Your Demo Request Form Is Bouncing 85% of Your Prospects

The bounce rate on requested demos on websites is 85%.

That’s…wow.

It’s a sign that 85% of people are fed up with filling out a form before finding out what they want to know about your product.

I recently talked with Greg Dickinson, CEO of Omedym, about the dreaded software demo.

If you are a sales rep, you’re probably thinking that the deal’s in good shape if you make it to the demo — but there’s always something unexpected that happens.

When was the last time you went to a website wanting to learn more about someone’s product, saw you had to request a demo through a form, and just abandoned the site?

Because you know what’s going to happen next. Two week delay.

“We’re trying to provide an infrastructure for buyer enablement so that your buyers can buy, and in a much more easy, pleasant way,” Greg said.

“Get that product out there quick and let it become a way for you to acquire customers,
not a way to acquire email addresses.”

Greg Dickinson, CEO of Omedym

Removing Friction from Buyers

Top of the funnel, you’re on a website or the phone looking for a product experience.

“It’s not an easy process, right?” Greg said. “77% of all buyers, according to Gardner, said that they do not like the buying experience. That tells you a lot.”

If we don’t like something, we’ll go somewhere else. “We’re not going to head down that path and say, ‘Let’s see how painful I can make this process,’” he joked.

Greg’s business opens up that narrow gateway of requesting a demo by making video demos and sales pitches not only freely available but searchable so that the buyer can find the exact material she wants at the moment she wants it.

You start to build credibility with the individual as they’re going through because they can sense that you’ve taken the time to remove that friction from the top of the funnel.

How to remove friction?

1. Require fewer steps.

Like the unnecessary hoop of filling out forms.

2. Don’t keep the demo hostage.

Because if information isn’t readily available, that’s a reason to eliminate you from the list of choices.

“You wonder how much business of a car dealership that wouldn’t let you test drive they’re giving away,” Greg said.

3. Show what problems your product solves.

A top of funnel buyer doesn’t necessarily want to know how a software solves problems — they want to know which four problems the product solves.

4. Allow the buyer to self-navigate.

If you make it easy to find information, the buyer will give you signs that they are ready to talk about pricing.

“Allowing that buyer to self navigate through that process,” he said, “and if they get satisfied with what they found, they’re going to raise their hand and reach out.”

“So as a salesperson, you get less and less and less time with your prospects. Gosh, make it meaningful.”

Greg Dickinson, CEO of Omedym

Taking the Time for Meaningful Dialogue

The average watch time on YouTube is 2 minutes and 37 seconds.

Meaning nobody wants to watch your 60 minute webinar. We’re just too busy.

Most of us shop after business hours, too, so it makes no sense to provide demos only between 9 and 5. “So if someone’s on the train commuting to work, how about getting a demo on your phone? How cool would that be?” Greg said.

“If that buyer is able to consume and engage as they go and get the information, when sales does have the opportunity to speak with them with that data in hand, they’re not starting off with that,” he said.

Sales wouldn’t waste time telling the prospect about the business because he already knows all about it.

Instead, sales can personalize: I see you’re trying to solve these four business problems. Let’s talk about the value I can bring.

Buyers are able to research you online. And they do. They only spend about 5% of their selling time with sales because the rest of their time is spent performing these jobs of validation, consensus, and problem definition.

“So as a salesperson, you get less and less and less time with your prospects. Gosh, make it meaningful,” Greg said.

The demo is the way to help that buyer understand what you do, presents the value, and acts as a trial for them on their own time. Especially if the video is easily searchable and goes with them when they’re making choices.

Buyers want it now depending on wherever they are in the buyer’s journey.

“If the buyers get satisfied with what they found, they’re going to raise their hand and reach out.”

Greg Dickinson, CEO of Omedym

Products = Customer Acquisition Tools

“As the internet has become a tool for a buyer, and buyers have dedicated analysts that are all about their market, they are smarter,” Greg said.

Successful companies don’t wait eight steps into the sales cycle to introduce the product.

“So let’s use the product — which is what people are there to buy, not your great copy on your website or your great graphics — as a customer acquisition tool to get yourself first mover advantage,” Greg said.

About half of all buyers buy the software they’re first introduced. Not the ones where they had to cough up their email address and wait four days.

Well, Amazon doesn’t make you wait four days to know what products it’s selling. That sounds like nonsense because it is.

“Get that product out there quick and let it become a way for you to acquire customers, not a way to acquire email addresses,” Greg added.

It’s all about speed. “If you react slowly, that buyer is going someplace else,” he said.

Reach out to Greg on LinkedIn or on his website.

This post is based on a B2B Revenue Executive Experience podcast with Greg Dickinson of Omedym. To hear this episode and many more like it, subscribe to B2B Revenue Executive Experience here.

If you don’t use Apple Podcasts, you can listen to every episode here.

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