technical demo presentation

5 Tips for a Flawless Technical Demo Every Time

Updated: January 28, 2020

Published: April 24, 2019

Do you want to close the deal?

I'm assuming your answer is a resounding, " Yes! "

The technical demo could make or break the success of the deal. It allows salespeople to establish value, buyers have the ability to voice questions and objections, and it should ultimately result in a technical win.

Ready to learn how to perfect your technical demo? Let's dive in.

What's the purpose of a technical demo?

A technical demo should be scheduled after a general demo is given -- this provides an overview of the product and is used to pique the buyer's interest and get them excited about your offerings.

The technical demo is often presented to the buyer's technical team. They are performed when the deal is later in the pipeline. As a salesperson, it's important to remember that you're in control of the deal progression. If a buyer asks for a technical demo early in the process, let them know they're not ready yet.

In some cases, multiple technical demos are required. I wouldn't provide the same technical demo to three different engineers who have varied roles and requirements. Instead, I'd provide three separate demos that address each of their needs.

Strong technical demos have a clear goal set for the close -- and salespeople should close for the technical win.

A technical win is an admission by a potential buyer that your product or service is the best out of all options. The prospect should be able to tell you if your products and services are better than the competition and why they're the best. As a salesperson, your goal is to close for the technical win.

How to Structure a Technical Demo

Before launching into the technical demo, have conversations with the buyer about their business environment, current product use, and platforms they leverage. You need the buyer to provide that information during your calls so you can tie that information back into your demo.

I recommend asking a customer who recently closed, and who's similar to the buyer you're working with now, about their experience with the technical demo. Which parts of the demo did they love? Which sections were boring or unhelpful? The answers to these questions will help you identify what you should keep in your technical demo, and what you should avoid.

If you start the technical demo too fast, you'll end it too soon. And if the demo is too long, the buyer will lose interest. Let's say your actual demonstration is one hour long, the first 15 minutes should be spent establishing value and the presentation itself should be done between minutes 15 and 40. This leaves 20 minutes at the end which allows you to address any questions, concerns, or feedback.

During the demo, if the buyer asks, " I'm sorry, could you repeat that? ", resist the temptation to provide a quick response and move on with the rest of the demonstration. Most people are conditioned to remain quiet during presentations. So, when they speak up, you should take notice.

Something you said triggered something for the person who asked the question. They might want additional clarification on a certain point, they're genuinely interested in what you're talking about, or they have an issue with what you just said. Take a moment to pause and understand their reasoning for asking. There's likely something important behind the question. By asking, " Why did you ask about X? " you'll understand where they're coming from and be able to address the root of their question or objection.

Technical Demo Tips

1. know who's participating in the demo..

Before starting out your demo, know who will be on the demo and what they want to know about your product or service. This is especially important if there are multiple people from the buyer's company who will be participating.

In addition to researching their roles, you should understand exactly what they're looking for in the demo. There's a good chance that the people on that call or demo will want to hear specific technical information. Providing this information will increase the likelihood of a technical win.

2. Make sure the buyer is heard.

When you're talking the buyer through the demo, allow the customer to voice questions or objections. If they're quiet throughout the entire presentation, this is a bad sign. It means they're either not interested or they have objections that they aren't actively voicing that they might bring to the table during the negotiation stage of the deal.

3. Ensure the buyer is engaged in the demo.

Technical demos must be interactive -- this keeps the buyer engaged in your presentation and gives them a better understanding of your product. Salespeople can share your desktop or provide the buyer with a sandbox environment to test out the user interface of your product.

For example, let's say a salesperson is selling a CRM software . Before the demonstration, the salesperson provides a demo setup of the tools. During the technical demo, the buyer builds a custom report with the salesperson coaching them along the way. This would be an example of an interactive technical demo.

By giving the buyer hands-on experience, you're better able to communicate the value of the product, build rapport, and get them invested in the solution you're selling.

4. Understand the recommendation history of your audience.

Who's your champion? Identify which members of your technical demo audience will play a role in championing your solution, and understand their recommendation history.

• When have they endorsed products or rejected them at the technical demo stage?
• What are they looking for?
• How much weight does their input have?

With general demos, salespeople will often see if a VP likes what they're offering, but the director isn't swayed, the salesperson is unlikely to get the technical win. However, during technical demos, the technical team sitting in on the demonstration often trusts the individual on their team that's the most opinionated, regardless of role or title.

You'll want to understand your audiences roles from an influence perspective. This way you can cater your presentation to their interests.

5. Communicate the importance of the technical demo.

Educate your technical demo hosts and communicate the importance of the technical demo. Encourage your champion to understand that without the technical win, you won't be moving forward with the deal.

Once you've completed a general demo and the technical demo, ask the buyer: " With every solution you've seen so far, is ours the best? "

If the answer is no, then the deal is done. The salesperson shouldn't give a proposal or provide a discount to move the deal forward. When the importance is properly communicated, you'll create a sense of urgency for the buyer. They'll determine if your product or solution is a priority for them, and if they want to move forward with the deal.

With a strong technical demo, you'll get the technical win from your buyer, which will lead to the sale. Learn more at Hoffman and for even more demo tips, check out the  best sales decks  next.

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How To Prepare a Great Software Demo Presentation in 2024 [With Demo Scripts]

Last week we were at a friend's place for dinner when our friend's 10-year-old daughter appeared from the kitchen wearing her chef's hat and holding a pan with some delicious-looking pudding. She announced, "Look what I have whipped up for you all." And at once, we're all curious! 

Almost all of us asked in unison, "What is it?" She smiled and said, "Why don't you try it yourself?" We all took a spoon and tasted that yummy caramel pudding she had baked for us!

That's what a demo presenter is an expert in —-- to create a great demo experience for their potential client. 

In fact, the famous Pepsi Challenge campaign gained its popularity because the brand asked the same question to its audience. 

In the 1970s, Pepsi grew tired of being the second best to Coca Cola which dominated the soft drink industry at that time. To create a stir, Pepsi took to the shopping malls in America and asked the customers: Why don't you try it yourself? Shoppers were encouraged to taste both Colas, and Pepsi was preferred. The Pepsi Challenge became popular and has been in Pepsi's ongoing marketing campaign for years. 

Software companies can create a similar buzz with their product demos. This article will discuss the different aspects of a great software demo presentation. Plus, there are some free script templates for those who can hang around till the end. 😉 

What is a Software Demo Presentation?

A software demo or demonstration is a visual walkthrough of the software. Sales reps, solution engineers, and AEs heavily depend on product demos to show the product in action to their customers to engage, attract, and persuade them. A software product demonstration includes a complete rundown of its features, selling points, and how it solves the customers' pain points. 

The Anatomy of an Effective Software Demo Presentation

Now that we know what a software demo is, let’s understand the key ingredients of a software demo presentation. 

An Interesting Opening

Start your demo with something that sparks the viewer’s interest. It might be a fun welcome message, an interesting stat tying to their pain point, a success story of one of your customers with a similar problem, an image, or a video. 

Relevance to Audience and Their Problem

Before you start creating a software demo, understand the purpose of your demo. If the purpose of the demo is to solve a customer problem, understand the problem you're trying to solve. Once this is created, you can better focus on your demo. 

A Narrative that Ties Back to the Pain Point

Once you have gathered all the information, map the painpoints with your product features and how they ease your prospect’s painpoint. To maintain viewer engagement with your demo, don't just focus on guiding them through your product. Create a compelling narrative that ties back to the pain points. 

A Strong Demo Script

To build an effective software demo, you need a strong demo script where you can weave in a storyline that engages the customer. For example, a story that starts with a problem and then tells the solution and the product's benefits works best for a demo script.  

Product in Action

Of course, people want to see how your product works, but they also want to see and understand the step-by-step process of which button to click and how to make the most use of each feature button. So pay attention to breaking down the process in a small step-by-step guide. 

Engaging Visuals

Don't make your demo presentation too boring. Add visual elements like attractive title screens, icons, characters, and transitions to make the demo appealing. 

A Clear Call to Action

Your demo presentation should be tied back to the purpose of your demo creation through a strong call to action or CTA. For example, if your purpose is to drive more sign-ups for a free trial, your CTA should say, "Sign up and enjoy a free trial”!  

Track Engagement

Examine the analytics like when the demo was viewed, which screen had the longest and shortest view time, who all have viewed the demo, etc., so your sales team can follow up with the prospect. 

Secondary CTA

Some viewers might not reach the end of the demo. Encourage them to take action by placing a secondary CTA in the middle of the demo. 

What Not To Include in a Software Demo 

No matter how great your software is, if it's not presented well, it will fail to pique the interest of the decision-makers. In this section, you will learn where most sales reps go wrong so that you can learn from their mistakes.  

Curse of Knowledge - The Cognitive Bias

Most demo presenters don't visually emphasize the mouse pointer on the screen and help us see what they're doing on the screen. This happens from the curse of knowledge or cognitive bias that arises when you have used any tool for a considerable period. As a result, the sales rep assumes the software is easy for everyone unless someone points it out. 

How to solve it: Make sure to zoom in on where you're clicking so that everyone can see what you're doing. Highlight and mark important areas in the software so that everyone can see and understand easily. Zoomit.exe is a free tool that you can use for zooming and highlighting. 

