May 3, 2023

The Power of Demo Creation Platforms: How They Can Enhance Your Role as a Solutions Engineer

Solutions Engineers (SEs) have been tasked with building demos for decades. The main responsibility of SEs is to sell the value of their products to prospects, and they create demos to help achieve this. However, despite having other responsibilities on their plate such as troubleshooting for AEs, developing product knowledge, and learning new tools and technology, creating demos remains a crucial part of their job.

You may be wondering why you need a demo creation platform to do your job effectively. After all, you already have a demo environment and a system for updating it, making demos and maintaining it. Adding another platform could make things more complicated or even replace you, right? Well, think again! A demo creation platform can remove any pain points associated with demoing and help you become an even more incredible SE.

Creating demos takes time and effort, even in the best environments. You have to ensure that the demo environment is updated if you use one, or check for any new bugs in the live environment if you demo there. This can lead to situations where the product team updates something over the weekend, and you have a demo first thing Monday morning. Good luck out there! It can be quite challenging to ensure that nothing broke or changed and isn’t live yet.

Another scenario that can cause headaches for SEs is when AEs and SEs are demoing from a shared portal. They are constantly tripping over each other when doing a live demo, and this throws off the groove. Using a shared portal for a demo environment is not optimal because reps make changes as they demo, which can negatively affect ongoing and future demo experiences. Juggling all of these demo needs requires a lot of time, effort, and knowledge.

The good news is that demo creation platforms like Folio have revolutionized how SEs create hyper-personalized custom demos in minutes. With Folio, SEs can clone their real product experience in a safe sandbox with just a few clicks, capturing their entire app with everything connected and ready to go. No code is needed. You can also create a screen capture to show the perfect product story, even if certain features are still in production! This way, you can show prospects a demo that looks and feels exactly like your product without having to show confidential data or maintain a demo environment.

Demo creation platforms enable SEs to get creative with demos because they love solving complex problems. In addition, these platforms provide SEs with more time to make personalized demos for more people. However, not all demo creation platforms are created equal. It’s still a new software category, and the players in the field have varying capabilities. As SEs know well, there’s no one kind of demo that they’re creating - they vary, and you need the ability to tackle all of them.

One unique advantage of Folio is that it can do both live simulation and self-guided “product tour demos.” Every other solution in the market does just one of these two products. This is problematic because sales and marketing teams often share assets, so picking a solution that only does one is limiting and not efficient.

The product demonstration is the most critical piece of the sales process, and you need to be able to create custom demos at scale to accommodate today’s B2B buyer. Folio enables you to create custom demos that suit your specific needs, whether it is a live simulation or a self-guided “product tour” demo. Ultimately, the goal is to ensure prospects see the value of your product, and using a demo creation platform helps you achieve this effectively.

In conclusion, SEs have been tasked with creating demos for decades to sell the value of their products to prospects. While it remains an integral part of the job, demoing can be time-consuming and requires significant effort and knowledge. Demo creation platforms like Folio have made it easier for SEs to create hyper-personalized custom demos in minutes, removing any pain points associated with demoing. Folio is unique because it can do both live simulation and self-guided “product tour demos,” making it the ideal choice for SEs looking to create custom demos effectively.

Try folio for your demo creation now.

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