What is Demo Storytelling and How to Incorporate it In Your SaaS Sales Strategy

Why to use storytelling in sales demos?

A strong storytelling narrative when conducting a demo and conversing with a potential prospect is a game-changer. This is how you make the demo relatable and memorable. “Regardless of what you are selling, incorporating the art of storytelling into your sales discussions allows you to appeal to both logic and emotion and make sure people recall your story.” We underestimate the powerful nature of storytelling as a sales tactic. It helps the buyer connect to the information and draw their own insights from the conversation without coming off as sales-focused. Storytelling adds the human element to a SaaS sales strategy and makes a memorable mark. Use your Storytelling skills in sales demos to paint a clear picture and speak from the heart. Having a story that you are genuinely passionate about telling will significantly impact your prospects. When creating the narrative and strategy, “we have to remember that products are not just bundles of features. They solve real problems for real people.”

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The art and science behind demo storytelling.

At Demoleap, we believe in the science of selling. In our recent blog post, Neuroscience-backed Tips for Great Demos, the Rule of Three is a powerful psychological communication technique. Dr. Ken Broda-Bahm shares the simple, logical, and effective use of the rule of three and how human psychology responds to this grouping. It is said that storytelling activates the seven regions of the brain. This includes such regions as language, colors, movement, and sounds.  By appealing to these innate human traits with psychology and the art of storytelling — you can tap into the buyers’ emotions, leaving a powerful impact. If you only provide product details and industry figures, this will only activate two regions of the buyers’ brain. 

The art of a powerful product demo includes thoughtful and passionate narratives. A story has to be part sales, part product knowledge, and part human to connect to the heart of the issue, ensuring that both the right and left sides of the brain are stimulated. “Research suggests people retain nearly 70% of a message when wrapped in a story and just 5-10% of the facts in a typical sales pitch. Even cognitive psychologist Jerome Bruner reported people are 22 times more likely to remember information presented in a story.”

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Here are Demoleap's Key sales demo storytelling tips to help your team create Powerful Demos and close more deals.

How to use storytelling in sales demo:

1.  Good Discovery

A Good Discovery comes down to research, listening, and asking the right questions. It is up to you. This is your time to make the call as productive as possible and to get the information you need to put on a winning sales demo. The best way to ensure that happens is by conducting thorough research on the prospect you’re meeting with. That way, you can create an agenda as well as structure the conversation with a script. “Discovery is not intended to provide solutions. We are interested in understanding the problems.”

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2. The Hero’s Journey

Now that you truly understand the customer's pain, you can begin to craft a story. The hero’s journey monomyth is well known, popular, and works for good reason. People love hearing stories about triumph over impossible odds. “The key to invoking a personal connection with audiences is to frame them as the hero of your story. The general idea works like this: First, trigger a relatable pain point that the audience currently feels. Second, lead them on a journey to discover what will resolve this conflict.”

Finally, you let them get the solution (your product) to transform their situation into the desired state. But for this to work, you need a personal connection with your prospect. And the key to doing it is to make them the hero of your story. Focus your story around your prospect, framing your product as the ultimate solution that can bring an emotional status change in their lives. “Determining what the character needs correlate to their external desire, yet understanding why they need it relates to their much stronger, internal need.”

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3. Ask yourself: Why? How? What? 

• What do we do?
• How do we do it?
• Why we do it
• But very few organizations know the ‘why.’ 

‘The Why’

As Simon Sinek explores in his book, “Start With Why” — he explains how leaders can inspire cooperation, trust and change from the inside out. 

"Start With Why."  Why do they do what they do, what is your purpose, and what is your company's belief system. Why does this company exist? The inspired organizations act from the inside out. Reversing the order of communication, from asking what your product solves to starting with why and explaining your solution in a reverse communicative style. 

Customers don’t buy what you are selling; they buy why you are selling it. 