Overloading with Features

Your prospective client doesn't want to listen to all the features of your product and how incredible they are. They are only interested in how those features can solve their problem.  

How to solve it: Highlight the features that will be useful for them. Remember to prioritize value over functionality. 

Sticking to the Script

It's always advisable to create a demo script and prepare and rehearse well before going for a demo presentation. But it may look awkward if the prospect asks you any question in between, but you draw a blank simply because it’s not in your script.

How to solve it: Learn to be flexible in using the script. For example, if the prospect is asking some questions, pause and take a moment to respond to the question. 

A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Software Demo Presentation

While you need to think and act quickly on the field while presenting a demo, it’s always helpful to think ahead and structure your demo to keep it under your control. It helps you stay prepared, feel confident, and have a structured flow to your demo presentation. 

Introduce Yourself

The main purpose of introducing yourself is to warm up with the prospect. Once you introduce yourself, give a brief context to your demo. Here’s an example as shared by  Alexander Mackinlay of Qobra: 

“I had planned 45 mins for our meeting today. Is that still okay for you? Do you have a hard stop afterward? What I had in mind for us today:

•  We'll start with a recap of what we discussed last time so that we can readjust if anything has changed.
•  Prospect X and Y *(who were not there at the first meeting)*, this recap will enable you to add your own points of view and to let me know what you are individually expecting from this meeting.
•  I have listed a number of questions I would like to ask you;
•  Then we can move on to the demo;
•  We'll need to keep 20 minutes at the end, where I'd like you to be in a position where 1) either you tell me that you want to move forward with us and we plan a potential next step, 2) you'd prefer that we stop our conversations there.

How does this agenda sound to you?”

Ending the introduction with a question always opens up room for initiating a conversation!

Tie Back the Product Features as the Solution to Their Problem

As we mentioned earlier, don’t stuff your demo with all the features and every little detail your tool has. Instead, focus on the prospect’s pain point and tie back the features as the solution to those pain points. Here’s an example as shared by Gong .  

You: As we discussed last week, it seems that (problem) is one of your major concerns at the moment. Is that right?

Prospect: Yes, that’s right.

You: Great, let’s dive in and allow me to show you how our product can solve your problem. 

Create a WOW Moment

Create a WOW moment that will compel the prospect to remember you and your product. It’s the time for the showmanship and you don't tell but show it to your prospect.

Using an interactive product demo is a great way to create this WOW moment sooner because it lets the prospect try out the tool themselves in a sandbox environment without the intervention of a salesperson.

Here's how Semrush uses Storylane's interactive product tours to showcase their platform👇

Also Read: How Horizon Education eliminated manual sandboxes for product trials with Storylane

Here’s a sample script:

‍ “Now let me show you how you can send emails to your entire email list by clicking this one button.”   

Encourage Them to Ask Questions

Prospects who’re more engaged are more likely to buy. Encourage them to ask questions to ensure they’re still engaged with your demo. Here’s how Gong suggests doing it.  

“I’ll pause here for you to ask questions, if any, before we move on to the next step. 

Is this something you’ll use for [the prospect’s problem]

How do you see you and your team using this tool?”

Next Step and Close

Reiterate the message at the end of the demo presentation and close it with a CTA or the next step. Do you want the prospect to sign up a form, schedule a follow-up meeting, or move into the final stage of signing the deal? Whatever may be your next step, add it to your demo script and communicate it clearly before ending the presentation. Here’s a sample:

"How does this compare to your current process?"

"You previously mentioned one of the things you are looking to solve is X. I just showed you how our platform solves that. On a scale of 1-10, how well do you feel we address your issue?"

Keep the question open-ended and be specific. That will encourage the prospect to speak. Avoid questions like “Do you have any questions?” which will mostly lead to a no, in most cases, especially if the prospect has already lost interest in the product. 

3 Software Demo Presentation Templates

 DEMO START

Recap customer's issues and ask to validate again. Then ask if things have changed or if we missed anything last time. Ask those who were not there prior to this meeting for their challenges and expectations for this meeting. Ask all questions you might need answers to before starting the demo.

DEMO SCRIPT

During the demo, ask validating questions after each feature presentation. 

For example, if the prospect says, “My current pain point is X,” your script should say, “Based on X pain that you mentioned, this is how the feature Y solves it.”

Here’s another example. 

If the customer says, “I’m concerned about data security,” your script should say, 

“Y is a SaaS Cloud-based platform with SOC2 certification. This means that your data is very secure.”

CLOSING THE DEMO

At the end of the demo, don't say, "Do you have any questions?" which will only lead to a "No, that's okay.” Prospects who lose interest during your demo won’t usually tell you what they think unless you ask them. Add a personal touch. You’d better say:

“What about this is most interesting to you?”

“How do you see this helping with [challenge or goal they shared during discovery?”

“Was there anything you were hoping to see on this call that you didn’t?”

“Was there anything you saw on this call that didn't meet your expectations?”

If everything goes as planned, these questions above should then naturally take your prospect to set up the next step around pricing and ROI with decision-makers.

- As shared by Alexander Mackinlay , Qobra

While scripting for a product demo, one of the most important things to highlight in the product demo is what is in store for the end user in the form of a value proposition. Missing the focus on the key benefits and only explaining the features is the biggest demo mistake one does in a product demo. 

The script should be organized in this sequence 

• Pain points your solution solve
• How that problem is solved
• What is the value added to the customer? 

Here’s a sample script template

‍ “In our last meeting, you mentioned how vendor management is one of your biggest concerns at the moment. Our product just solves that! We have built an integrated solution that [ tell how it solves the problem].

 One of our customers has been able to streamline their vendor management by [incorporate the result they have achieved here] and you can do the same”

- As shared by Disha Thakkar, PMM Expert

The first thing to understand is that a software demo is just an opportunity to understand prospects better and show how your software solves their challenges.

The actual software and its functionality - things everyone wants to show is irrelevant. No one can really follow someone quickly jumping from screen to screen demonstrating features (that can't sell) and any questions come only from some past experience with other software.

When you carry on a conversation based on features, it's hard to sell. So here is a sales-oriented software demo scenario below. 

💡Note: You have to insist on more decision makers to be present on the very first demo because usually different people in business have very different ideas about their needs and you can win by catering for different needs.

1/ Ask questions and be inquisitive to understand what is the problem they want to solve.

2/ Ask what they see as a perfect solution

3/ Ask what software they are using currently (used in the past) to achieve that

4/ Ask what is not working or is annoying (chances are that your software does it as well, but at least you know what the person dislikes before showing proudly what your solution can do - you can annoy them that way too)

5/ Only then jump into screen sharing and this is where you have to be innovative and do a demo from the perspective of a solution this person is seeking. It's important to understand that whatever is cool about your software is only interesting from the perspective of solving their challenge and nothing else. Therefore showing features that they don't ask for is nice ... but is not a reason why they will buy. Why? Because your wonderful features often sound as "too good to be true".

6/ You have to show enough that they "buy" the idea and express their feeling that that's what they need. Do not proceed to discuss the pricing until you reach this point in the conversation.

7/ When there are no more questions they have and you answered them all, I recommend asking “if it's OK to talk about money now.”

After a positive response provide a clear, easy-to-follow pricing structure and ask how they wish to proceed. 

If you did 1-6 right at this point any objections are about price and it's hard to object because they just stated they are happy and interested. Then there are special techniques to handle price objections.

- As shared by  Assia Salikhova , Managing Director, Smarketing Lab Limited, author of "7 Keys to Successful Cold Calling" course.

Top 5 Tips to Keep in Mind While Creating a Software Demo Presentation

1. know who you’re presenting to.

Are you presenting to an employee (who's perhaps going to use your tool) or a decision-maker in the company? 

Research and do your homework to learn as much as possible about the person. 

What are their pain points? 

What kind of solution they're looking for? 

Knowing the finer details can help you stay prepared for all meeting scenarios. 

For example, if the person is reserved, you need to prompt them with questions to initiate a conversation. If you get to know the person will ask many questions, come prepared with answers and customer stories to back them up. If the person is a multitasker and attending the demo while working on the phone or laptop, grab their attention by making a bold statement or humor that can grab their attention. 

2. Prepare a Script and Practice

Always prepare a demo script, especially how you will deliver the humor, punch lines, or Twittable sound bites ( a short sentence or phrase in audio or video format that can be Twitted to give an essence of your message) that can grab the audience's attention. 

Once your script is ready, practice and rehearse until you're comfortable delivering the demo. You can practice in front of a peer or a family member. Or, if no one is available, record your demo speech and review the flow by hearing the recording. While you don't need to memorize the whole script, you should know in detail each of the points and be able to speak in a conversational tone. 

3. Support Your Claims with Use Cases

If you have solved a similar problem in the past, begin your demo with the same problem and how your product overcame that problem. Emphasize how the prospect can too achieve a similar outcome. Supporting your claims with a use case makes a strong case for you, and the prospect can better relate to your product. 

4. Customize Your Demo

Not all audiences are the same, so you need to customize your demo accordingly. For example, if you demo a CEO, your demo should be customized with relatable use cases. Highlight the features that will be most relevant to the prospect. 

5. Follow Up

Don't assume they will remember everything once the demo is done. A good practice is to follow up with a thank you note. Share a link to the automated demo so they can see it again internally, share relevant documents and brochures, and give them an actionable next step. 

