User Pilot

NOVEMBER 7, 2024

What is an interactive product demo? An interactive demo is a self-guided walkthrough that uses tooltips, modals, hotspots, and other interactive elements to help users quickly explore your SaaS product. Why build interactive demos for your SaaS product? Define your goals : What do you want to achieve with this demo?

Payment Methods 75

Payment Methods Payment Solutions Software Review SaaS Payments 75

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 27, 2024

At the time, they’d reach out to a thousand accounts and get about 5-10 demos. Those SDRs had quotas of 50-60 demos per month. Who wouldn’t want 30-70 demos on the same accounts that previously got ten demos? Because 50% of Rippling’s demos are booked over the phone. From there, inbound SDRs would engage them.

Scale 321

Scale Sales Hiring Revenue Scaling 321

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 25, 2024

Then the question is what is the lead-to-opportunity ratio … A different way to back into it is that it’s hard for a rep to have too many more than 50 thoughtful, deep, qualified conversations a month, that include multiple demos, follow-ups, etc. 3 demos a day is a lot to prep for, x 20 working days + holidays = 50 good demos a month.

Sales 246

Sales Business 246

SaaStr

DECEMBER 7, 2020

A Web Demo. They want to sit back at their Dell desktop, and get a demo, while they watch with a cup of coffee or such. So they want a demo where you show them how you solve their problem. So: If you don’t have a Contact Me, if you don’t do enough Demos, do them now. How you provide a real solution.

Pricing 363

Pricing Enterprise Innovation Revenue 363

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 20, 2021

The best reps tailor the pitch, the demo, the functionality shares, the case studies, etc. The best reps just get more meetings, more demos, more interactions done. Great salespeople learn their prospects’ needs, issues and pain. They can adjust the pitch and story to suit the prospec t. Every prospect is a bit different.

Sales 358

Sales SaaS 358

SaaStr

JULY 16, 2024

How much of it is prospecting, cold emails or cold calls, reaching out through network, giving demos, trying to close deals, etc.? This is emails and reachouts for next steps, demos, follow-up on leads, deep dive calls (see below), sometimes flights, trying to increase the odds of a close. Helping on billing, renewals, etc.

Scale 285

Scale Sales SaaS Travel 285

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 1, 2024

I first did my standard demo of our web product, and I was good at it. But then — they asked me to demo two more things. I tried to do the Salesforce demo, but I actually had never really used Salesforce before. So — I failed the demo. Force them to a demo before they start. I walked in alone.

Sales Hiring 289

Sales Hiring B2B Engineering Enterprise 289

SaaStr

JANUARY 31, 2024

The interactive demo didn’t work (a browser bug). I got better at demo-ing myself. Not relying on someone else to do the demo Most importantly, I had to hear the objections first to learn them. Dear SaaStr: What Was Your Experience At Your First Big Enterprise Pitch? They asked me about our LDAP integration. It was rough.

Enterprise 278

Enterprise 278

SaaStr

APRIL 13, 2022

But in the end, you can only do so many qualified calls and demos a day. Maybe 3–4 demos max for deals in process a day. It’s really tough if it takes more than 2 calls to close a deal, and more than 1 demo. Usually all inbound. 10–15 deals a month if $5k-$25k ACV (i.e., transactional, but not 1–2 call close).

Sales 317

Sales SMB Enterprise SaaS 317

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 1, 2021

Sometimes they want a more passive experience, where they can consume a demo and a discussion without having to answer a bunch of qualifying questions up front. You can alternate the format every week, but doing one every week will force you to do it and level things up: Some can be product demos. Do these every week.

Branding 357

Branding Marketing Sales SaaS 357

SaaStr

JUNE 4, 2024

Still — a 5% true connect rate — where they will take a call and do a demo — for a product no one has ever heard of, is pretty good. As long as the product delivers, your pitch is enough to get the demo. It says to me outbound may work well for your product. If you can close any of these 5%, I say, outbound ftw here.

285

285

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 30, 2024

The 90-Day Revenue Test While 30 days is enough to evaluate their hiring decisions, you should see clear revenue improvements within 90 days (or one full sales cycle).

