Optimizing your demo request flow
You're making it way too hard for prospects to buy your product
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The process of buying software is typically a complicated mess with roadblocks around every corner—and I think it might be getting worse.
When I run through a bad demo request process (which is nearly every time I go through one), I find myself saying “Just take my money [startup] and stop wasting my time!” Once prospects decide they want your product, they likely want to pay you, get into the product, and improve their workday asap. Stop making it so hard.
If you fix your demo request flow—aka the stages of the funnel between lead and closed won—you’ll drive more revenue. It’s that easy. Well, the process can be a little messy, as many tools and internal stakeholders are involved, but this newsletter will help.
Here’s what a conversion flow ideally looks like for sales-led GTM motions:
For guidance on mapping your entire funnel, check out my recent newsletter on the topic.
Here’s what’s covered in this edition of the MKT1 Newsletter:
This newsletter focuses on sales-led GTM motions with demo request flows that drive prospects to book a meeting. We will have a newsletter specifically on self-serve sign up flows and onboarding soon. I tried to pack both types of conversion flows into one newsletter, but it was more like a book, so I made the call to slice it in two.
🛝 How to improve conversion by lowering friction, properly setting expectations, and adding relevant info.
🕹️ What ideal conversion flows look like for sales-led demo request processes. Featuring walkthroughs of conversion flows I made using Arcade.
📅 Why you need to add a “book a meeting” step to the demo request flow (Try RevenueHero!).
Highly-curated, extra-relevant sponsors (really though)
This is our 1st newsletter with sponsors and we’re trying to do this a bit differently than other newsletters. We only include sponsorships from products or services when we’ve received a positive recommendation from the MKT1 community or our portfolio companies—or when we’ve used the product or service ourselves. We want to make these as useful as possible, feedback welcome!
42 Agency - Demand Gen & RevOps
From 42 Agency: We’re a trusted growth partner for B2B SaaS companies—including MKT1 Capital Portfolio startups. Our agency helps startups with Demand Generation & RevOps to hit aggressive pipeline targets.
Why we recommend 42 Agency: They’re one of our go-to agency recommendations for early & growth stage startups for all things growth marketing and demand gen. They’ll be true partners and a pleasure to work with. If you need help improving your conversion flow, building out your tech stack, etc. reach out to them.
Arcade
From Arcade: As a marketer, you need to showcase your product, but creating high-quality demos often requires a significant time or resource investment. Arcade helps marketers create polished, interactive demos - in minutes. Our platform automatically stitches together screen recordings, videos, and images to help you tell a more engaging product story.
Why we recommend Arcade: When I decided to add examples & walkthroughs to this newsletter, I immediately went to Arcade—before they even signed up to be a sponsor. It’s easier than taking a million screenshots or a video for me and a way better way for you to see examples–a total win-win.
MKT1 Discount: It's free to sign up, but Arcade is offering 20% off their Growth plan for the first 2 months for MKT1 subscribers. Use code 20MKT1 at checkout.
RevenueHero
From Revenue Hero: RevenueHero is the easiest way for marketers to qualify and route leads to sales rep’s calendar, right in your demo request flow and in email sequence. Marketers love RevenueHero’s built in routing logs, native integrations with the GTM stack, ease of branding, and insights at every step of the conversion funnel.
Why we recommend RevenueHero: If you don’t have a meeting booking step in your demo request flow, go talk to RevenueHero now. We discovered more about what they’re building at RevenueHero while doing research for this newsletter and heard all great things–we thought they’d be the perfect sponsor for this edition.
MKT1 Discount: Mention MKT1 for 15% off if you purchase by the end of September.
How to build a high-converting demo request flow*
*Which also results in creating a great prospect to customer experience
3 things to focus on when optimizing your flow for conversion
Before I walk you through the steps of the demo request conversion flow, keep these 3 best practices in mind to improve conversion:
1. Remove friction
Problem: Too many fields & steps make the process unnecessarily complicated and prospects leave the flow
How to solve: Ask for only what’s necessary to qualify leads and route them to the right sales rep
Provide book a meeting option directly in flow (more on this below)
Don’t ask for details in the form you don’t need to effectively drive them to the meeting step; you can get more info later during the sales call or onboarding process
Add a real-time lead enrichment tool (Clearbit, Apollo, Keyplay, Lusha, ZoomInfo, etc) to your martech stack. These tools give you complete contact details based on email address, so you only need to show necessary fields.
Examples: Vanta uses lead-enrichment tool and only shows first and last name field if they can’t find a match.
2. Set proper expectations
Problem: CTAs don’t clearly state how the flow works, causing frustration from prospects
How to solve: Make sure your CTAs match the experience and your navigation is easy to follow
Use standard copy: “request a demo”, “book a meeting”, or something similar
Do not use copy “get started” if a prospect can’t sign up right now (it’s misleading)
Show progress if demo request flow is long (or better yet make the flow shorter)
Explain why you need additional or unusual info (this applies to fintech, healthtech, compliance tech, and other regulated industries most often)
If you can promote the value of the sales meeting to prospects, do so. Especially if you treat the meeting more as a “Strategy” session
Examples: RupaHealth has related fields, clear expectation setting for self-serve vs joining a live group demo, and a progress bar.