Elevating Your Software Demo Presentation with Storylane

Storylane is an interactive product demo software that lets you create effective demo presentations. The platform has some advanced features like analytics, personalization tokens, unlimited sharing, auto update of the demo when there is a new release, integration with CRM and Slack and many more. 

Do you know that G2 has recently recognized Storylane as the Demo Automation category leader? Book a demo today to empower your sales teams to perform better.

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Your Guide to Preparing a Great Software Demo Presentation

We believe congratulations are in order!

If the rumors are to be believed, word on the street is that you’ve successfully scheduled the demo . 

Your prospects have shown great interest in your SaaS offering and are looking forward with excitement to getting to know it better during the software demo . 

All that’s left for you to do is blow them away with a demo presentation that’s more riveting and engaging than a Martin Scorcese film.

Goodfellas ? Pfft. If you thought that was good it’s because you haven’t yet seen this demo.

What is a software demo?

5 key elements every good software demo presentation must include.

• Personalization
• Interactivity
• Engaging content
• Strong CTAs

Things to do when preparing for a software demo

• Get to know your audience
• Create a memorable experience

3 common ways software demos can go wrong

• Feature dumping
• Talking at people, not to them
• Sticking to the script

Create software demos your prospects will absolutely love

A live software demo is a tool that sales teams use to showcase a SaaS product to their buyers. 

Let’s say you walked into a store to buy a pair of pants. Would you let the salesperson describe the pants to you and then buy them without seeing them? We didn’t think so.

So software customers also need a way to see the product, understand how it works, and check out its features and benefits before they decide to buy it. That’s where the software demo comes in.

The software sales demo acts as a way for the marketing and sales teams to give your buyers a chance to experience your product. While it is most commonly used during the sales demo phase of the buyer journey, an interactive software demo created with a tool like Walnut allows you to send prospects links for them to engage with on their own at any point throughout the sales experience.

Learning to create an interactive product demo is the easy part, especially on a platform like Walnut. The harder part is making the demo amazing.

Do you want to create a software demo that will leave your customers bored and confused?

The best way to create a boring software demo presentation is by using a slide deck or a video. You should also be as generic as possible and spend your time focusing on how cool your product’s features are. This is bound to leave your prospects with a bad taste in their mouth and inexplicably sleepy.

But if you want to knock the socks right off of your prospects, we recommend making sure your demo includes the following 5 elements:

1. Personalization

The first thing you should ask yourself when creating your software demo presentation is:

Who is the prospect and what do they need?  

Focus on the solutions your product can provide to match their specific needs. Adding small personal touches to the product demo , like the prospect’s name and company logo, can also let them understand that this demo was made with them in mind. 

When you create your demo presentation for your prospect, you need to make sure it tells a story. Ask yourself:

Why is the prospect coming to this software demo?

Create an interactive sales experience that will leave the prospects feeling like they understand your product flow, the value it brings, and how it can easily integrate with their current workflow. They aren’t there to be blown away by the functionality of your product. They are there because they want to solve a pain.

3. Interactivity

Your prospects don’t want a show. Ask yourself:

Would you buy anything without trying it out yourself first?

Give your audience the link to their personalized software demo and let them try it by themselves. Keep them engaged by having them click through the product so that they can see how it works and the value it can bring them.

4. Engaging content

Don’t be boring. That’s it. That’s the post.

Ok, that’s not the whole post. When creating content for your demo and working on your demo script , ask yourself:

How can I keep the prospect engaged?

Use GIFs, humor, sales memes , rich text, movie references, sports references, or whatever the prospect is interested in to spice up this demo. Be professional but also be yourself and build a genuine connection with your audience.

5. Strong CTAs

The goal of a good software demo is a closed deal. So ask yourself:

What’s the next step that you’d like the prospect to make?

Include clear CTAs throughout your software demo so your audience knows what’s the next step in the process.

When you’re getting ready for your demo, there are two things you should make sure to do.

1. Get to know your audience

The first thing you need to make sure you have down when preparing for your software demo is understanding who you will be speaking to.

Learn their names.

Don’t underestimate how effective it is to engage your audience by calling them by their first names. 

Before you get on that call, make sure you know who you’ll be speaking to. Ask your champion exactly who will be attending the meeting so that you can know in advance and prepare.

Write down each of their names and have it by you when the presentation starts if that’ll help or take a few minutes to read their resume on LinkedIn before the meeting. This way, you can speak more directly to each member of your audience.

Learn their roles.

Next, learn the positions they hold within their company. 

If a feature you are showcasing is relevant to a specific role, you’ll be able to say, “Hey Salvador. You may be interested in this. By clicking here you can solve all of your problems so that you can finally curb that horrible drinking habit.” 

…or something like that.

Learn their needs.

Each team member has specific pains that they want to resolve. Sometimes they may not know that there could be a better way.

It’s your job to make sure that you explain to them how your product can provide value to them as a team and to each of them individually. You can only do this by having an extremely firm understanding of their aims and objectives.

2. Create a memorable experience

Make sure the demo experience is not boring. 

Remember, we are competing with Martin Scorcese over here. 

Create an interactive product demo that prospects can click through on their own or show teammates after the call. 

But you can also make your demo engaging by preparing questions to ask your prospects. Take the beginning of the demo to create a conversation to make sure you don’t spend the next chunk of time in a monologue. After all, nobody wants to be spoken at. 

As much as possible, try to create a human and personal connection. By creating real relationships you’ll make sure your prospects remember you and respect your advice.

And, whatever you do, don’t be boring!

When you’re this close to closing a deal, every interaction is crucial. So when it comes to the software demo, you need to make sure you’re not making any of the classic errors.

Here are a few of the sales demo mistakes that many sales reps find themselves making.

1. Feature dumping

A friendly reminder that PROSPECTS DON’T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT ALL YOUR PRODUCT’S FEATURES.

Sorry for yelling. But we feel passionate about this. 

Stop telling them about what the feature can do and start telling them how that feature can help them. 

Talk about value, not about functionality.

2. Talking at people, not to them

You want to make sure your prospects are engaged. Do you know how to make sure they are bored out of their minds? Go on a monologue about your product while flipping through slides. If they stay awake during the whole call it’ll be a miracle.

Instead, use interactive sales demos and engage your audience. Speak to them by name. If you’re demoing over Zoom, stop sharing your screen for key moments so that they can see your face in big. Put questions in the chat so you can gauge their interest in specific features.

3. Sticking to the script

Have you ever seen the Saturday Night Live bit of Jacob, the bar mitzvah boy? The gist of the gag is that Seth Myers asks him questions but all he does is continue with his prepared speech.

Here’s a clip:

We know that you created a demo agenda and a demo script and want to stick to it. But you also need to respond to the questions and concerns that are being asked presently. 

If you want to take your software demo presentations up a notch and win more deals, you need to make sure you are showcasing your product in the best way possible.

Start creating interactive demos that prospects can engage with themselves and give them the chance to understand your product thoroughly. Better demos will lead to more engagement, which in turn will lead to more sales.

So what are you waiting for? Book a meeting with us now by clicking that “Get Started” button on the top of the screen.

Create demos your prospects will love today.

You may also like....

7 Interactive Product Demo Tips For Sales Teams

What Are Sales Demonstrations? The Ultimate Guide

What Are Live Sales Demos? Everything You Need to Know

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7 Steps to Delivering a Technical Presentation

June 21, 2021 - Dom Barnard

So you want to share the fruits of your technical labor with a presentation? Perhaps, you’re an engineer, a maker, a coder, or a designer, and you’re looking to discuss a research study, explain a process, or demonstrate a product.

Regardless of the agenda,  speaking to a group  can be intimidating. However, there are steps you can take to deliver an effective technical presentation that gets your point across and appeals to the audience.

Whether you’re presenting in person or via  web conferencing software , the following tips and best practices will help you be prepared, feel more confident, and set up the tools you need to conduct your presentation without any issues.

Know your subject matter

A great presentation isn’t about reading a bunch of slides – your attendees are capable of reading much faster on their own.

If you are going to pack your slides with dozens of details and bullet points, you might as well ditch the slides and write an article instead. It’s difficult for the audience to listen to a presenter and read a lot of information at the same time.

Your job as a presenter is to be the expert that your attendees expect you to be. Keep your slides simple and minimal. In fact, 91% of people say that  well-designed slides  help  boost their confidence  when giving a presentation.

Remember that your slides are not the star of the show, you are. Help your audience understand and make sense of what they are reading in your slides. To do this, make sure you are using a  suitable structure  for your presentation.

You can do these things only when you’re well-versed in what you’re presenting. The slides are supposed to be your outline, or simply a table of contents to remind you what to cover during the presentation.

Know your audience

Knowing your audience  is crucial for any presentation, but it’s even more important for a technical one. If your audience is as experienced and comfortable with the topic of your presentation as you are, then you don’t want to dumb it down to the extent that it bores them.

On the other hand, you don’t want to give a complex presentation to an audience with no clue of what you’re talking about.

There may also be times when your attendees are people with different levels of technical skill, experience, and interests. Then your job is to make sure that the content of your presentation is relevant and doesn’t alienate any of those segments.

Image Source:  Digital Clarity Group

To understand how technical you need to be, consider what your audience might already know and how much is required for them to understand to meet your goal.

