Running a Demo
A demo is your most expensive and most powerful close — machine time, transport, fuel, labor, and a unit off the lot for days. It belongs near the bottom of the funnel, on qualified buyers where seeing the machine will settle it, not offered to anyone curious.
Qualify it, then set success criteria up front
Before the machine leaves: a real buyer, real timeline and budget, the decision-maker, and a specific reason the demo will close it. Then the single most important move — agree with the customer on what it has to prove: “what would this machine have to show you out here to earn your business?” That aims the demo and turns it into a close, because if it meets the criteria they set, they’ve pre-agreed that meeting them earns the deal. A demo without criteria ends in “we’ll think about it.”
The demo is won in preparation
The unit has to be the right machine configured for the customer’s actual task, on their conditions. A demo unit that isn’t set up for their job showcases a mismatch, and now they’ve seen it fail at their work. A clean, mechanically-right machine matters — a breakdown in the field proves the customer’s worst fear.
During and after
Put the customer in the seat on their toughest task; let the machine talk instead of hovering or feature-dumping; in a competitive demo, never trash the other machine — let yours quietly outperform. Measure against the agreed criteria. Then follow up immediately while it’s fresh, tied to those criteria: “it covered your acres and walked through that wet corner — that’s what you needed to see, so where do you want to go?”
Where it goes wrong
- Demoing to unqualified tire-kickers.
- Skipping agreed success criteria.
- Bringing a machine not configured for the customer’s job.
- Failing to follow up immediately and letting the momentum die.
Related
The sales process · Consultative selling · Closing and writing the deal · Equipment 101.