Show the why and work outward towards the what. “To quickly incite interest and generate a personal connection with audiences, try associating your product with its much grander purpose for existing — or, in other words, answer the “Why?” A mistake many companies make with their marketing is to only focus on the “What?” or “How?” Answering these questions only satisfies the exhausted advertising tactics of features and benefits — a strategy that has little effect on an audience’s emotional response.”

Company members are experienced in comparing data and composing their questions to understand the facts. It is not necessary to present every statistic, metric, and piece of data. Keep things simple and concise, and show the story of ‘why your product solves the problem.’

The goal is not just to sell people what you have; the goal is to sell to people who believe what you believe. 

— Simon Sinek

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4. Cohesive Flow

There are many key components that create a cohesive flow when putting together your narrative.  Create a basic outline with a beginning, middle, and end. Start off strong with a clear purpose. It is important to frame your narrative by asking yourself why you are telling this story and what is the intention of it. “The beginning section sets the context. It starts by narrating a normal day in the life of the user. It ends when an incident or the conflict rises.” Make sure it is a passionate, relatable story that is a real-life scenario so that your prospect can see in real-time how your features have solved a problem for another client. This can be in the form of stories, case studies, or testimonials. 

Do not rush to a checklist of product features; speak more to the heart of the issue and provide thoughtful solutions. Remember, prospects are also data-driven, and this information can help clients make an informed decision. “Tie in the solution to your product in the conclusion to show prospects how your product will help them solve their challenge.”

In the middle section, you will provide information about the conflict that explores what the problem is. This is when you point out that your product can be the solution to their issue. Conclude by explaining how your product affects the other elements of the story. Use metrics and quantitative data to display the solutions that your product offers. This will help your prospect envision how the product will be used.

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5. Illustrate Key Takeaways

Successful SaaS sales teams and managers respond to facts and metrics to make informed decisions. Make sure to include key takeaways during your conversation to help your buyer to remember and increase cognitive retention. 

In a piece by INSIDEBE, they illustrate key points about success, implementation success, perceived effort, and the Peak-end data rule. Starting with the understanding that the “negative elements in the customer experience are often not objective, but purely psychological. Remove all negative aspects of the experience that could give a prospect reason to disengage. Understanding and removing these negatives is key to a successful sales team.

Spread out these key points throughout your demo and remove all negative elements. 

“Giving customers too many options to choose from and too much information to filter through can lead to an inevitable delay in making a choice, and possibly even cause drop-out if they feel too overwhelmed.” It will cause cognitive dissonance, and in the end, they will worry they did not make the right choice. It is important not to overwhelm your prospect with too much information. Give them enough details to know that your product is the right solution for them, leaving your client confident in their buying decision. 

Highlight key points for your buyer helps organize this information in their mind. Illustrating key points and takeaways for your prospect keep the conversation and their minds on track, allowing them to clearly see your product's value to their company.

Do not overwhelm your prospects and create cognitive dissonance. 

It is important to understand that the prospect experience might not be as objective as we once thought. Depending on your perspective, the same material can be interpreted differently. This is why it is significant to understand the underlying psychological triggers of the customer's difficulties.  “It doesn’t matter how great your product is if the customer doesn’t even reach the point of engaging with it. If they feel the process of engaging with your brand or product requires too much time and effort on their end, then you’ve already lost that customer. It’s crucial to explicitly communicate the ease and simplicity of the behavior you want them to exhibit.” 

It is known that clients will remember the feeling they had during the demo and not just what you presented. “They’re heavily dictated by how we felt at emotionally intense moments (peaks) and how the experience ended. The peak and end moments of the customer experience thus need to be strong and positive, since they are a major influence on how the customer remembers and perceives it.”

A powerful demo is a strong narrative that is passionate, strategic — and not just product-led but story-led.  The combination is a delicate art.

Demoleap is a real-time sales assistant that allows sellers to plan and follow their meeting's storyline. With Demoleap, sellers can use an in-the-moment guide to present supporting sales materials like slides, battle cards, and product demos.

A beautifully simple solution for better Sales Discovery and Live Demos.

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