If your objective is to acquire funding, for instance, your audience will be more interested in financial benefits than the technical details of your product. The idea is to meet the needs of your audience, not to fuel your passion for engineering.

Configure your IDE

Since you’re delivering a technical presentation, there may be instances where you’ll want to walk your audience through your development environment, code scripts, software demos, or other technical components.

However, you may have adjusted how things look on the screen according to what’s the most convenient for your usual workflow. And what’s good for working in your day-to-day routine may not render well as you go full screen in presentation mode.

If the attendees can’t decipher what’s on the screen, they’ll get confused and will find it hard to focus on your talk. So it’s important that you customize whatever you’re going to show in your presentation such that it’s easily readable and viewable.

There are several steps you can take to make this happen. First of all, don’t use dark backgrounds. Light-colored backgrounds are easy on the eyes. Second, adjust your font styles and sizes to make sure they’re big enough.

And finally, learn to zoom in on specific areas as required, depending on whether you’re using a  Windows PC  or a  Mac system .

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Minimize distractions

Nothing is more annoying than to keep getting disruptive notifications or popups from in the middle of your presentation. These can be from your operating system (Windows or Mac), or apps such as Slack, Email, Twitter, and more.

At times, these notifications can be personal, embarrassing, or contain confidential information that you don’t want your audience to see.

Therefore, it’s best to make sure in advance that there are no unpleasant surprises. Before you get up to give your presentation, turning off your notifications can go a long way.

This will also reduce the number of processes running on your machine and free up available resources. As a result, the resource-intensive programs that are part of your presentation will run a lot smoother. Here’s how to turn off  notifications for Windows ,  Google Chrome , and  Mac .

Get the right equipment

If you want to be a master presenter, you should have the proper tools for the job. The basics include a desktop or laptop machine with good configuration, a big display screen, presentation software (usually MS Powerpoint or Keynote), and a clicker/pointer device.

A clicking device, like the  Logitech Wireless Presenter , can help you switch slides from wherever you are in the room, point to a specific part of a slide, and add an overall professional touch to your presentation.

In addition, you should have any cables (HDMI, VGA, USD, etc) and adapters required to connect the devices you are going to use for the presentation.

Conrad Delock USB 3.0 Network adapter

If you have no idea about what will be available at your presentation venue, then carry one piece of each of the commonly used cables and adapters. You’ll thank us later.

Rehearse in advance

Practice your slides and your demo multiple times before the presentation, even if you have presented the exact same thing in the past. Do not make any assumptions about your actual presentation environment based on your practice environment.

Technologies and situations change, and you may find things that catch you off guard. Run through everything at least once the night before just to be sure.

Practice your presentations with  interactive exercises .

Even better if you can record yourself during these rehearsal presentations and watch the recordings later to find areas of improvement.

Also, if you’re relying on downloading or doing something in front of the audience that may require a high-speed internet connection, don’t assume you’ll have access to such a network during your presentation. Download and install whatever you need ahead of time.

Finally, enjoy the experience

You’re giving a technical presentation, but that doesn’t mean it has to be boring, or that you have to be serious all the time as you talk.

It’s okay to have fun, crack some jokes,  tell a story ,  ask a rhetorical question  or invite participation from the audience when presenting. In fact, a study showed that presentations that don’t let the audience participate see a  drop of 14%  in engagement.

Don’t worry too much about things going wrong. See every presentation as a dialogue with your attendees and an opportunity to learn and be a better presenter. If you are enjoying yourself, so will your audience.

How to Present an Easy-to-Follow Tech Demo

A while ago, I worked on a simple side project to explore React’s Context API and higher-order components (HOCs), as well as the ES7 decorator syntax. While making this project, I read many articles and blogs that explained, or attempted to explain, these concepts and how to use them. Unfortunately, many of them were not very helpful. Some were too high-level and some didn’t help me make the logical connections needed to understand why things were done in a certain way. Others were so technical that I wound up spending so much energy and time wading through the jargon, that I didn’t even get to what I wanted to learn in the first place.

Fortunately, not all of the articles were bad, and the ones that were easy to follow helped me build a solid understanding of the concepts I was exploring. I wanted to be able to do the same for other engineers at The Times, so I decided to present a step-by-step demo on how to use the things I learned at JavaScript+ Talks, a bi-weekly forum we have to present anything JavaScript-related. My presentation wound up being deemed the “standard for all presentations moving forward” by one of the forum’s organizers! (If you want to take a look, see my repo .)

I’ve put together a quick guide based on my experience and the feedback I received that can help you ensure your demo is successful.

Bounce the idea off people representative of your audience

This may sound obvious, but it is a great first step to understand what assumptions you’re making of your audience and whether those assumptions are valid. Did you assume that everyone already knew what Context was for? Or what an HOC is? Find out what knowledge gaps you need to fill.

Also, what level of engineer are you making this for? Keep in mind that an associate engineer may not have been exposed to the same jargon or programming concepts as a senior engineer.

Explain the problem

Not everyone is going to understand why you’re doing things a certain way. For my demo, my audience needed to understand why I used Context in the first place. I illustrated that I had sibling components, ChildA and ChildB, that needed to share the same state and update at the same time. If we put state management in the parent component, we’d have to pass props into those children components. What if ChildA and ChildB were each nested 4 or 5 levels deep in other components? We’d have to drill those props all the way down!

For each step, I explained the problem we were solving as well as provided a preview of the problem we would solve in the next step. To create this step-by-step organization of the code, I created branches representing each step in the process of setting up the project , creating the Context and Provider , using the Provider without HOCs , refactoring to use HOCs , and refactoring to use decorators .

Explain how your approach solves that problem…

Now that you’ve presented the issue, demonstrate how your approach solves that problem; Make the logical connection so that your audience understands why you’re doing what you’re doing. For my demo, I explained that Context solves the problem of passing props down into deeply nested components by serving as the master state by which our components can get the information they need to function.

… and provide an alternative approach, but explain why you chose yours

People may ask why they should use your approach and not some other one they’ve used or seen. That’s normal. Acknowledge that there are other approaches, but explain why you chose yours. For the issue of passing props to nested components, I explained that I could’ve used Redux to handle state management, but I didn’t want to add so much overhead for such a simple app.

Provide a step-by-step walkthrough of your code

Pretend that your audience does not understand a single thing you’re doing and add detailed comments to your functions. Even better, number those comments so that the reader knows the sequence of steps you took.

Within each of my branch’s README, I wrote a top level explanation of the steps to follow and in what files, and also left numbered comments explaining what my code does.

I also found that it’s helpful to provide a short summary of the walkthrough so that your audience can easily remember it before you go into the details of the implementation; for example, “In order to use Context, we must create it, provide it, and consume it.”

Provide links for further reading

If you feel like there’s someone else out there that has a better or extended explanation, provide a link to it. Chances are, your audience will also find it useful.

Start demoing!

These basic steps should help you develop an outline or framework for your demo. However, each demo is different and audience needs will differ, so ask your peers for advice and don’t be afraid to adapt the process. And if you have tips, please share!

Angie Siu is a frontend engineer on the Inbox Engagement team at The New York Times. She’s a native New Yorker and spends a lot of time thinking about food.

Written by Angie Siu

Web Engineer | Perpetual Food Fantasizer

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11 top tips for a successful technical presentation.

Here's my five-years-later Updated Tips for a Successful Technical Presentation.

1. Have a Reset Strategy (One-Click)

If you're going to give a talk, you'll probably have to give it more than once. If you have demonstrations of any kind, have a "one-click" way to reset them. This might be a batch file or Powershell script that drops a modified database and reattaches a fresh one, or copies template files over ones you modify during your demo.

Personally, I'm sold on Virtual Machines. I have seven VMs on a small, fast portable USB drive that will let me do roughly 12 different presentations at the drop of a hat. You never know when you'll be called upon to give a demo. With a Virtual Machine I can turn on "Undo Disks" after I've prepared the talk, and my reset strategy is to just turn off the VM and select "Delete Changes." A little up-front preparation means one less thing for you to panic about the day of the talk.

2. Know Your Affectations (Ssssssseriously)

I have a bit of a lisp, it seems. I also hold my shoulders a little higher than is natural which causes my neck to tighten up. I also pick a different word, without realizing it, and overuse it in every talk. This is similar to how Microsoft Employees overuse the word "so" (which is actually Northwestern Americans, not MSFTies) too much.

It's important to know YOUR affectations so you can change them. They may be weakening your talk. Don't try to remember them all, though. Just pick two or three and focus on replacing them with something less detracting. Don't overanalyze or beat yourself up, though. I've spoken hundreds of times over the last 15 years and I'm always taking two-steps forward and one step back. The point is to try, not to succeed absolutely.

3. Know When To Move and When To Not Move (Red light!)

One of the most powerful tips I ever received was this: "When you move, they look at you. When you stop, they look at the screen." Use this to your advantage. Don't pace randomly, idley or unconsciously. Don't rock back and forth on your heels. Also, empty your pockets if you tend to fiddle with lose change or your keys.

4. For the Love of All That Is Holy, FONT SIZE, People (See that?)

It just tears me up. It physically makes me ill. To give a presentation and utter the words "um, you probably won't be able to see this" does everyone in the room a disservice.  Do NOT use the moment of the presentation as your time to do the font resizing.

