Product demos done right

As a kid, whenever I used to go to the beach, I'd see a small-time vendor selling spirographs by the roadside. Kids swarmed his shop, and his wares sold faster than hot cakes. How did this man make it happen? He just kept tirelessly and effectively demonstrating what people can do with the product. Kids liked it; they were enamored with it; and they got their parents to buy it for them.

You see, the key to selling is convincing, and the key to convincing is demonstrating. For a potential customer to invest their money in your offering, you must showcase your product's capabilities and special features—just like the spirograph-seller.

Maybe you already provide your customers with other first-hand experiential activities—like trials and test drives—but a product demo that you perform still plays a major role in sales and CX.

Here's why:

• It shows your conviction and belief in your offering.
• It tells customers what to expect from your offering and shows them its best sides.
• It piques customer curiosity and makes them look forward to using or owning your offering.

Now let's look at a few examples of great demos that impressed audiences worldwide.

Bulletproof car by Texas Armoring Corporation

In this 10-year-old video, Trent Kimball, CEO of Texas Armoring Corporation, sits in the driver's seat of an armored SUV and faces bullets from an AK-47. The most impressive part is that the very first bullet is directed towards his head. The car's windshield bears the brunt of the barrage of bullets, and Kimball sits without flinching throughout the demo.

To this day, this demo receives extensive praise because of Kimball's boldness and conviction in his company's offering.

Project Turntable by Adobe

Next is this video of Zhiqin Chen, a research scientist at Adobe, demonstrating a genAI feature that helps modify the angle and perspective of 2D drawings effortlessly. This demo is super-effective—evident by the audience's applause—because the presenter doesn't get into the details about the technology, but simply paints a clear picture of what all the new feature can do. He also uses multiple examples to illustrate the efficacy of the feature. 

A well-planned and well-executed demo that keeps the audience spellbound throughout.

PencilVac by Dyson

In a recent product launch event, James Dyson, founder of Dyson, demonstrated the company's latest vacuum cleaner—PencilVac. He starts off the demo by talking about a problem that the old models encounter and explains how the new model solves it. In contrast to Zhiqin Chen, Dyson shares a few technical details during his demo because they're technical breakthroughs and industry-firsts. However, he doesn't delve too deeply into these details; he only mentions the facts that stand out and does so in simple language.

Running for about eight minutes, this demo is a masterclass in product presentation, and you can check the comments section of the video to see just how many people feel so, too.

Concept demo of Dropbox

This is the oldest example we'll be looking at in this article. Published 16 years ago, this video of Drew Houston, founder and CEO of Dropbox, showcasing what Dropbox can do is another masterclass in product demonstration. Again, just like Dyson, Houston keeps it simple and to the point in his demo. The most interesting part is that Dropbox wasn't even ready as a product at that point. The prototype demo video, however, was so effective that the number of people on the beta waiting list went from 5,000 to 75,000 literally overnight.

We know how far Dropbox has come since then, and it's fair to say that this video played a pivotal role in that journey.

Best practices

Now let's look at some best practices that can help you demonstrate the capabilities of your offering effectively:

• Stick to the PSB (problem, solution, benefits) approach, and keep it simple and focused. Brevity is not just the soul of wit, but also of product demos. The sooner you get to the things that matter, the better the audience's reception will be.
• Customize the demo according to the audience. This not only shows that you respect your audience, but also establishes the fact that you know the industry vertical well. Take the PencilVac demo for instance: Though James Dyson speaks in English, the content is tailored to Japan, which is where the launch took place. He compares the size of the new motor with that of a 500 yen coin instead of using his native UK currency or US dollars. By doing so, he makes the content more relatable to his audience.
• Prepare well and have all necessary materials and backup options ready beforehand. Practice and rehearse the demo as many times as necessary until you become thoroughly confident. Zhiqin Chen does a great job of this in his Project Turntable demo. All of his characters are already there, and the sequence of the demo is clear and logical. He delivers the demo without any glitches or hassles.
• Perform extensive testing of your offering before giving the demo. This helps you avoid any embarrassment or unexpected failures in front of your audience. Keep Trent Kimball's demo in mind when you think about product testing. The company's very own CEO chose to sit inside the armored SUV to showcase its effectiveness. One has to be 1,000% confident that it works to take such a huge risk.
• If your offering is a software product, use meaningful and well-organized data for the demo. Tailor your use case's sample organization to your prospective customer. If your prospect is a bank, it doesn't make sense to show a use case/data that pertains to a university.
• If possible, let customers handle the offering by themselves so that they can experience it firsthand. There's a good example of this practice towards the end of the PencilVac demo video.
• Engage with the audience through humor. This will take you closer to your audience and ensure that they listen to you more raptly. You may have noticed that both Zhiqin Chen and Drew Houston use elements of humor in their respective demos. Chen's humor is more direct and spontaneous in the form of remarks based on observation, whereas Houston's is subtle and well-planned in the form of meme references and funny lines (hint: look at the reply in the chat window in the Dropbox demo). However, remember that humor in demos must be like salt in food. Less salt will make the food bland, and excessive salt will make it unpalatable.

Hope you enjoyed reading this article. Feel free to share in the comments any other best practices that have worked for you or any product demo that has a permanent place in your memory for whatever reason.

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