A product demo is a live demonstration of how your product works, so show! Don’t just tell.

Product demonstration is one of the best opportunities that you have as a Product Marketing Manager to showcase your product’s capabilities. Here are a few ways you can make the most of it.

1) Know your audience and relevance is key

It is important to know if you are going to deliver your demo to a business audience or a technical audience and which industry they come from. From my experience, I have observed that showing the same demo does not work effectively for both these sets of audiences as what features they look for and care about in your product and what each of them value are different.

If you are in a tradeshow firing up your demo environment, use that time to talk to your customer and know more about them. As they share their role in their organization and their needs for this solution, think through what you need to showcase in your demo. There is no point showing a feature that is irrelevant to your customer although it may be the latest “cool” feature that you have added in your product.

2) Show the top 3 relevant features that would make their role easy and communicate the value and benefits it brings to the table

Technology is only as good as how it can help its users achieve their end goals. Based on your interactions with them, pick the top three features that would entice your customer and show it. Restate their problem and empathize with them and speak their language. Tell them how easy it is for them to learn and use your product and how it can help in enhancing their respective roles in their organization and their business objectives.

If you are talking to an IT manager who is worried about losing visibility and control of his/her IT investments, make sure you show how your product has a dashboard and its relevant functions that can help gain that visibility that he/she requires.

3) Leave room for dialogue and use this opportunity to gather feedback

As a passionate product marketer, you may be proud to talk a lot about your product and its value. I learnt this the hard way! But its important to be aware and build a healthy dialogue to listen to your customer and give room for your customer’s questions. After every feature, take a pause and listen and deeply observe their response and reactions.

At the end of your demo, ask them for feedback and what other new features they would like to see in the product and why they value those features. If you already have those features, use the opportunity and show them if they have the time to see it now. If they don’t exist, this would be a great opportunity for you to take this feedback to your product teams and improve your product.

Would love to know how you deliver your demos!