Sales Hiring 306

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales Headcount 306

SaaStr

JANUARY 3, 2021

First, at the low end of the market, there are 2 types of sales: “Real” sales with demos, leads, a sales process … and 1-Call-To-Close. They may want a demo. Because assuming say a 20% close rate, that’s maybe 60 demos a month, or 3 a day. But here’s what I learned. They have good questions.

SMB 338

SMB Pricing Sales Metrics 338

SaaStr

MAY 25, 2020

“Have your ICP tight so you can have low qualification threshold for SDRs (no BANT, etc) allows you to get demos into AE’s hands faster.” “Depends on where you are in the funnel, but for post-SDR tip, I’d say making sure you show a demo on the first call. ” — Amy Volas, CEO, Avenue Talent Partners.

Sales Hiring 344

Sales Hiring Sales Outsourced Development Technical Review 344

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 13, 2020

Many more investors participating in demo days. As we countdown to Europe Demo Day on Tuesday, our GMs reflect on running our most recent programmes remotely: [link] pic.twitter.com/57Cj7IVlOw. Many accelerators seem to be taking advantage of the move to digital to materially increase the number of start-ups in their accelerators.

Travel 324

Travel Investment Management 324

SaaStr

MAY 28, 2024

Mistake #1: A VP of Sales that Can’t Sell or Demo the Product “Whatever you do, do not hire a Head of Sales who can’t demo the product before day one,” Jason says. If they can’t demo the product before they sign the offer letter, don’t make the hire. The same is true for your first 5-10 reps.

Sales Hiring 310

Sales Hiring Scale AI Search AI 310

SaaStr

JUNE 19, 2020

Take the time to do a personalized demo and pitch for everyone that might use your product. Ask who else would benefit from a demo, or a review of the app. And prepare a personalized demo and slides for them. Yes, it may take 5 demos to close a tiny deal. Pitch >all< the stakeholders. Make the time. Be proactive.

B2B 287

B2B Startup Sales Communication 287

SaaStr

JUNE 29, 2020

Inside Sales Leaders Don’t Love Mapping Out All the Stakeholders, Doing Demo-after-Demo, Filling our RFPs, Getting on Jets (When We Can Again). If you are used to managing dozens of inside sales reps, you don’t want to talk to every stakeholder, do a dozen demos, fill out that RFP … unless it’s a crucial deal.

Sales Hiring 325

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Customer Success 325

The Daily Egg

JULY 25, 2021

We’ve run demos for nearly every kind of facility software out there and spoken to those who use it daily. Facility management software simplifies the process of improving the operations for any sized organization. Facility managers can discover potential problems and make adjustments before a serious issue occurs.

Software 321

Software Management 321

SaaStr

JANUARY 31, 2023

It’s an extended demo. But a free demo is fraught with issues. Dear SaaStr: Should We Charge for Pilots and How Much? Charge for any true pilot. If you don’t charge, it’s not a pilot. Now, that’s better than nothing. It’s something. And let me be clear: I almost never see “Free Pilots” convert to paid.

Enterprise 59

Enterprise Engagement Sales SaaS 59

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 17, 2023

Or to get a demo? And how can we make sure their demo is scheduled at least within 24 hours? We’ve all gotten worse at getting back to prospects and customers — fast. Contact Me has its place, perhaps. But why does a prospect have to wait days to just set up a Zoom? You may not know how to create urgency.

Sales Hiring 316

Sales Hiring Sales Customer Support Startup 316

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 7, 2021

Again, to do 50 customer calls a day requires an efficiency you just don’t need with a 1 or 2 Demos a Day AE selling $50k deals, or a 1-2 demos a week cadence for a field AE trying to close a $500k-$1m deal. We had thousands of qualified SMB leads a month, even by just a few million in ARR.

SMB 334

SMB Sales Hiring Scale Enterprise 334

SaaStr

JULY 19, 2022

Reprise is the only complete demo creation platform that go-to-market teams turn to when they need to create live and guided demo experiences. Reprise provides a no-code, enterprise-ready platform that gives teams the power to control the narrative of their demos and deliver custom product experiences—without developer involvement.