Lucida Console, 14 to 18pt, Bold.  Consider this my gift to you.  This is the most readable, mono-spaced font out there.  Courier of any flavor or Arial (or any other proportionally spaced font) is NOT appropriate for code demonstrations, period, full stop.  Prepare your machine AHEAD OF TIME.  Nothing disrespects an audience like making them wait while you ask "Can you see this 8 point font? No? Oh, let me change it while you wait."  Setup every program you could possibly use, including all Command Prompt shortcuts, before you begin your presentation.  That includes VS.NET, Notepad, XMLSpy, and any others, including any small utilities.

I've found that the most readable setup for Command Prompts is a Black Background and with the Foreground Text set to Kermit Green (ala "Green Screen."  Yes, I was suspicious and disbelieving also, but believe it or not, it really works.)  I set Command Prompts to Lucida Console, 14 to 18pt, Bold as well, with much success.

Also, set the font size to LARGEST in Internet Explorer and remember that there are accessibility features in IE that allow you to include your own Large Font CSS file for those web pages that force a small font via CSS.

Learn how to use ZoomIt and practice before-hand. It can be an incredibly powerful tool for calling out sections of the screen and making it so even the folks way in the back can see what's going on.

For simplicities' sake, I like to keep a separate user around call "BigFonty" (choose your own name).  He's an Administrator on the local machine and he exists ONLY for the purposes of demonstrations.  All the fonts are large for all programs, large icons, great colors, etc.  It's the easiest way to set all these settings once and always have them easily available.

5. Speak their Language (Know the Audience)

When I was in Malaysia for TechEd, I spent 3 full days exclusively with locals before the talk, I learned snippets of each of the languages, tried to understand their jokes and get an idea about what was important to people in Malaysia.  American analogies, much humor, and certain "U.S. specific" English colloquialisms just didn't make any sense to them.  When it came time to give the presentations, I better understood the Malaysian sense of timing, of tone and timbre, and I began each of my presentations by speaking in Bahasa Malaysia.  I changed aspects of my slides to remove inappropriate content and add specific details that would be important to them.

I've used this same technique in a half-dozen countries with success. While this is an extreme example, the parallels with any audience are clear.  If you're speaking to a room full of IT guys who work in the Automotive field, or the Banking industry, the fact that we are all programmers only gives you a small degree of shared experience.  Remember no matter the technical topic, try to get into the mind of the audience and ask yourself, why are they here and what can I tell them that will not be a waste of their time.  What would YOU want to hear (and HOW would you like to hear it) if you were sitting there?

6. Be Utterly Prepared (No excuses)

Short of an unexpected BSOD (and even then, be ready) you should be prepared for ANYTHING.  You should know EVERY inch of your demos and EXACTLY what can go wrong.  Nothing kills your credibility more than an error that you DON'T understand.  Errors and screw-ups happen ALL the time in Presentations.  They can even INCREASE your credibility if you recover gracefully and EXPLAIN what happened.  "Ah, this is a common mistake that I've made, and here's what you should watch for."  Be prepared with phrases that will turn the unfortunate incident around and provide them useful information.

7. CONTENT, CONTENT, CONTENT (Have some)

Every move, phrase, mistake, anecdote and slide should actually contain content.  It should be meaningful.  Your mistakes should teach them, your demos should teach them; even your shortcut keys, utilities and menu layout should teach them.  A presentation isn't an opportunity to read your slides.  I'll say that again. Don't READ your slides. I can read faster than you can talk.

Remember that most people can read silently to themselves 5 to 10 times faster that you can read to them out loud.  Your job as a presenter is to read in between the lines, and provide them structure.  Your slides should be treated as your outline – they are structure, scaffolding, nothing more.  If you jam your slides full of details and dozens of bullets, you might as well take your content and write an article.  It's difficult to listen to someone talk and read their slides at the same time – remember that when you design your content. YOU are the content, and your slides are your Table of Contents.

8. System Setup (Be unique, but don't be nuts)

When you a presenting, remember that you are looked upon as an authority.  Basically, you are innocent until proven guilty.  It's great to have a personality and to be unique, but don't let your personal choice of editors or crazy color scheme obscure the good information you're presenting.  I appreciate that you may like to use VI or emacs to view text files, but let's just say that sometimes Notepad has a calming effect on the audience. 

I give Microsoft talks, usually, so I tend towards Visual Studio, but 99% of my talks use a limited number of tools. Basically Visual Studio, Notepad, the Command Prompt and a Browser.

Remember that while you may prefer things a certain way while your face is a foot away from the screen, it's very likely the wrong setup when 500 people are more than 100 feet away.

I really like to get Toolbars and things out of the way. I use F11 (Fullscreen) in the Browser a lot, as well as Visual Studio's Shift-Alt-Enter shortcut to FullScreen. Turn off unneeded flair and toolbars. Also, turn on line-numbering so you can refer to lines if you're presenting code.

9. Speaking (Um…)

"Volume and Diction," my High School Drama teacher said to me.  Speak clearly, authoritatively, project your voice to the back of the room.  The best speakers don't even need microphones.  If you have a speaking affectation (I had a lisp growing up) or you tend to say, um, etc, or find yourself overusing a specific phrase ("a priori", "fantastic", "powerful", etc) take it upon yourself to NOTICE this mannerism and avoid it.

Practice multi-tasking.  It seems silly to say, but although we can all multitask to a certain degree, when we hit a real snag in a presentation, many of us tend to freeze.  Silence is deadly.  Remember, since all eyes are on you, complete silence and apparent introspection says "I don't know know what I'm doing."  When you need to get to a particular file, don't make the audience wait for you while you putter through explorer.  Have shortcuts ready (and explain when you use them).  Move fast and efficiently, but annotate your actions.  You should continue to "color-commentate" your actions like a sports announcer.  Don't allow "dead-air," unless it's silence for effect.

10. Advancing Slides (No lasers!)

I always used to hate slide-advancers, you know, those little remotes with forward and backward buttons. Then I tried one and I'm hooked. I use the Microsoft Presenter Mouse 8000 and totally recommend it. It isn't just a great Bluetooth mouse, but flip it over and it's a great Powerpoint slide advancer. 

Take a look at Al Gore's excellent presentation in "An Inconvenient Truth." It's seamless and flows. Now imagine him running over to his laptop to hit the spacebar each time he wanted to advance a slide. My presentations have gotten better as I've started incorporating this technique.

11. Care (deeply)

I really avoid presenting on topics that I don't care about. I avoid it like the Plague and I encourage you to do so as well. There's nothing more important that truly caring about your topic. If you care, it'll show. If you eschew all the other tips, at the very least care.

What are YOUR tips, Dear Reader? What tips, mantras or preparations have you used to make your presentations that much better?

About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

Comments are closed.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in any way.

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The Top 7 Tips for Pulling Off a Great Demo Presentation

Demo presentations are a powerful tool for running and growing your business. When done well, a demo presentation allows clients, investors or potential customers to see and feel how things will be better for them if they buy or invest in your company or product. Often generic demo presentations do just the opposite, leaving the meeting participants bored and disinterested. Here are seven tips to pull off a great demo presentation.

What is a demo presentation?

A demo presentation is a visual demonstration of a product or service for current or prospective clients. A great demo presentation will grab your audience’s attention right away by clearly communicating what they care about and by using reliable, high quality video presentation tools.

Step one: determine who you are presenting to 

In order to deliver an effective demo presentation, you must know your audience. Do your homework and find out all you can about your prospects so you can tailor your presentation to them and be prepared for different meeting scenarios. This is vital in deciding how you’re going to best convey everything you need to get across in your presentation and what use cases you will share that directly relates to them. Here are four common types of meeting participants and how best to deal with them. 

The Wallflower

Do you know the person you’re presenting to is reserved? The wallflower may need you to prompt them with questions or ask them for their input to really spark a conversation. Having an open dialog with meeting participants will help you connect with them and personalize the presentation. As you continue your software demo, refer back to the participants’ contributions to continue to make them feel included in the presentation.

The Questioner

If you anticipate your audience asking a lot of questions, come ready with answers and customer examples to help back you up. If the questions are not adding value to the demo presentation or become too disruptive, politely ask the audience to hold questions until the end of the presentation.

The Combative

Going in knowing it’s going to be a tough sell? Do all your research beforehand and anticipate what their push back might be. No matter what, don’t get flustered during your demo presentation. When the audience senses your frustration, it’s likely to be a distraction, and it will not result in a positive outcome. Always remain professional throughout your presentation no matter how your audience behaves. If necessary, ask the audience members to hold questions and comments until the end of the meeting. 

The Multitasker 

Presenting to people who are using their phone or laptop during your demo? In order to grab their attention, start your presentation with a bold statement, humor or question. Continue to engage your audience by making your presentation interactive and relatable to pull them away from their devices. 

Three types of product demos

Pitching in your office.

This is the ideal place to host your presentation because you have home-court advantage. The Florida State football team won 37 games in a row at home for a reason: it’s an advantage. When presenting in your own office you get to use presentation tools that you’re comfortable with, limit distractions, control the environment and set the tone for the presentation. 

