Example Demo
Productboard Presentation
The Use Case:
One of the Account Executives reaches out to you with the following scenario.
"I had a call with a potential customer, a fintech B2B company from Germany. They have about 500 employees and about 20 people on the product management team. Currently, the team is using spreadsheets for prioritization and Google slides to create roadmaps. On the delivery side, they are using Jira on-premise. The current setup is becoming pretty messy - their customer-facing teams have no visibility into the plans and it is affecting their current customers (2 big ones already churned because they were not able to deliver on time what the team promised) and there are deals worth $1M in the pipeline waiting for new features the sales team promised to be done by the end of Q2."
The prospect would like to see a 20 minute demo of Productboard, we will have the Head of Sales on the call, the CPO, and one Product Manager. Your task is to show the customer how Productboard can help them and bring value to the organization.
Initial Thoughts
I started with a google jam board to organise my thoughts and start planning out my presentation. On the scale of prospect information I've been given for a demonstration this is somewhere in the middle range, so I will have to begin with discovery mixed with select highlights to pique their interest. The Head of Sales, CPO and product manager are on the call which will mean a big focus on collaboration and finding a balance between them.
With 20 minutes sandwiched by discovery and questions and answers this will need to be high level and out of the box. Additionally when I asked about pricing structure this prospect falls into the scale plan structure which is going to impact the features I can show them. The Productboard trial comes with preloaded product road maps but ideally I need to show them something that is relevant to their industry so I set about creating a roadmap from scratch with the help of some of my connections in DevOps, Cyber Security and most importantly Product Management. With my background as an Account Executive I felt confident fulfilling the interests of the sales team.
Building the Presentation
In addition to the two optional slides I had a pricing structure in my back pocket in case I needed to start talking financials.
Understanding the Objectives
Discovery
Confirm the information provided using yes no questions and use qualitative questions to evolve more indepth responses. If possible ask for examples to personalise the demo and ask if they would like a recording.
About Productboard
Optional Ice Breaker on the company.
Provisionally they will have had an intro to the company but a refresher is good to have as an option to help legitimise your company.
Productboard Solutions
Lay down the benefit pillars.
These are taken from the website so that the messaging is consistent but the framing is tailored to their painpoints.
Product Demonstration
Technical presentation
A high level overview of the platform
Real World Success Stories
Optional: Relevant Use Cases
Questions and Next Steps
Conclusion and closing questions.
Technical Demonstration
Building a Roadmap
Prioritisation
Integration with Jira
different views
Insights
Integrations with CRM
Feedback visibility and accountability
Portal
Sharing with clients
Q&A
This is as much an opportunity to ask the prospect questions as it is for them to ask you questions.
Is there anything you haven't seen that you were looking for today?
Allows a last sweep and the chance to hop back to demonstrating before getting into Q&A.
Are you currently speaking to other vendors? If so is there anything you've seen on their demonstrations that you have not seen today?
Ensures are matching if not surpassing competitors.
What are the next steps for you and is there anyone else involved in the process?
Find out what needs to happen next and ensure you have a next meeting in place especially if there are other stakeholders.
Is there anything I can provide you with that will help you make a business case internally?
This is an opportunity for you to provide resources, whether that is a pricing plan, ROI calculator or video recordings.
Optional Soft Close - Can you see yourself using the platform and does it solve the issues we mentioned earlier?
OR
Optional Hard Close - Is there any reason you can't see yourself going forward with us as a vendor?
Audience Feedback
"In all seriousness, I wouldn't change a single thing from your presentations. In fact, guess who is now using Notion* for personal use 😎
I believe you are an incredible candidate and would love to have you on the team. As you continue to progress in the process, others in our org will be comparing your background and experiences with the others in the pipeline, but obviously will have noted that you delivered an excellent presentation.
I will say that I am impressed with the remaining candidates but really thought your presentation was the one that stuck out."
*The secondary part of the process involved a ten minute demonstration of another tool, in this case I demonstrated Notion and in particular the new AI functionality.