GCP(Google Cloud Platform) 264

GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Artificial Intelligence Enterprise readiness Azure 264

SaaStr

APRIL 7, 2022

Doing demos for everyone that needs one isn’t enough. And then hand them off to someone else to help do a demo, etc. Not tomorrow, or with a random calendar link to meet next week. It’s not enough on its own: Following up immediately alone isn’t enough. Getting the prospect all the answers they need ASAP isn’t enough. But it’s close.

B2C 290

B2C B2B Pricing SaaS 290

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 12, 2024

Watch their webinars, do a product demo, learn as much as you can in 60 minutes. So if you’re looking for your next role — stop sending 1,000 random resumes without a cover letter or any research. Slow it down. Find those still hiring, and find 5 or 10 that truly are a match for your skills. I bet you get an interview.

Sales Hiring 321

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Interviewing 321

SaaStr

JULY 8, 2024

A great way is to demo upcoming features / an upcoming release. There’s nothing more frustrating than getting a random email, “Hi, Tony is gone from the company. I know nothing about you, but I’m your new rep. Can we schedule a call?” ” Find some way to add value. I’d love to find a way to help even more.

AI 298

AI 298

SaaStr

OCTOBER 31, 2024

But first timers that have an easy time raising after Demo Days, don’t grock that the bar goes up for each round. Capital “Hubris” (if angel / seed rounds are easy). I don’t see this always, but I almost never see it in second time CEOs. They also assume their existing investors will bail them out.

Scale 312

Scale SaaS Social Media Business Model 312

SaaStr

OCTOBER 20, 2021

They know exactly what they are doing going into every deal, usually even before they even do the demo or pick up the phone. Except for one factor — one key difference between the Top 10% and the Top 1% is the very top are extremely efficient with their time. They’re already very, very good.

Sales 343

Sales Revenue Business 343

SaaStr

MARCH 14, 2022

So if you can: set up an appointment right then and there, for next steps, after the demo. Better to come back with 20 great opportunities with demos and follow-ups already on the calendar … than 200 or 2000 badge scans you dump into a marketing automation solution. More is OK too, just have everyone identify a handful, and why.

Marketing 279

Marketing Growth Marketing Sales 279

SaaStr

JANUARY 5, 2024

If AE’s have too many demos, you start to look at the quality threshold and do more discovery upfront. “The first is solving for quantity: the bottleneck for growing faster is getting more demos on calendars, more opportunities in the pipeline. What can the SDR control? Brex did this, but it’s dependent on where you’re at.

Sales Hiring 315

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Outbound Sales Team 315

SaaStr

OCTOBER 3, 2023

Tailored Demos (Td) You’ve learned enough now to deliver a very informed perspective with tailored demos about how your solution can uniquely deliver their specific use cases. Pilot Program (Pp) If tailored demos go well, it’s time for your proof point in the form of a pilot program, a trial, or a workshop.

Enterprise 296

Enterprise B2B Scale SMB 296

SaaStr

JANUARY 24, 2022

We never gated our content and operated on demo requests only. Potential clients might find themselves enticed by our product, work through a gauntlet of qualification calls and BANT questions — until, finally, they get their hands on a demo. We flooded this market with the now-classic double funnel model: The “Inbound” Funnel.

Scale 341

Scale B2C Enterprise Acquisition 341

SaaStr

AUGUST 6, 2021

(When PagerDuty un-gated their demo, for example, three times as many people viewed the demo.) This demo is a key driver in sign-ups for the PagerDuty trial, and the trial significantly converts into purchases. Plus, insights about how customers interacted with the demo informed sales, resulting in even more impact.

Product Marketing 279

Product Marketing Marketing B2C Strategy 279

SaaStr

MAY 9, 2023

And building a customer demo can cost $5K – $10K of a solution consultant’s time. Here are some examples of how a sales rep might word this: If you spend two hours with us on requirements, we can build a customized demo. If we build the customized demo, will the CFO come? If I give X, can I get Y?”).

Sales 311

Sales B2B Consulting Investment 311

SaaStr

MARCH 12, 2021

This is my blend of several metrics, which is — What % of Targeted Potential Customers Can You Get to Take a Phone Call and Do a Demo? If you can get even 5% of any cohort, of any sub-segment, of your targeted buyers to agree to do a demo out of a LinkedIn connect, a targeted email, or even a phone call … you have something.

Sales Hiring 299

Sales Hiring Scale Outbound Sales Team Sales 299