Pitching in their office

When you are presenting in an unfamiliar environment, it’s important to know which presentation tools are available so you can prepare in advance. Arrive early to the meeting to get set up, familiarize yourself with their presentation tools and practice a run-through of your demo to make sure everything runs smoothly. Also, arriving early gives you the opportunity to meet and connect with some of the people in the audience to help tailor your demo and customer stories to their experiences. 

Pitching remote

In order to save time and travel cost, doing a demo presentation over a video conference call is a great option. Make sure you use a high-quality, easy-to-use video conferencing solution. Don’t give off the wrong first impression by having a poor connection or pixelated video. Lifesize’s video conferencing technology will help you put your best foot forward to really wow clients with stunning 4K video quality and full motion 4K presentation sharing. 

Three ways sales demos can go seriously wrong

Confidential messages get shared on screen.

We’ve all been in meetings where the presenter’s private work and personal messages start popping up on screen and disrupting the meeting. To save yourself embarrassment and major distractions during your presentation, make sure you only share what is relevant to your demo.  Silence all notifications on your laptop and other smart devices before the start of your presentation.

Your video software flakes out

Technical snafus in the middle of a presentation is one of the most common ways demos go wrong. This not only looks bad for you and your company, but it has the potential to completely derail the entire presentation. Make sure you use a reliable video conferencing solution and test it out before the start of the presentation. Sometimes issues are outside your control, like a bad internet connection, so have a backup plan for your demo presentation.

Directly reading your notes or slides

Nothing is less engaging than a presenter directly reading from their notes or slides during a demo. Bring notes just in case you need to refer to them, but don’t directly read your notes or slides during your presentation. Your slides should contain just a few words or short sentences to set the tone of the topic you’re discussing but ovoid cluttering your slides with wordy paragraphs.  Practice your pitch until you can consistently and comfortably talk about your new product without reading from your slides or notes.

Seven tips for a winning demo presentation 

1. prepare a script.

Start off by preparing a presentation outline or script that follows a logical flow. Keep each section short, precise and easy to understand. If possible, try to work in bold statements, humor or simple tweet-able soundbites to really capture the audience’s attention. 

2. Practice and rehearse

Since you will not be directly reading your script during your presentation, practice memorizing and saying your script until you’re comfortable with it. You do not have to memorize your script verbatim, but you will need to be familiar enough with it that you can speak about each point in a conversational tone. Presenting to coworkers or family members is a great way to practice your demo and you can also record your demo presentation  to review the content and get comfortable with the flow.  

3. Anticipate questions

Each audience member will come to your presentation with different experiences and backgrounds so be prepared for a variety of questions. Try to anticipate possible questions and how you will respond to each one. When practicing your demo for coworkers or family members, ask them to help you come up with an exhaustive list of all the different questions that may be asked during your presentation.  

4. Tailor for specific audiences

Every audience is different, and your demo presentation should be too. The presentation should be built specifically for the prospect to reflect their unique business processes and include data that directly relates to their company. In addition, you should tailor how you conduct your presentation for each audience as well. An effective demo presentation for an HR manager may not go over as well for a CEO. Some prospects may be more interested in the details and appreciate graphs and diagrams while others may get more out of watching a video or live demonstration. Research the company and decision makers you are presenting to and find ways to make your demo engaging for them.

5. Provide use cases

One of the best ways to make your demo presentation relatable to your audience is to find examples of customers similar to them that have successfully used your product or service. Start with the pain points your customer was facing and give specific details of how your product or service solved those issues. Demonstrate how your audience can have the same positive outcome as the customers in your use cases. 

6. Have reliable video conferencing

Even if most of your audience is in the same room as you, video conferencing enables remote participants to get access to critical nonverbal communication elements. For virtual attendees, the quality of your video service will set the tone for your presentation. Partner with a solution that makes it easy for remote participants to join the demo presentation without having to download an app or install software.

7. Share slides & follow up

After you’ve completed the demo keep the conversation going by sharing your slide deck and following up with your audience. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that, if they heard a pitch once, they understand it. Chances are they didn’t get it all the first time so you must tell them again. In your follow up message, thank the audience for their time, reinforce the value your product or service can provide them and give them an actionable next step.

“Presentation time with potential clients is a precious and limited commodity so it’s important to make the most of it.  The more details you know about your prospects before the meeting, the better you can tailor your sales demo to speak to them as individuals. A generic presentation won’t stir up an emotional response.”

— Jeremy Wycherly, Senior Director, Inside Sales at Lifesize

How Lifesize demos products

Face to face.

To save time and travel costs, a face-to-face video conference call is a great option for demo presentations. The human element of face-to-face communication provides a more natural experience and helps you connect with the audience. Lifesize video and audio clarity makes you feel like you are in the same room as your audience and lets you present your business in the best light and make an unrivaled first impression.

Wireless screen sharing

From sharing your laptop screen to playing full-motion videos, Lifesize Share™  makes it remarkably easy to wirelessly present in the meeting room. You don’t have to waste time trying to find and pass along the right dongle or cord. Share your screen in real-time, play a video and control your presentation right from your mobile device or laptop with Lifesize Share.  

Full motion content sharing

No one enjoys sitting through a presentation with pixelated and poor-quality video. Lifesize’s 4K full-motion content sharing ensures that the quality and fine details of the product or service you’re demoing are maintained during your presentation. Prospects feel more confident purchasing a product or service when the presentation visuals are crisp, clear and realistic. The unmatched Lifesize full-motion 4K content sharing and stunning 4K video quality brings your demos to life.

You can have a great product or service but if your demo is not winning your audience’s attention, then you’ve wasted their time and yours. As you gain experience and become more confident doing demo presentations, you will soon approach them as an exciting opportunity to win new business rather than a daunting challenge. Communicating clearly, focusing on the things your audience cares about and using reliable, high quality video presentation tools will greatly improve your chances of closing the deal. Don’t give off the wrong first impression by having a poor connection or pixelated video. Lifesize video conferencing technology helps you put your best foot forward to really wow potential clients with stunning 4K video quality and ultra-high definition full motion content sharing.

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Improving the Video Conferencing Experience in the Era of Remote Work

In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past six months, it’s clear that remote work and distributed teams are here to stay, even after the pandemic recedes. While some workers will gradually find their way back to in-person (office or otherwise) workplace settings, this is just the on-ramp to the highway of working from anywhere for many others.

Demo Presentation Template

Captivate your audience by delivering a professional product demonstration. Show customers or investors how your product or service will benefit them.

Trusted by 65M+ users and leading companies

About the Demo Presentation Template  

This Demo Presentation Template helps you get your flow of ideas across easily and professionally. With this template, you can show potential and existing customers what your product or service can do.

When you have a visual presentation showing how your product works, customers can better understand how it solves their pain points. Use a demo presentation to enhance your sales presentation and stimulate interest in your product.

What’s a demo presentation?

A demo presentation is a meeting between your business and a client (or potential client) in which you showcase and present a product or service. It typically includes a full run-down of the product’s key selling points, uses, target audience , and other relevant features. 

The aim of a product demo is to demonstrate your product’s selling power and hopefully win over the client in question with a deal. It’s all about showing your product in the best possible light and answering any questions the client may have. 

An amazing demo presentation should inform, enlighten, and excite your client. 

While it’s important to be vocal about your product’s highlights and potential, a big part of any product demonstration should include a fair degree of listening. The essence of a demo presentation is to bring life to your business’ product or service and inspire clients to take action. 

What should a demo presentation include?

Miro is the perfect online presentation creator . When putting together a demo presentation, the following several boxes need to be ticked: 

Excellent product/services knowledge

If you don’t know your product inside and out, clients will be able to tell, and they’ll be put off as a result. Make sure to conduct a thorough analysis of your product well before the presentation starts. You need to be able to clearly communicate the product’s attributes and confidently answer any questions.

Real-life examples and scenarios

Clients will gain a much stronger impression of your product if they feel they can apply it to their own lives or businesses. Providing real-life examples of how they can benefit from your product is a crucial aspect of any demo or prototype presentation.

Effective visual aids

Make it even easier for clients to fall in love with your product by providing effective, well-designed visual aids. From infographics and images to demo videos, visual aids can make your presentation more impactful and increase the client’s likelihood of conversion. 

When to use a demo presentation

A demo presentation is helpful for connecting with clients. Just about every product and service can benefit from a strong presentation, such as: 

A sprint demo presentation. Within the Scrum framework , a demo presentation comes at the end of a sprint. Sprint demos are needed to showcase progress and project status to stakeholders who are invested in the outcome.

An app demo presentation. This type of presentation is especially useful if you’re trying to find investors for the development of an app. It sheds light on the potential app’s revenue and social impact.

A prototype presentation. A prototype presentation is also useful for gaining support from investors for a still-developing product. By presenting a prototype, you can summarize the problems your product is trying to solve and improve investors’ overall understanding of your product.

How to use the Demo Presentation Template  

If you’ve never created a demo presentation before, using a template can be tremendously helpful. Follow these simple instructions to make the most out of Miro’s Demo Presentation Template: 

Step 1: Fill in your template

You’ll need to fill in your template with information for each slide. You might include the following information in your slide deck:

the product’s identity

the target market

the revenue potential

key selling points 

potential risks along the way 

Step 2: Edit and customize 

Whether you’re creating an app demo or prototype presentation, this customizable template can suit your needs. Edit, refine, and polish the order, layout, visuals, and structure of your Demo Presentation Template to suit your business and what it offers. 

