It’s hard to provide a demo to your client if you’re a dentist, but it’s obvious you must have demo if you are selling software or online service. Sometimes trial works better, but nowadays people are in a hurry too much even to trial without seeing at least screenshots of what they’re being persuaded to try.

Do you always need a demo/trial for your product? The only case when you really can say ‘no’ for sure is when it is just impossible.

Recently I met a few cases when the demo says ‘don’t buy it!’ even before I really opened the demo.

Case 1:

Those guys do not provide screenshots so there’s no other way to see what they what to sell. At this page I started to worry. Really, why someone cannot see a demo ‘right now’ and need to schedule a visit like a job interview? The only reason I can imagine is their product is so complex you should not be allowed to see it without proper guidance. Hmm, for certain products perhaps it really should be, but in this case I was not looking for a nuclear reactor maintenance manual or space shuttle engine tuning but just server performance monitoring. If you really think your product should be guided even at this stage… Well, google for elevator speech.

Case 2 (server monitoring too):

Hey guys, do you really think a buyer will wait a few months (or a year, note scrollbar) for your demo? I believe the buyer will rather pay to your competitors.

Bottom line: provide wherever possible

• screenshots
• demos
• trials
• videos explaining ‘how it works’

and clients will have more reasons to be with you.

Stay tuned!