What is the best way to demonstrate a specific feature of your product?

It’s an important question that was recently raised within my Solutions Consulting team.

For those of you who have read some of my previous posts, you will know that I have recently instigated and implemented a demo video automation tool in my organisation. This allows Account Executives to send out pre-built overview demonstrations to prospects which allows Solutions Consultants to focus more on the discovery and demonstrating the key differentiators.

For other organisations who are looking at embarking on such a project, my recommendation would be not to underestimate the work involved in creating the required video content. There was a steep learning curve involved in editing video, new techniques to learn for presenting 5-minute demo chunks.

What is the best way to demonstrate this feature?

Most critically, while creating these videos for the demo automation platform, it raised the question:

“What is the best way to demonstrate this feature?”

We discovered that most Solutions Consultants would demonstrate each feature slightly differently. Some would show one screen, others would show three. Your most experienced Solutions Consultants will likely have stories of how different clients implemented this feature to meet their specific requirements.

We needed a way to decide on the best way of demonstrating each feature which would then result in a best-in-class, 5-minute video.

Introducing the Demo Battle

One way to do this is to establish ‘Demo Battles’. These can work in 3 steps:

Step 1: Ask Solutions Consultants to prepare a demonstration on a single piece of functionality for a maximum of 5 minutes. This would be in the form of a Tell-Show-Tell utilising the Demo2Win demo methodology. As part of this, they will have to establish the best demo path (the series of clicks) which best demonstrates a particular functionality. You could even create two versions of a demo of a feature for different personas – one showing the benefits for an end-user, another focusing on what a system administrator would be using the feature for.

Step 2: Each SC demonstrates their version of the 5-minute demonstration to the team. Not only does this allow the rest of the team to see different demonstration styles, but it also instils a healthy level of competition between teammates as everyone strives to perform the best demo.

Step 3: Vote for the best! Each team member can vote on any demo bar their own and the team lead or Presales Manager gets the casting vote. The winning demo will become the Best Practice way to demonstrate that feature (sometimes for a specific stakeholder persona) and a video will be created for future reference.

Benefits of Demo Battles

The benefits of Demo Battles are numerous. Not only do they get a consensus of the team of the best way of demonstrating a feature, but it also drives individuals to think about the best way to demonstrate.

This approach encourages individuals into the mindset of continuously evaluating their demonstration skills, finding the best way to demo and communicate value to a client.

On top of this, it instils a healthy level of competition between Solutions Consultants. To heighten this further, you could consider running a leaderboard of winners or even offer small rewards such as lunch vouchers!

Conclusion

Demo Battles can be utilised for an array of applications. They could be for creating client-facing videos on a demo automation tool. They could equally be used for the creation of internal best practice videos as part of the Go To Market process for any new features or functionality of your product. This is a topic I will explore in my blog post next week.

If you have found success in pitting Solutions Consultants against each other, I’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments below.