Step 3: Brainstorm ideas and collaborate

With Miro’s presentation mode , you can preview your entire presentation as a team. With an easy-to-navigate structure and flexible framework, your demo presentation plan can evolve and be improved with ease. When you’re ready for your final presentation, simply select this mode and use the forward and back arrows to move smoothly through your presentation.

Tips for a great demo presentation

Whether you’re delivering a sprint demo presentation, an app demo presentation, or a prototype presentation, here are a few helpful tips to bear in mind: 

Know your product well. Uncertainty and lack of knowledge aren’t going to win over clients. You want to demonstrate confidence, diligence, and professionalism. Make sure to do your research well and have answers prepped for questions you might be asked.

Have a clear intro, middle, and conclusion. Using a storyteller structure in your presentation can make it more digestible to clients. Use visuals and clear communication to break down your product’s features into distinctive, cohesive sections.

Listen well. Even though this presentation is about your product, it’s important to leave some room for others to speak. This will make the presentation more conversational and allow clients to flesh out your product from their perspectives.

Don’t be distracted. When delivering a professional demo presentation, you want to emulate reliability, uniformity, and expertise. Maintain strong eye contact and stay focused on the presentation’s goals. Make sure your connection is strong, especially if the presentation is virtual .

How do you start a demo presentation?

Your demo presentation should start with a brief description of its agenda. Then, dive into your intro, work your way into the main points, and end with a conclusion or call to action. An open Q&A session can be held at the end.

How do you prepare for a demo?

Prepare for your demo with lots of research on your product/service and the clients you will be presenting it to. The more you know about these things, the more influential your presentation will be.

What makes a good demo presentation?

An effective demo presentation should include relevant and accurate information about your product. The presenter should have great communication skills and use strong visual aids. Your demo presentation should have a clear structure and logical flow — which you can get using this Demo Presentation Template.

Get started with this template right now.

Keynote Presentation Template

Works best for:.

Presentations, Workshops

Designed to create enthusiasm and build knowledge about a specific topic, keynote presentations are more powerful than most people think. With them, you get to inspire and unify an audience with a common purpose. We give you an easy way to do this — just use our Keynote Presentation Template to create your own captivating presentation.

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Creating an engaging training presentation that effectively helps your employees level up is no easy feat. With the Training Presentation Template, you can slash presentation development time and spend more energy on the transformative elements of your training. Plus, it’s so easy to collaborate with other training staff when you develop your training slides in Miro.

Critical Design Review Presentation Template

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Use this template to finalize the design phase of a project. Keep all team members on the same page and ensure that your team’s technical efforts are on track.

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Out with the old, in with the new! Showcase your brand’s newly revised strategy with this dynamic Rebranding Presentation Template.

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Creating or reimagining a company vision is just half the battle. You also need to make sure that your employees and customers understand and share it. Communicate your vision statement in the most effective and concise way with this Company Vision Presentation Template.

Simple Presentation Template

Presentations

Designed to remove the clutter and communicate the most important information in a clear and visually appealing way, our Simple Presentation Template will keep your audience’s eyes glued to the screen and their ears tuned into your voice — without having to add any fancy bells or whistles.

How to do a great product demo

Lucid Content

Reading time: about 8 min

Now that you’ve invested valuable time and resources into vetting, engaging, and building a relationship with your potential customer, the time has come to seal the deal with a powerful product demo. 

Though the prospect of a convincing product demo might be intimidating, it’s actually a prime opportunity to demonstrate how your product specifically addresses your customer’s needs and facilitates their goals. If done correctly, your product demos can combat any product-related concerns your customer might have, provide proof of your product’s effectiveness, and solidify your customer’s interest in your product. 

Here’s how to get it done.

Objectives of a product demonstration

If the discovery call was your opportunity to diagnose your prospective buyer’s pain points, the demo is your chance to prescribe impactful solutions. Avoid the urge to make the demo a standardized showcase of your product’s best features. Show you really listened to and understand your buyer’s problems by personalizing each pitch to highlight the functionality that will impact them the most.  

While the strategy for executing the demo will vary based on your product or service, there are a few common objectives to keep in mind at this stage. By the end of the demo, you want to walk away having achieved the following: 

1. A clearer picture of their internal decision-making process

The demo is an opportunity to navigate the buyer’s organization. The demo process should allow reps to identify the key stakeholders and decision-makers, the criteria they require for making their decision, their desired timeline, and your champions and blockers. 

Understanding the relationships and influences at play will be vital to closing the deal. Remind reps to update their account map at this time, as visualizing the health of the deal after this milestone will help ensure you make the right steps going forward.  

Learn more about account mapping—and show sales reps how to deliver the prospect information you need.

2. A budding relationship with your buyer

The demo is the best time to verify that you truly understand the pain points you identified in the discovery process and have found a way that your product can solve those issues. Your buyer needs to feel heard, understood, and validated. The demo is an opportunity to build trust, which will be necessary to win the account. Again, the decision to buy is often emotional, and having a good relationship with your buyer is a key element of providing a good buyer experience.  

3. Introduction to customer success

Having CS sit in on the demo allows them to start building those important relationships with stakeholders and hear firsthand about the buyer’s pain points and goals, helping them to get up to speed much faster. It will also help CS better customize the onboarding and training process if they get an early understanding of how the product will be used.

Tips to help you pull off the perfect product demo

Product demos require a unique demonstration of product knowledge, salesmanship, and relationship-building, all within a limited amount of time. Demos also have the added risk of a technical glitch, customer disinterest, and other complications that can derail your presentation.

To make the most of this all-important opportunity to showcase your product and connect with your potential buyer, we’ve compiled a few tips to help you make your product demonstration as effective as possible.

1. Know as much about your customer as you do about your product

Knowing your product inside and out is only half the battle. Tools like a thorough, updated account map can give your sales engineer an idea of where your buyer is coming from and where they hope to end up. It can also provide valuable information regarding who will be present at your product demo and what role they play in the decision-making process. 

Before your demo, make sure you have a basic knowledge of the following:

• Your audience: Research their role in the organization, their decision-making authority, and their interactions with your team thus far. An account map can help you discover most of this information, but you can also look at about pages, published writing, and other resources for additional insights.
• Their customers: Reading testimonials from their customers, case studies, and more can help you identify what their customer is looking for, what pain points they might experience in their relationship, and how your product can address both.
• Their partners: Find out who your client is working with and what kind of solutions will add value to their partnership or make them more efficient. 

2. Ask, then tell 

What’s the best way to know what your customer is looking for out of a solution? Ask them yourself.

Many sales reps and engineers make the mistake of thinking that their research or account map acts as a replacement for getting information directly from their client. With a few key questions, you can immediately discern where to take your product demos—what features to highlight, what solutions will have the greatest value for your customer, and what pain points to address along the way.

Some basic questions can include:

• I understand your goal is to X. Is that correct?
• How do you hope this solution will help you achieve your objectives of X, Y, and Z?
• What do you like/dislike most about your current approach?
• What are the selection criteria for the next solution you’ll be implementing?

In addition to gaining useful information from your client, questions serve to convey the simple yet effective message that you care about addressing your client’s needs and helping them achieve their goals. Demonstrating your ability to listen to a concern or need and address it with a potential solution can build a foundation of trust between you and your client that goes beyond simply trying to sell them a product. 

3. Customize your demo to tell your customer’s story

Demonstrating how your product works won’t do you any good if you can’t demonstrate how it works for your client.

Rather than delivering a rote presentation about your product’s features and benefits, focus on tying each feature or solution directly to your customer’s pain points, needs, or goals. This is where your initial questioning can help you customize your demo to suit your client’s requirements. 

For example, instead of a rehearsed spiel about feature X, try phrasing your selling point like this:

“You mentioned that Y was a particular pain point within your organization. Here’s how feature X can help you successfully eradicate this pain point and improve metric Z in the process.”

If you’re not actively proving how your product is an integral part of your customer’s story, you’re leaving your customer the task of discerning how your product is more or less valuable than your competitors. Use your demo to paint a picture of life with your product, and make sure it points to your product as an invaluable solution that facilitates your customer’s goals.

Take your product demo a step further by adding the interactive value of a technical demo. A brief technical demo can allow your customer to experience the product for themselves and ask more in-depth questions about product functionality. Spending time in the product can also inspire a sense of ownership, a tactic commonly used by salesmen to establish an emotional attachment between potential buyer and product that makes them feel as though it’s already theirs.

4. Use visuals to demonstrate potential

More and more sales engineers are learning the value of using charts, graphs, and even infographics in creating a more engaging and educational product demonstration. Images are proven to gain and hold a viewer’s attention better than oral communication, particularly when it comes to conveying statistics, financial trends, pricing, and more. In fact, recent research indicates that your visuals can increase information retention by between 29% and 42%, which might just spell the difference between a failed product demo and a sale.

Perhaps your most effective use of visuals can be in creating an impactful visualization of a current vs future state for your potential customer. With an intelligent diagramming solution like Lucidchart, you can easily outline your customer’s current situation, complete with a rundown of key stats and pain points, along with a thorough blueprint of a projected future state—all in the same canvas. Toggle back and forth between layers to effectively prove how your product will facilitate growth and mitigate various issues. 

