As a SaaS Marketing Coach, Here's My Process for Boosting Product Demos in 2024
Denis Shatalin
Founder of SaaS Camp
Product demos are the best way to showcase your SaaS product and convince potential customers to purchase. But lots of founders need help getting the SaaS product demo snowball rolling.
A well-structured approach will help—and that's where I come in.
As a SaaS marketing coach, I've helped many B2B and SaaS founders increase demo uptake and see significant growth in their sales. And to get 2024 off to a great start, I want to share my Hybrid Customer Acquisition System for consistency and a ton of leads fast.
I'll cover:
Let’s get started.
A well-structured approach will help—and that's where I come in.
As a SaaS marketing coach, I've helped many B2B and SaaS founders increase demo uptake and see significant growth in their sales. And to get 2024 off to a great start, I want to share my Hybrid Customer Acquisition System for consistency and a ton of leads fast.
I'll cover:
- How to find the right market position
- Tips for setting up a dynamic marketing strategy
- Tips for effective cold emailing
Let’s get started.
6 Steps to Boost Your Product Demos Process
A well-structured approach is essential for more product demo requests and higher conversion rates for targeted marketing efforts, efficient use of resources, and consistency.
My hybrid customer acquisition system (HCAS) delivers a ton of meetings quickly and consistently.
My hybrid customer acquisition system (HCAS) delivers a ton of meetings quickly and consistently.
I use this process to reduce hold-ups and get significant results, like when I helped PowerLeads.io book 16 demos in three weeks, or when I took Yourethos.io from 0 to 23 demo requests in seven days with no technical setup.
So, without further ado, here’s an overview of the process.
So, without further ado, here’s an overview of the process.
1. Understand Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)
First, you need to define the characteristics of the customer(s) you’re trying to sell to.
This is because it’s almost impossible to demonstrate the level of expertise and authority your customers are looking for without truly understanding them. They’re experts in their field and will have no problem seeing past any generic content or sales pitch.
So, what info do you need? Here’s a list to get you started:
Talk to your prospects to slowly gather the answers to these questions. Use your findings to develop a persona to represent your ICP.
This is because it’s almost impossible to demonstrate the level of expertise and authority your customers are looking for without truly understanding them. They’re experts in their field and will have no problem seeing past any generic content or sales pitch.
So, what info do you need? Here’s a list to get you started:
- The Basics: Industry, job title, company size, location… you’re probably familiar with these.
- Current Situation: What are their biggest challenges? Are they currently using any of your competitor’s products or services?
- Dream Outcome: What are they hoping to achieve by working with you?
- Cost of Inaction: What are they spending to solve their challenges without you, and how much are they potentially losing by not working with you?
- Pain Points: What are their biggest pain points, and how does your product or service alleviate them?
- Language: How do they talk about their industry, challenges, and solutions? Use the same language to connect with them on a deeper level.
Talk to your prospects to slowly gather the answers to these questions. Use your findings to develop a persona to represent your ICP.
2. Nail Your Marketing Position
Marketing position is a strategic approach that defines how the target audience perceives a product. The key to successful market positioning is to sell a dream outcome based on the following:
For example, instant messaging offers real-time communication and reduces the need for lengthy email threads. The market position for instant massaging tools like Slack revolves around saving time (and increasing revenue as a result).
Decide what you should sell about your SaaS to your audience using the details found when speaking to your prospects. You’ll be able to figure out their most important outcome as it will be mentioned repeatedly when talking to the people you need to.
Remember these key steps when nailing your market position:
- Saving time
- Increasing revenue
- Preventing risk
For example, instant messaging offers real-time communication and reduces the need for lengthy email threads. The market position for instant massaging tools like Slack revolves around saving time (and increasing revenue as a result).
Decide what you should sell about your SaaS to your audience using the details found when speaking to your prospects. You’ll be able to figure out their most important outcome as it will be mentioned repeatedly when talking to the people you need to.
