Preparing Your SaaS Business for an Uncertain Future: The Power of Interactive Demos

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The current state of the economy is uncertain and unpredictable, with debates among top economists on whether it will slow down or lead to an outright recession. However, there are ways to prepare for any eventuality to ensure that your SaaS business remains profitable and adaptable. One such method is incorporating interactive demos into your sales and marketing strategy.

Here are four reasons why you should consider using interactive demos or scaling up their use to prepare for an uncertain future:

1.Provides Self-Serve Option for B2B Buyers

By adding interactive demos to your website, you allow potential customers to explore your products independently at any stage in their decision-making process. This not only avoids the need to add more personnel to your sales team but also aligns with how buyers want to purchase software products today. According to McKinsey's research, 65% of B2B customers prefer digital self-service or remote human interactions instead of traditional ones.

Interactive demos enable prospects to have a hands-on experience with your products on their own time without having to rely on your already-stretched solution engineer resources. Moreover, interactive product tours can capture prospects in the moment, leading to a 60% uplift in average website interactions that converted to leads. It increases the likelihood of converting users compared to those who did not experience an interactive demo.

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2.Improves Freemium and Free Trial Conversion Rate

With the current economic climate, there is a greater focus on profitability over growth. Implementing strategic interactive demos can help increase your conversion rate for freemium or free trial offerings, making the user growth prioritized fuel profits immediately.

Creating interactive product tours for a pre-trial sneak peek allows potential users to see what your product has to offer before they set up a free trial. For instance, Pendo's self-guided product tours increased the conversion rate by two to three times compared to users who didn't experience the tour. Interactive demos highlight the product's aha moments, and shortens a prospect's time-to-value.

In addition, interactive demos can enhance your onboarding experience for free users by providing them with a guided introduction to jump right in and see the value in the product without being overwhelmed or distracted. They can also help in getting free trial or freemium users unstuck at certain points during their test drive, which improves the user experience and creates upsell opportunities.

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3.Reduces Customer Churn and Increases Retention

A significant cause of churn for SaaS businesses is a mismatch between what customers were promised and what they actually experienced in their first year of use. Interactive demos allow potential customers to have a comprehensive understanding of your products before making a purchasing decision.

By experiencing the product itself, they can make an informed buying decision, ensuring that you're a great fit from the start. You can also increase retention by proactively sending self-guided tours of new features to existing customers, helping educate them about new features so they can start using them immediately and see greater value from your product as time goes on.

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4.Scales Presales Process Without Adding Headcount

Presales professionals are in high demand, and since there is a scarcity of experienced solution engineers, this shortage isn't expected to change anytime soon. However, creating interactive demos using demo creation software can help make the most of your existing presales team.

With platforms like Folio, the demo creation process takes only a few minutes, enabling your solution engineers to spend more time on higher-value activities aligned with their deep technical and business expertise. Building a reusable demo library that AEs can pull out as needed for buyer meetings in the beginning of the sales cycle instead of making more and more early-stage demos for unqualified buyers results in a better experience for buyers, SEs get to spend more time doing what they love, and AEs get access to the automated demos they need for those early conversations.

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In conclusion, incorporating interactive demos into your sales and marketing strategy can help build a more flexible, adaptable, and profitable business in any economic climate. By providing B2B buyers with the self-serve option, improving conversion rates, reducing churn and increasing retention, and scaling presales without adding headcount, your SaaS business can withstand uncertain times.

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Try folio for your demo creation now.

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