You’re making it way too hard for prospects to buy your product
You’re making it way too hard for prospects to buy your product
Here’s how to fix your demo request flow. Do this and you’ll increase revenue instantly.
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 - more walkthroughs available for paid subscribers (link at bottom of email)
📅 Why you need to add a “book a meeting” step to the demo request flow (Try RevenueHero!).
Workshop this week on web conversion (how timely!)
What: If you want to dive into all things web conversion, I’m teaching the 3rd run of my 2-day workshop on Increasing Web Conversion. I’ll discuss improving your homepage, pricing page, and conversion flows. It’s interactive, actionable, and full of examples.
When & where: August 9 & 10, for 2 hours each day (9-11 AM PT) on Zoom. Recording & slides will be shared with attendees.
Who: This workshop is for marketers, web developers and designers, founders, & other leaders at early & growth stage B2B startups or agencies. I can only accept registrants who meet these criteria since we do peer feedback during the course.
10% off code at the bottom of this newsletter for paid subscribers
More courses: Applications are also currently open for my month-long course for marketing leaders at early & growth stage B2B startups running from October 4 to November 3, 2023.
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. (MKT1 walkthrough with feedback available for paid subscribers)
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 (MKT1 walkthrough with feedback available for paid subscribers)
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 (MKT1 walkthrough with feedback available for paid subscribers)
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.
Longer version of this walkthrough (including self-serve flow) in Arcade: Retool - Demo Request Flow (A walkthrough for Retool’s self-serve flow 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
Full Arcade walkthrough of Front’s Demo Request & Self-Serve flows
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
Full Arcade walkthrough of RevenueHero’s Demo Request process
How to handle internal objections to adding a “book a meeting” step
I get a lot of pushback when I tell startups to add a “book a meeting” step in the web-based flow—if you’re a marketer you probably will too. I don’t understand why we are still having this debate, but hopefully this helps you settle the debate, get that book a meeting form up, and watch conversion rates go up.
Here’s why it’s a bad idea to not have a book a meeting step in your flow:
In short, time kills all deals. In detail…
Making prospects leave the web-based flow to go to email is an unnecessary step. Unnecessary steps & friction means drop off.
Once a prospect adds their info in a demo request form, they are high-intent leads. You don’t want to lose them by overcomplicating or adding time to the process.
This extra step makes buying your product seem hard. And requiring a meeting is already harder than self-serve, don’t make it worse.
Don’t lose to competitors because your sales process is slow.
Here are the objections I hear when marketing requests the book a meeting step be added:
Note: I recently posted this “book a meeting” rant on LinkedIn, if you aren’t convinced you need to add this step, check out the comments!
“Our routing is so complex that we can’t possibly have a prospect schedule instantaneously with the right sales rep”
If your routing process is this complex, you are probably overcomplicating and over-segmenting the entire sales process
Make sure your demo request form has the details needed to route prospects to the right rep for a meeting
Remove other fields that don’t help with basic qualification routing and capture that info during the meeting process
“We don’t want unqualified leads to schedule meetings and waste rep’s time”
I’d rather have reps have a couple unnecessary meetings than miss out on high-intent leads that go buy from a competitor because it’s easier and faster, but anyway…
Use your form to do basic qualification.
If your product requires human qualification to see if a meeting makes sense, you should probably change your qualification criteria.
If prospects aren’t a fit, tell them in the flow.
And if you are really, really worried about “bad meetings”, you can have an SDR check the meetings booked, and if someone isn’t a fit at that point let them know and cancel the meeting.
“We want sales (SDRs) to reach out and schedule the meeting manually”
(Note: This genuinely leaves me stunned, but I still hear it regularly)
This is not the best use of an SDR’s time
This leaves room for human error, which is just not necessary here
SDRs should be handling fall out in the conversion flow that can’t be automated and/or jumping in when personalization is really necessary (and proven to help)
FAQs about conversion flows: “Should I include ____?”
I’ve covered how to build a demo request conversion flow and how to make sure it’s high-converting. But there are some additional fields and questions I get about these flows that I thought I’d cover on a one-off basis:
👂 “How did you hear about us?” field
Potentially an unpopular opinion amongst marketers, but I’m a “no” on this.
