How to run a 30 minute disco/demo call
Ideal call structure, questions to ask, pitfalls to avoid
The 30-minute “disco/demo” call has become the standard format for a first meeting with a potential customer, combining what used to be two separate calls for discovery and demo into a single half-hour meeting to make better use of time.
Striking the right balance between doing discovery and demoing the product can be very tricky, especially given the half hour time constraint. Spend too little time on discovery and your demo can get derailed by your buyer asking edge case questions that send you down rabbit holes. Spend too much time on discovery and you’ll end up rushing through your demo and being unable to gauge your buyer’s interest.
I’ve reviewed hundreds of 30-minute disco/demo calls for my sales coaching clients and developed a call structure, the right questions to ask and the pitfalls to avoid, all of which I’ve shared in this week’s issue.
Contents
How to structure a 30-minute disco/demo
How to open a disco/demo call
How to do discovery on a disco/demo call
How to run the demo on a disco/demo call
How to close the call
How to structure a 30-minute disco/demo call
The call should have 4 sections.
Opening - 5 mins. Small talk and agenda.
Discovery - 10 mins. Frame the problem(s) you solve and get your buyer to tell you how they are experiencing them in their day-to-day and who else is impacted.
Demo - 10 mins. Show how your product solves your buyer’s problems and get their reaction so that you can gauge their interest.
Closing - 5 mins. Agree on and commit to the next step in the buying process.
How to open a disco/demo call
Share the agenda for the call.
For today’s agenda, I was hoping to ask you a few questions to learn about how {company} does {primary use case}, then spend some time in {product} showing how it can help you and then if we both think it makes sense to continue we can talk next steps. How does that sound?”
Ask if there’s anything else.
"Is there anything else that you’d like to make sure we cover?”
Do not give a lengthy personal intro. This encourages everyone else to do the same and cuts into time for actual discovery and demoing. There’s no need to talk about where you grew up, went to school, used to work, what drew you to the problem space, how much money you’ve raised etc. Save that for fundraising.