Remember these key steps when nailing your market position:
- Pin down the issue your SaaS addresses.
- Study your competitors successfully solving this issue.
- Look for gaps in your competitor's features and functionality that your product addresses. Software review sites like G2 and Capterra are good places to start for this type of information.
- Strengthen your competitive advantage by combining market demand gaps with competitor gaps.
3. Create Your Leads List
Come up with a list of high-quality leads or prospects most likely to convert.
Use your ICP, existing contacts, and leads who were once interested in a demo that didn’t happen. You can find these easy targets by going through your pipeline and looking for missed or lost opportunities.
For gathering new leads, you’ll be using a combination of lead databases like:
And contact information scraping tools like:
I work through the process of scaling up lead generation with clients and the results are incredible. For example, Ricard from Dividend Compass went from 5 to 150 daily signups in just 4 weeks without spending any money on ads.
Use your ICP, existing contacts, and leads who were once interested in a demo that didn’t happen. You can find these easy targets by going through your pipeline and looking for missed or lost opportunities.
For gathering new leads, you’ll be using a combination of lead databases like:
- Apollo
And contact information scraping tools like:
- Phantombuster
- Hunter.io
I work through the process of scaling up lead generation with clients and the results are incredible. For example, Ricard from Dividend Compass went from 5 to 150 daily signups in just 4 weeks without spending any money on ads.
4. Set up a Dynamic Marketing System
I give a detailed breakdown of dynamic marketing (including formulas) in my +240K ARR Playbook. For now, I’ll discuss some main points in setting up an effective cold email campaign to promote your product and encourage more demo sign-ups.
Get more social proof
A big part of the HCAS I help clients build revolves around getting case studies that then feed back into the system to attract more leads. Social proof is a powerful thing, and the faster you start leveraging it, the quicker you'll see results.
Case studies not only showcase your product's effectiveness and value to potential customers, but they also show that real people are using and benefiting from it. This adds credibility and trust to your brand, making it more likely for others to want to try your product.
You want a range of case studies that speak to all ICPs and use cases.
Use A/B testing to find the best angle
My dynamic marketing approach involves testing four campaigns to find the best positioning and best-performing message. And like most of your processes, your cold email campaign will need tweaks and adjustments, especially during early growth.
I recommend testing with these campaign angles:
After sending emails, find which position and variation gets the most demos booked and converts the most deals—then send more of those.
To scale your SaaS using cold email, use more than ten domains to avoid the 50 emails per domain limit and reach thousands of new contacts daily.
If you want help with any of these steps, sign up for SaaS Camp, and I’ll help you build you a dynamic marketing system to get you 20 extra qualified demos a month in 6 months or less.
Focus on urgency
Urgency is an important component of any successful marketing campaign, especially in the SaaS industry. Earlier, I mentioned the concept of “cost of inaction” or COI—this is your main lever for creating urgency in your messaging.
To give an example, I once worked with a founder who was targeting biotech companies. We worked out how much these customers were spending to solve their problems without is solution and found that it was more than $6 million per year.
Now, I don’t know about you, but if I was spending $6 million a year and someone offered me a solution that could save me that kind of money, I would jump at the opportunity. That’s the power of urgency.
Make sure your bounce rate is below 1%
A positive online presence is vital, especially for early-stage SaaS founders.
High bounce rates will negatively impact your sender's reputation, trigger spam filters, and possible blacklisting. Stop sending emails even if your bounce rate is at 2%, or you’ll get a bad rep and need to start over.
Get more social proof
A big part of the HCAS I help clients build revolves around getting case studies that then feed back into the system to attract more leads. Social proof is a powerful thing, and the faster you start leveraging it, the quicker you'll see results.
Case studies not only showcase your product's effectiveness and value to potential customers, but they also show that real people are using and benefiting from it. This adds credibility and trust to your brand, making it more likely for others to want to try your product.
