Have you ever seen somebody give a demonstration and walk away amazed? We’ve all been there, and we can all judge whether the demo was a success or not, but it’s harder to pin down exactly what the factors were that gave the demo that ‘wow’ factor.
Delivering Salesforce demos is part of every role in the ecosystem, from admin to dev to architect and beyond. You may be showing off your product or service to prospective customers. It may be an internal demo on the part of the solution that you just built out. The demo may even be to hand over your final product to the client or others in your organization for final testing. No matter the role, demos are inevitable.
The good news is that delivering an awesome Salesforce demo is not rocket science! Let’s have a look at my five top tips…
Tip #1: Get to Know Your Audience
Sometimes we get so excited about what we built or are showing off that we forget the most important part:
WHO are you demo-ing for?
A well-built Salesforce demo is tailored to the target audience. Ask yourself a few questions before it comes to demo time.
- Who is your audience?
- What product(s) are they interested in?
- What are their pain points?
- What is their business or industry?
- What are their goals?
- What is their technical knowledge and job role?
It may be that you don’t have all the answers, but that’s why we have the internet! If you are demo-ing for an external audience, take the time to look up their website, Google their organization and get to know their industry. You’ll be amazed at how much more bought in they will be if you use some industry-specific terms. By prepping your demo and doing your research, you’ll build trust right off the bat!
Tip #2: Tell a Story
There’s nothing we love more than a good story!
Now more than likely you won’t have time during a Salesforce demo to create an elaborate backstory, but bringing story-telling elements into your demo will help to give it a structure that keeps your audience engaged.
You can use a story arc to create that structure.
Exposition: Who is the protagonist or main character? What is their world like? If you know your audience, then this one should be easy!
Rising action: Why are they here today? What are their pain points? What are they trying to achieve? More than likely there is a reason why everybody is in the room with you today. Tailor your presentation to clearly address those pain points or requirements.
Climax: What is your proposed solution? Walk your audience through what a day in their life would look like once they’re using your solution.
Falling action: How will your solution achieve their business goals? This is where you ‘wow’!
Resolution: What are the next steps they will need to build this future together? This will depend on the context of your demo, but agreeing next steps will help to gain buy-in.
Tip #3: Make it Personal
You want to make your audience feel special and heard. What better way to do so than by including them in your story!
If you’re showing off a dev org or prototype, make sure to use the company’s colors and branding, as well as any other relevant imagery. Keep the audience focused by removing any unnecessary functionality, such as other apps in the App Launcher or unneeded tabs or fields.
You can even use their names as the characters in your story!
Tip #4: Narrate Your Salesforce Demo
Storytelling is an art. For some, it comes naturally. For others, it takes practice. It sure didn’t come naturally for me! Narrating your demo will help to bring your story to life.
Narration helps with accessibility. For somebody who is visually impaired, just saying ‘click here’ is not particularly helpful. And in the age of remote work, more than likely somebody will get distracted and be listening, but not closely following your click path. Instead, try saying ‘Now we’re going to click on the gear in the upper right-hand corner to go to the Setup menu, where we will be accessing everything on the back end of the system.’ Much easier to follow!
Tip #5: Be Yourself!
Bring your personality to the demo! You are the secret sauce to making your Salesforce demo stand out from the others.
So keep it simple, bring your personality and have some fun!
Summary
By now, you may be asking yourself how you can start to implement these tips to start delivering awesome Salesforce demos yourselves. The next step – practice! There’s a reason they say: ‘Practice makes perfect’.
As painful as it can be, there is no better way to improve your demo skills than by watching your presentation back again. Each time you do, focus on one improvement that you can make. Just ONE thing that you can change, like being clearer about your click path, bringing the demo back to the storyline or simply not fidgeting quite so much.
By iteratively working on that one thing, you will improve your demo delivery skills ten-fold!
Resources
- Trailhead: Demo Storytelling
- Trailhead: Demo Delivery Essentials
- Trailhead: Demo Design Strategies
- Try it out yourself by delivering presentations and demos in local Trailblazer Community Groups and events!
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