Optimize your product demonstrations with Lucidchart

Lucidchart provides you with the canvas and tools to create everything from organized account maps to polished charts and graphs for a customized product or technical demo. Get started today and take advantage of enterprise-grade solutions for you, your sales team, and your entire organization.

Take a closer look at how you can use Lucidchart to improve your product demos, including features such as custom shape libraries, Layers, Actions, and real-time collaboration.

Lucidchart, a cloud-based intelligent diagramming application, is a core component of Lucid Software's Visual Collaboration Suite. This intuitive, cloud-based solution empowers teams to collaborate in real-time to build flowcharts, mockups, UML diagrams, customer journey maps, and more. Lucidchart propels teams forward to build the future faster. Lucid is proud to serve top businesses around the world, including customers such as Google, GE, and NBC Universal, and 99% of the Fortune 500. Lucid partners with industry leaders, including Google, Atlassian, and Microsoft. Since its founding, Lucid has received numerous awards for its products, business, and workplace culture. For more information, visit lucidchart.com.

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• 3 Steps to a Winning Technical Demo

The technical demo is an exciting phase of the sales process. Finally, you get a chance to create genuine value around your solution by demonstrating how your product works to the people who will actually use it on a daily basis. If you can generate excitement among prospective users, the internal momentum for change can tip a warm deal over the fence and into the negotiation phase.

But technical demos can also be tricky. A botched presentation may call your competence and ability to deliver on your promises into question. So in this post, we’ll look at a simple, three-step approach to technical demos that can help you avoid the most critical missteps.

• Get the facts.

A good technical demo begins with good preparation – and that means getting as much information on the front end as possible. At a minimum, you’ll want to consider the following:

• Venue. Will the demo take place at your office, or on-site with your buyer? There are advantages to both, of course. Having “home field advantage” means better access to technical resources and greater control over the actual demonstration environment – ensuring that the presentation goes off without a hitch. But if the environment is too foreign to your prospective buyer, it may leave them wondering whether they can emulate the results in their own setting. A successful demonstration on the buyer’s home turf however, may generate a stronger impression of native value, but you’ll face more unknown variables that could lead to snags at presentation time. As salespeople, we need to be ready to perform in any scenario, including virtual demo’s.
• Schedule. How much time do you ideally need to make an effective technical presentation? How much time is your buyer prepared to give you? Will the demo take place in the context of a normal work day for the participants, or will it occur after-hours? Early in the morning or late in the afternoon? These are all factors that might impact how you calibrate your presentation – which features you’ll demonstrate, which customizations you’ll want to port ahead of time, etc. – in order to make the best use of whatever time you have.
• Participants. Who will you be presenting to? What are their roles? Are they already experienced with solutions like yours – or will they need to be educated along the way? A technical demo for CMO will obviously look rather different than one for Business Analyst. And you might be asked to present to both groups at different times, so you’ll want to adjust your content and presentation style to suit the competencies and attention span of each.
• Technology. Which IT components will your buyer provide, and which will you provide yourself? Does the proposed venue include the minimum system requirements for your solution to perform well? What’s your backup plan for a bad Internet connection or spotty video conference feed? It’s better to address these things up front, because nothing derails a technical demo more quickly than “technical difficulties.”
• Study your audience.

Once the basic details are in place, you’ll want to tailor your presentation to suit your audience. Instead of delivering a canned talk that emphasizes the same features for all users, you’ll need to customize each demo according to several key factors:  

• Your buyer’s business environment.  How many employees does your buyer have? Does the team work on-site or remotely? Are most prospective users technically skilled, or is the team primarily comprised of non-technical users supported by a smaller administrative group? What sorts of things might offer competitive advantage to an organization in their business sector? These are the kinds of questions that can guide you as you decide how to position your solution’s value – particularly if it could evolve the organization’s workflows, reduce overhead, or introduce new revenue or information-gathering opportunities into extant business processes. Armed with these insights, you can structure your demo to help your prospect discover new business value as they engage with your solution.  
• Users’ business priorities.  Technical demos aren’t one-size-fits-all propositions. Not all of your solution’s features will matter to all parties, so it’s the salesperson’s job to understand which facets of the product will most directly impact the day-to-day life of the individuals sitting in the room during the demo. It’s also important to discern between which facets of your solution are actual business needs versus “nice to haves.” You want to major on how your solution meets users’ needs first – and let the other stuff push your product over the top. For instance, after demonstrating how easy it is for a remote sales team to input a new lead into the sales funnel using your solution, you can casually demonstrate how that newly inputted lead is automatically backed up to the cloud and available for viewing and updating remotely using your participant’s personal smartphone.
• Prevalence of competitive solutions.  If your prospect is aware of – or actively using – a competitive solution, you’ll want to know how your product measures up against it. Chances are, if you’re still in the conversation, then the technical demo is your best opportunity to demonstrate why your solution is the best Find out what it is about your solution that makes it superior to competitors’ for your particular buyer’s needs – and demonstrate those features early and often during your presentation.
• Have a game plan.

A solid technical demo should feel natural and organic to the buyer – like a cross between a conversation and a presentation. But that doesn’t mean that salespeople can afford to just “wing it” on the day of the demo. Flexibility is great, but you want to show up with a plan. Here are a few tips:

• Simulate a “day in the life” of your buyer.  Once you know who your users are and what features most directly impact their daily work activities, you can create “sandbox” environments that emulate what their existing work routines might be like using your solution. Create some true-to-life scenarios that match your buyer’s business environment and offer opportunities for your solution to shine through as a superior alternative to the company’s existing tools and processes.
• Make the presentation interactive.  No one wants to sit through a two-hour talk, so find ways to make the demonstration a two-way conversation that incorporates audience feedback and gives hands-on opportunities for users to interact with your product. Periodically pause for questions and learn how to “read the room” for signs of concern. Remember, it’s not a good sign when people remain silent during your presentation; it may indicate disinterest – or objections that may surface later on in the sales process. Making your presentation interactive allows these potential objections to arise organically so that you can address them forthrightly.  
• Have technical experts at hand.  No matter how good you might be with your solution, chances are there will be at least one or two highly technical questions or objections that you won’t be prepared to answer. That’s why it’s a good idea to have high-level technical expertise available during a technical demo. Perhaps one of your engineers is willing to accompany you for the demo to be on-hand for assisting users – or at least on call for video conference during the time you’ll be presenting. If not, never be afraid to tell truth; simply say, “I’m not sure about that, but I have a partner who would be eager to help us out. Could we schedule a call this afternoon?”  
• Go for the “technical win,” not the final sale.  Remember that the technical demo is part of the sales process, but not the endgame. A successful technical demo is measured by how well it answers the question, “Does this solution best address our needs right now?” If the answer is yes, then there’s plenty of room at the negotiating phase to work out the details of price, implementation schedule, etc. But if the answer is “no,” or “not sure,” well… the deal is as good as dead. So plan accordingly.

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Copyright © 2024 Think Listen Learn

Providing expert technical demo presentation skills training in Bay Area, San Francisco, CA & beyond. Corporate tech demo presentation skills to improve communication skills.

Technical Demo Presentation Skills Training

2 or 3 days |  8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.  |  8-12 participants |  1 facilitator.

Your company’s technical presenters face considerable challenges. They must know your company’s products cold, be skillful in running the software, and be adept at the picks and clicks. And they must also engage the customer, articulate key benefits, and present a calm and confident demeanor so others perceive them as a competent, committed, and trusted partner.

Today’s technical presenters must master the fundamental principles of presentation skills that are necessary to develop enriching, engaging, and long lasting partnerships with their users and customers. By having greater command of the presentation environment, technical presenters will be far better equipped to confidently represent their company’s product line, attract and retain customers, and increase the quality of the customer experience. If your technical specialists can be more confident and persuasive when in front of a group, they will be better able to contribute more readily to the company’s success.

Target Audience

This technical demo presentation skills training program is designed for technical presenters, application engineers, and anyone who gives product demonstrations to groups of technical or non-technical audiences.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the Technical Demo Presentation Skills training program, participants will be able to:

Understand the importance of maintaining audience connection in a demo environment and use specific techniques to keep the audience engaged and responsive

Master fundamental delivery skills used by highly effective speakers and be able to apply them to demo presentations

Implement The DeFinis Navigator , our fail-safe method for planning demo content that boosts the speaker’s ability to stay on message and keep the audience on track

Handle a Q&A session with credibility, knowledge, and tact

Create an action plan for continuous learning

Program Overview

We begin the technical demo training program by introducing our core learning model, The Connection Loop . Participants will learn a step-by-step process for keeping their listeners involved and engaged throughout the presentation. We will assess each person’s current skill level so they have a benchmark on which to build new skills, and we will explore the presentation challenges technical presenters face every day. Participants will discover why their audience wants them to succeed, and they will be introduced to concepts, tools, and best practices to help them do so.

But theory is never enough to drive behavioral change. That’s why participants will practice their new skills by delivering sections of their technical demo presentation in front of the camera in preparation for their final presentation. Using our signature Line by Line Coaching process individuals will receive targeted feedback and coaching from the instructor. The proven DeFinis training method and the skillful guidance of our talented instructors ensure that participants will experience immediate results in their technical demo presentation skills.

Contact us today to learn more about how our technical demo presentation skills training programs can help your organization!

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