Clarifying the difference between demoing vs a product walkthrough for Sales Engineers

Starting Q1 2020 as the VP of North America Presales has come with a lot of new challenges to solve for. One of those challenges revolves around educating the sales team on how to engage with Presales. One of the questions that I ask when presenting at a sales team meeting is “Does anyone know the difference between a demo vs a product walkthrough?”. What I have observed is that the sales teams see these two types of engagements as the same thing. This perpetuates a perception that Presales is just a support function vs a strategic partner with sales. This perception isn’t optimal for two reasons: first, it can cause morale issues on the Presales team and second, it doesn’t really set the Presales engineer up for success during a customer meeting. Below is how I help distinguish between a demo vs a product walkthrough for both the internal and external teams.

What is a product walkthrough?

A product walkthrough is showing the prospect/customer a step by step guide on the various functionalities without context on why they matter to that customer. Product walkthroughs tend to be helpful when having the first meeting with a prospect as an introduction to the product. Sales reps tend to do a product walkthrough as they are explaining the key benefits of the platform (e.g. great insight on x, here let me show you that feature or better collaboration). The goal of a product walkthrough is to help demonstrate enough features that will lead to a next meeting where a proper discovery conversation can take place. A product walkthrough should be relativity fast and specific to a feature that is relevant to the conversation. The product walkthrough doesn’t have any previous context on the prospect’s specific use case or needs. Finally, product walkthroughs can be done by either the sales reps or presales. However, when to own it will vary depending on the presales availability and team ratio to sales. Currently, at Pluralsight, presales are working with sales enablement to certify the sales team to do the initial product walkthrough.

What is a demo?

A demo is showing the prospect/customer a custom solution to one or multiple challenges they are facing in their business. Demoing requires having a discovery session prior to doing the actual demo. The discovery session helps surface up to both the sales and presales engineer what the goals, problems, and needs are for the customer. As such, sales should always include presales at this discovery session as this will help the presales engineer beginning to formulate a solution for the customer. Effective demos are those that can help highlight the solution(s) to the prospect’s business challenges and create a vision on how the product will fit within the prospect’s ecosystem. In my opinion, the demo can be one of the most powerful meetings when proper discovery happens. A great demo can help distinguish the product as being the front runner when dealing with a competitive sales cycle. Knowing the difference between a product walkthrough and a demo, I advise all of you to help educate your own sales teams on the difference between the two.

I would love to know how you define the two in your own companies.

On a personal note, in this time of craziness in our world, I hope you all are staying safe and healthy.