I think this field is a distraction that doesn’t help startups very much. Every form field causes more friction and I’ve even seen some of these fields with 20 option dropdowns including specific referrer names (Dr. Smith, Jones Law). This is not the best way to learn how prospects found out about you and definitely not the best way to manage a referral program. With proper use of UTM codes and “campaigns” in Salesforce or equivalent, you can get a lot of this information without asking. If you must ask, I think the best time to ask is during a sales call. And I think you’ll get more thoughtful responses.
Note: For referrals, try building landing pages for each referrer dynamically and track who comes in off those specific pages and forms and/or provide a referral specific discount code and ask for it during the purchase process.
☎️ Phone number field
Potentially another controversial take: I’d make this optional to fill out or cut it.
Most lead enrichment tools can fill in the gaps here for you. As a form filler-outer (technical term) I either put a fake number or drop out of the process at this point because I don’t need all those spam calls–I’m a busy lady! If you are calling people right away as part of the demo request process, please just add a book a meeting step in the demo request process instead. Who is taking these inbound calls? And if you actually have success with this, please do tell me.
📺 A product video or interactive demo in the conversion process
Yes!
I think product videos (or Arcade walkthroughs) help drive conversion throughout the funnel: on the homepage, when prospects fall out of your demo request process, skip the book a meeting step, and/or after they book a meeting to “check out a bit of the product” first. I often hear pushback that this may ruin conversion because people won’t understand how the product can help them without the demo. If this is the case you have a product problem, not a GTM problem.
Example: Mutiny has an interesting interactive demo to see how using the produc impacts your website.
💵 Pricing & packing info
You really, really need this on your website.
There will be a dedicated newsletter on this topic (and similar to this newsletter I’ll include objection handling for when you get the inevitable pushback). But here’s the summary: At least provide pricing for your lower-tier plans and always show your plans and what’s included in each plan. Pricing pages are often really highly trafficked and high converting. Prospects leave your site without this info and you are losing more prospects than you gain by waiting to give this info on a sales call.
🏷️ “Buy now” button
A great test or baby step to self-serve
If you are considering adding self-serve, but haven’t built it out yet, I recommend adding a “Buy now” button to your flow. Instead of booking a “demo” meeting, booking a “buy now” meeting sets the expectation that on the call the sales rep will “order take” and help you purchase the product quickly.
To know if you need this option, look at your time to close data, and not just the average or median. Those metrics mask what’s really going on. Look at a scatterplot of time to close data. Do you see 2 spikes? One group of prospects booking quickly and another taking weeks or months? That first spike indicates some prospects are brand and product aware and really would love to buy quickly, without running through a long human-centered process. If this “buy now” experiment is successful, it may be time to add a self-serve flow.
💬 Chat
Sometimes include.
Chat in the conversion flow can make sense, especially as another way to baby step into having a self-serve option. It can also help to intersect prospects who didn’t book a meeting/or don’t want to and prospects that still have questions about the product. “Chat” can be a bot and/or monitored by sales during business hours. Sometimes though, it’s hard to tell if chat is improving conversion or just diverting prospects from the form to the chat. You can parse this out by doing an a/b test with chat on vs. off and by looking at conversion rates to revenue when prospects go through the chat flow vs. form flow.
Example: Vanta uses chat heavily in their flow.
To summarize…
You need to make it easy for your high-intent leads to buy your product, you’ll lose them if you don’t. This requires dynamic forms, lead enrichment, automated routing, and book a meeting capabilities on your website.
EVENT REMINDER: If you want to learn a lot more about improving web conversion on your homepage, pricing page, and in your demo request flow, come to my 2-day workshop 8/9 and 8/10.
This newsletter will have a part 2 in the early fall about self-serve flows and how to work better cross-functionally to improve conversions. Subscribe so you don’t miss it.
MKT1 Jobs
MinervaAI - Senior Growth Marketer
Canid - Founding Marketer
Cerby - Senior Product Marketing Manager
Criya - Growth Marketing Leader / 1st Marketer
If you’re a candidate looking for a new B2B startup marketing role, fill out our candidate form.
Thanks again to our very first newsletter sponsors: 42 Agency, Arcade & RevenueHero