You want a range of case studies that speak to all ICPs and use cases.
Use A/B testing to find the best angle
My dynamic marketing approach involves testing four campaigns to find the best positioning and best-performing message. And like most of your processes, your cold email campaign will need tweaks and adjustments, especially during early growth.
I recommend testing with these campaign angles:
- Case study
- Authority
- Pain point
- Free value
After sending emails, find which position and variation gets the most demos booked and converts the most deals—then send more of those.
To scale your SaaS using cold email, use more than ten domains to avoid the 50 emails per domain limit and reach thousands of new contacts daily.
If you want help with any of these steps, sign up for SaaS Camp, and I’ll help you build you a dynamic marketing system to get you 20 extra qualified demos a month in 6 months or less.
Focus on urgency
Urgency is an important component of any successful marketing campaign, especially in the SaaS industry. Earlier, I mentioned the concept of “cost of inaction” or COI—this is your main lever for creating urgency in your messaging.
To give an example, I once worked with a founder who was targeting biotech companies. We worked out how much these customers were spending to solve their problems without is solution and found that it was more than $6 million per year.
Now, I don’t know about you, but if I was spending $6 million a year and someone offered me a solution that could save me that kind of money, I would jump at the opportunity. That’s the power of urgency.
Make sure your bounce rate is below 1%
A positive online presence is vital, especially for early-stage SaaS founders.
High bounce rates will negatively impact your sender's reputation, trigger spam filters, and possible blacklisting. Stop sending emails even if your bounce rate is at 2%, or you’ll get a bad rep and need to start over.
5. Streamline the Sales Process
Help make your life easier by developing a proven sales process.
Here are a couple of tips:
If you want to learn how to nail your product demos, check out my guide to the elements of high-converting SaaS demos.
Here are a couple of tips:
- Prepare leads for the demo: Make it easier to close by sending relevant materials to warm up leads before the call. Social proof (case studies, testimonials, etc.) that address pain points or handle objects are powerful warm up tools.
- Don’t be afraid of interaction: A common mistake that founders make is not interacting with leads enough. You shouldn’t be sinking hours into cold leads, but the warm ones should get a fair bit of attention. It takes an average of 7 interactions to close—more for large enterprises.
- Filter out irrelevant prospects to save time: A convenient way to save your time and theirs is to add a quiz to the invitation method you send them to find out more and double-check that they fit your ICP.
If you want to learn how to nail your product demos, check out my guide to the elements of high-converting SaaS demos.
6. Optimize Your Sales Funnel
And lastly, optimizing your sales funnel.
Check conversions at each stage of your funnel to find bottlenecks. For an optimized process, I examine several metrics, including open, reply, click-through, and booking rates.
Although, you should pay equal attention to all your stats for financial stability and growth, especially focusing on speeding up the time from reply to booking and the length of the deal cycle. You can include purchase incentives like bonuses and discounts for faster revenue intake.
Check conversions at each stage of your funnel to find bottlenecks. For an optimized process, I examine several metrics, including open, reply, click-through, and booking rates.
Although, you should pay equal attention to all your stats for financial stability and growth, especially focusing on speeding up the time from reply to booking and the length of the deal cycle. You can include purchase incentives like bonuses and discounts for faster revenue intake.
Watch Your Demo Requests Skyrocket in 2024
The key to boosting product demos lies in data-driven insights, targeted content, and my hybrid customer acquisition approach.
Want more personalized guidance?
Book a strategy call with me and let’s discuss how we can maximize your demo requests and increase your revenue.
Want more personalized guidance?
Book a strategy call with me and let’s discuss how we can maximize your demo requests and increase your revenue.
+240K ARR Playbook
How you can add $240K ARR to your B2B SaaS in less than 6 months using a Hybrid Customer Acquisition System (without increasing your marketing budget)
*Currently still available for download; file access may be restricted at any time