3. Include relevant “positioning”-focused messaging & content in the flow
Problem: Many conversion flows lack context and don’t keep prospects engaged or interested in purchasing the product
How to solve:
Include (briefly) what your product is, why it’s better, and who it’s for (exactly) in the flow (for more web messaging guidance, check out my newsletter on homepages).
Use extra real estate you have in your demo request flow to make a compelling case to get the prospect to the next step: Include social proof, screenshots, videos, etc.
Don’t waste a thank you page—Provide additional content after the meeting is booked–you have prospects' attention here, prepare them for the call and make them more eager to buy
Follow up with more context if the prospect drops out of the flow via email
Example: Anrok does this well.
What to include in each section of your demo request flow
And yes, you definitely need a book a meeting step on your website
Note: You can reference the diagram at the top of the email if needed to understand the following steps (I tried to put 2 diagrams in this newsletter, but Substack yelled at me again about my email being too large).
Part 1: Basic Form
Goal: Get basic info to be able to qualify & route leads
Make sure you capture email address first and it gets “sent” to your CRM even if the rest of the form doesn’t get filled out
We recommend using Hubspot as your marketing automation tool, and therefore your form builder
Again, lead enrichment tools can be really helpful here for filling in information gaps after you get an email address and can prevent bloated forms
If prospects drop off after this step, send email restating positioning and potentially include top of funnel content to earn trust
Form example: Retool
Retool is using a lead enrichment tool—so the number of fields is dependent on how much information can be gleaned from my email address. They are only showing additional fields like first & last name when lead enrichment doesn’t work.
Retool could combine the “Reason for demo” and “Anything else you’d like to cover on your call” fields to make this lower friction. I’m very happy I don’t need to put a phone number in here.
A longer version of this walkthrough is available for paid subscribers at the bottom of this email.
Part 2: Automate qualification & routing
👻 Note: Most of this step is invisible to prospects, unless you need additional info to route & qualify them
Goal: Get prospects to the correct/appropriate next step in the flow
Qualification based on info gathered in form
If you don’t have enough info at this point to qualify and route, add more form fields (this can be on a 2nd screen or in a dynamically expanding version of the same form as in step 1)
If you are using a lead enrichment tool you should only need to gather additional info if the tool can’t find a contact match in real-time
At this point, your form may split into different pathways based on previous inputs (like role, industry, company size, or other criteria)
You may send lower quality or lower potential value prospects to a self-serve flow
You may need some additional information to route to the proper rep
Use a routing and meeting booking tool (we recommend our sponsor RevenueHero, but ChiliPiper and Calendly are often used here too) to take the information you’ve gathered and show a meeting booking form for the right rep(s) << more on this critical step below!
If prospects drop off after this step, send email restating positioning and asking them to complete the process
Routing example: Front
Front automatically routes you to either a self-serve flow to get into a free trial immediately or a demo request flow based on the company size you enter
The neon highlights show the enterprise flow and the purple highlights show the small company flow
Front doesn’t have a book a meeting step in their web flow, this would help improve conversion
A longer version of this walkthrough is available for paid subscribers at the bottom of this email.
Part 3: Meeting Booking
Goal: Get the prospect to book a meeting with a sales rep asap
Note: Many startups skip part 3 and send an email (either automated or manual) to prospects to book a meeting. Do not do this!
Keep your flow simple and fast: add a booking form (we recommend our sponsor RevenueHero)
If prospects don’t book a meeting, add another step in the flow that offers them an easier next step: a demo video, group demo, product tour, test environment, or self-serve flow
No matter what, show a thank you page with additional links and information. You have a high-intent prospect’s attention, don’t waste it!
If this web-based process doesn’t result in a meeting or the prospect is a no show, then send an email to follow up and get a meeting scheduled
Example - RevenueHero
Since RevenueHero’s product makes software for exactly this, I figured their demo request flow would be a great example of what a great book a meeting step looks like
And it delivered! They had one atypical field “my CRM”, which is clearly for qualification, but this field also made me as a prospect think they will personalize the sales experience and understand my needs so it didn’t bug me that I had to fill it out.
A longer version of this walkthrough is available for paid subscribers at the bottom of this email.
More from MKT1
✂️ Templates and resources for paid subscribers: Paid subscribers can find all templates here and the full arcade walkthroughs of Front, Revenue Hero, and Retool’s demo flows at the bottom of this email.
🧑🚀 Job board: See roles from the MKT community. Paid subscribers can add jobs to our job board for free.
👁️ Related newsletters: Growth marketing strategy, Running campaigns, Funnel mapping, Marketing analytics, and Growth marketing orgs
📖 Keep reading: Paid subscribers get access to the rest of this newsletter which includes how to get buy-in for a “book a meeting” step and what to put in vs. leave out of your demo flow.