhancing organizational influence through maturity models
From there, Chris Mabry, General Manager of PreSales Collective, delivered an insightful talk on how presales teams can increase their influence on their organization through a five-stage maturity model. He explained how presales teams can elevate their role from basic resources (providing inconsistent, manual support) to becoming trusted advisors and revenue-driving leaders within their companies. He shared a framework for how his previous team at Datto evolved from reactive support roles to becoming critical players in driving sales and product strategies — by collaborating closely with marketing, product development, and sales.
Reimagining demos: Inspiring programs and how to gain support for one in your business
A panel featuring presales leaders from companies like ServiceNow, Shopify, and ScienceLogic discussed how they’ve built and scaled demo programs to meet the diverse needs of their stakeholders. Anjali Gattani from ServiceNow talked about the importance of simplifying demos and using shorter, more targeted demo formats to enhance the buyer experience. Meanwhile, Patrick Hubbard from ScienceLogic emphasized the need to create reusable demo content that could serve multiple stakeholders, from marketing teams to resellers. Andrei Dumitriu from Shopify spoke about how they started their demo program with leave-behind demos that could be shared after initial sales meetings to keep prospects engaged throughout the decision-making process. Overall, successful demo programs are highly customized to fit the specific needs of different sales stages and stakeholders. They require a collaborative approach across teams to ensure consistent, relevant demo content.
Unlocking hidden insights: How demo automation transforms discovery
Presales leader Chris White’s session focused on the impact of demo automation on discovery and overall presales team efficiency. White explored how demo automation can streamline lead qualification, increase efficiency and scalability, enhance discovery insights, improve team collaboration, and more. He explained that automated demos not only reduce the manual effort required from SEs, but also provide valuable data that helps sales teams tailor their outreach and conversations with prospects. By streamlining the demo process and making it more scalable, organizations can increase the reach of their sales efforts without compromising on quality.
Demo fails: Turning challenges into triumphs
One of the most candid and engaging sessions at the event was the panel discussion on “Demo Fails,” where presales pros from HubSpot, Qualtrics, Codat, and Black Kite shared their own stories of demo mishaps and how to overcome them with grace and humor. Matthew Young James of Codat told a story of his SE team cloning a demo environment for his sales reps only to find out that setting up each new instance reset the whole thing — including logging the rep out of the environment. “I was logging them out of their demos live, in front of customers. Over and over,” he shared.
While the panel shared a laugh at these demo fails, the conversation centered on the importance of rehearsing demos, preparing backup plans, and humanizing mistakes. Several panelists emphasized that while demo failures can be nerve-wracking, they also offer opportunities to build trust with prospects by showing authenticity and resilience. The panelists encouraged demo teams to normalize mistakes and use them as learning opportunities.
Proving value and securing resources: A strategic approach for presales teams
For the last session of the day, Chris Mabry led a panel of presales leaders from Figma, ServiceNow, and Formstack on how to prove the value of the presales function, and secure the resources you need to execute effectively. Panelists shared tips on measuring influence — from tracking tech wins with the CRO, to finding the best ratio of sales team members to SEs, to aligning presales efforts with new product launches to ensure the team is properly resourced. Overall, panelists agreed that the presales function is gaining efficacy, respect, and influence as more buyers demand interactions with technical experts.
Building the Future of Demo Programs
The “Demos Reimagined” event made it clear that demo programs are becoming essential in the modern GTM motion. From automation to customization and cross-team collaboration, the future of demo programs is about unlocking SE capacity, while providing engaging product experiences across the entire sales funnel. Companies that invest in building end-to-end demo programs — fueled by automation, reusable content, and continuous improvement — will be well-positioned to accelerate sales cycles and win more deals.
We hope that you’ll catch up on these sessions above, which are packed with actionable insights to reimagine your demo program and fuel your presales career growth in 2025 and beyond!