When a prospective customer attends your live demo, it is often the make-or-break moment in their buying journey. However, when the product demo freezes, lags, or doesn’t provide the experience you said you would provide, the curiosity turns to scepticism in a very short period of time. With decreasing attention spans and increased competition, those little glitches can quickly lead to a loss of interest.
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The Unseen Sales Killer
Demos are so effective because they provide attendees with a firsthand look at your solutions. Unfortunately, they can also be misleading. A number of teams have come to rely on webinar technology to conduct their demo experience. Although these technologies were created for ease of use, they are typically incapable of providing a seamless, real-time experience, particularly if you are dealing with either physical products or time-sensitive software.
Whether it is a brief delay in a robotics demonstration, a slow transition in a user experience (UX) showcase, or a delay in audio/video feed for a control interface, all of these will add up. A prospective buyer may view a single glitch as a red flag. When your own tool is unable to operate smoothly during a demo, how can your buyers expect it to perform in real life?
This problem is further exacerbated when physically demonstrating a product. For example, demonstrating the responsiveness of a drone or a real-time feedback loop on a smart device via a poorly operating feed instantly erodes trust. At that point, the attendee is not viewing the product, but instead viewing the limitations of your presentation setup.
“Live” vs. Not
Many live demos are actually not live at all. Teams often run through scripted demonstrations or pre-recorded sequences masquerading as live presentations. There is nothing wrong with running a scripted presentation. However, when webinar technology is not able to keep up, even perfectly recorded sequences will fail to deliver due to poor execution. The illusion is broken. The opportunity is gone.
Additionally, the more common issue is that many teams will use low-fidelity presentation techniques, such as pointing a webcam at a device, inexpensive screen sharing, frame drop, etc., or worst-case scenario, delayed control feeds, which will make it appear that something is broken.
Wireless Live Video Transmission Systems Offer an Under-Used Solution
High-quality wireless video transmission systems offer a way to transmit directly to your target audience in a high-quality video feed from your product or camera source, circumventing the typical bottlenecks of most webinar platforms. As soon as you begin transmitting wirelessly, you immediately notice: clear images, smooth transitions, and synchronization between action and outcome. If you are showing movement, motion, or other processes within your product, this makes a huge difference between being merely interesting and being truly impressive.
Blueprint for a Successful Demo
To build trust and drive sales, your demo needs to do more than simply show off your product. You need to sell it. Here’s a better approach to achieve this goal:
- Create a dedicated demo area. Do not rely on general-purpose webinar tools. Create a controlled space for your demo, where you can send video and audio streams separately to provide better quality output.
- Purchase video-specific equipment. Use cameras that produce clean HDMI output, video capture cards, and transmitters to create a studio-quality feed of your product.
- Validate each step of your demo process. Practice your demo as a dry run with the same equipment and connection configuration. Record and review your practice sessions to identify potential timing gaps, sync problems, or confusing communication.
- Support your presentation. Have a second person watch the audience’s reaction, tech quality, and timing. This will enable you to focus on presenting.
Conclusion
Your demo is more than just a walk-through. It is the first real meeting of your product. If that meeting is disrupted by technical distractions, you risk losing the sale before the discussion even begins. Stop letting poor technology kill good products. Improve your demo setup and let your product shine as it was meant to.