Product demonstrations, AKA product demos, are live demonstrations of how your product works... so show, don’t just tell!

Product demos are one of the best opportunities you have as a Customer Success Manager to showcase your product’s capabilities. Here are a few ways you can make the most of it.

1. Understand the context

It's important to know if you're going to deliver your demo to a business audience or a technical audience, and which industry they come from. From my experience, I've observed that showing the same demo doesn't 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 values is different.

For example, if you're on a live onboarding call, use that time to talk to your customers and learn 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's no point showing a feature that's irrelevant to your customer although it may be the latest “cool” feature that you have added to your product.

2. Highlighting relevant value propositions

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 customers and show them. 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 their 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. Encourage dialogue and feedback

As a passionate customer success professional, you may be proud to talk a lot about your product and its value. But it's 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 on 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.