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Product Demo 2.0

How many of you sell products that require salespeople to visit customers to provide a demonstration? If that sounds like your company, you’ve probably written off the Internet for that. Perhaps you use the Web to explain your product and to have prospects contact you, but you still need to to send that sales rep to the demo. Until now. Check out how some companies are doing Product Demo 2.0.


What exactly does an in-person demo do for you? It puts a real person in front of your customer who can notice what objections are raised and meet them. It puts someone knowledgeable in a position to demonstrate the value of the product and the problems that it solves. Clearly in-person product demos drive great value, but they are very expensive.
Some companies are doing product demos on YouTube. Check out how IBM demonstrates a new way of developing Web applications, called QEDWiki. Now does a video demo work as well as an in-person demo? Of course not. But it’s much less expensive and it can be seen anytime the client wants to do it.
After the video demo, the client must follow up to contact the company to get questions answered, so expect that a higher percentages of clients viewing video demos will drop out of the sales cycle. But think of how many more people will see the demo—who cares if the percentages are lower? You’ll likely get more leads than you did the old way.
You might think this is only good for software, but it’s not. Perhaps you’ve heard of the funny “Will It Blend?” videos for Blendtec blenders. Blendtec has dramatically raised their sales by showing funny demos of blending IPods and other household objects as feats of strength.
But while those videos have attracted attention as a viral marketing technique, know that Blendtec shows
standard Blendtec demos on its Web site, as do many other companies. Do you demonstrate your product on the Web? Why not?

Mike Moran

Mike Moran is a Converseon, an AI powered consumer intelligence technology and consulting firm. He is also a senior strategist for SoloSegment, a marketing automation software solutions and services firm. Mike also served as a member of the Board of Directors of SEMPO. Mike spent 30 years at IBM, rising to Distinguished Engineer, an executive-level technical position. Mike held various roles in his IBM career, including eight years at IBM’s customer-facing website, ibm.com, most recently as the Manager of ibm.com Web Experience, where he led 65 information architects, web designers, webmasters, programmers, and technical architects around the world. Mike's newest book is Outside-In Marketing with world-renowned author James Mathewson. He is co-author of the best-selling Search Engine Marketing, Inc. (with fellow search marketing expert Bill Hunt), now in its Third Edition. Mike is also the author of the acclaimed internet marketing book, Do It Wrong Quickly: How the Web Changes the Old Marketing Rules, named one of best business books of 2007 by the Miami Herald. Mike founded and writes for Biznology® and writes regularly for other blogs. In addition to Mike’s broad technical background, he holds an Advanced Certificate in Market Management Practice from the Royal UK Charter Institute of Marketing and is a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. He also teaches at Rutgers Business School. He was a Senior Fellow at the Society for New Communications Research and is now a Senior Fellow of The Conference Board. A Certified Speaking Professional, Mike regularly makes speaking appearances. Mike’s previous appearances include keynote speaking appearances worldwide

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