How to book 4x more demos (using LinkedIn)

For anyone working in sales, booking demos is a crucial early-stage part of their sales process. Demos give potential customers an opportunity to see your product (or services) in action which can give any potential customer a better sense of what exactly your product or services can do for them.

However, with increasing demands on time and a constant balancing act of spending time on prospecting, follow-ups, and closing deals, it can be easy to let the actual process of booking demos to fall back on the priority list, but in today's competitive business landscape, it's more important than ever to prioritise demo bookings.

In this blog post (or video), we'll explore why demos matter, what can happen if you're not booking enough of them, and how to boost your demo-booking game so that you can take your sales strategy to the next level.

Why are demos so important?

One of the most important aspects of any sales strategy is building trust with potential customers. Without this trust, it's unlikely that someone will be willing to invest their time and money into a new product or service – after all, you’ll likely be up against some heavy competition. This is where demos come in.

The benefit of demos becomes two-fold; not only are you allowing potential customers a chance to see your product or service in action and showing them what it can do, but you’re also helping to build trust for the prospect with your brand. When done effectively, demos can be a powerful tool for demonstrating the value of your offering, highlighting key features and benefits, and ultimately convincing prospects to make a purchase.

But the benefits of demoing don’t end there. So, not only are you showcasing your product and building trust, but demoing will also create the perfect opportunity for you to gather feedback and insights from potential customers. During your demo, make sure you are asking questions of your prospect too. It’s not all a one-way street, and by asking a few timely questions you’ll also be able to more accurately gauge the prospect’s reaction, but also develop a better understanding of what resonates with your target audience.

This feedback can be invaluable when it comes to refining your sales strategy and improving your product or service. By booking more demos, you'll not only increase your chances of closing deals, but you’ll also be gaining valuable insights that can help you grow your business over time.

What to expect if you don’t book enough demos

It may sound obvious enough, but the impact of not booking enough demos can be significant and may have far-reaching effects for the whole business. Without demos, potential customers may not have a clear understanding of what the product or service does, how it can help them, or why they should choose it over the competition. This lack of clarity will ultimately result in lost sales and missed opportunities, and potentially reputation damage or confusion.

As we've already touched on, without demos, a sales team will likely struggle to build trust and strong rapport with potential customers. Trust is a crucial part of the sales process because customers need to feel confident that they're making a good investment. In an increasingly competitive environment, any prospect you reach out to will likely have a handful of other potential solutions they’re also considering. Without the opportunity to effectively demonstrate the value of their product or service through a demo, it can be difficult to build the necessary trust to close a sale.

It’s also worth remembering that failing to book enough demos will also impact the overall efficiency of a sales team. Without a steady stream of demos in the diary, a sales team will be spending increasing amounts of time chasing more unsuitable leads that ultimately are less likely to convert and will therefore lead to wasted time and resources. With fewer conversions, a very real threat to any sales team will then centre on missed revenue targets and decreased morale within the sales team.

How to boost your demos booked

There are some easy steps you can take to help increase the number of demos you are booking. Some of these start at home, with your own outreach, while others are more fundamental to your company:

• Clarify messaging – website message needs to be clear and concise. If a prospect can’t tell what you do from the landing page, they’re not likely to hang about much longer to try and figure out if you’re it for them either.
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• Targeted outreach – start out with the right intention. Don't be lazy, don’t sit there waiting for prospects to come to you. Be proactive and reach out to some ICP contacts first with personalised outreach tactics like email, social media, or direct mail to grab their attention and offer them a demo.
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• Align content marketing - compelling content will showcase the value of your product or service. Make sure your company has some recent blog posts, videos, webinars, or case studies that highlight the company's value.
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• Simplify the demo-booking process – nothing will turn your prospect off faster than a convoluted, slow booking process. They’re taking a leap of faith already, just by entertaining the idea of a demo with you, so you need to make it as easy as possible them to book the demo. Try using scheduling software, offering multiple time slots, and prompt follow-ups to confirm the demo too.

But how can using LinkedIn help me book more demos, I hear you ask. Once you’re sure your company and product are aligned for optimised communication and selling potential, you’ll need to take a look at your own individual efforts too. In today’s market, buying is a personal business. It’s human nature to want to build connections with others, and this is also true of the buying process. A prospect wants to feel like they know you, that they can trust you, and they want to like what you’re doing. Personal branding and social selling are the new way to a buyer's heart.

What is social selling?

Social selling is the practice of using social media platforms to instigate, develop, and maintain relationships with potential customers, with the goal of ultimately driving sales. The term refers to the process of leveraging social media networks such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram to identify and connect with prospects, allowing them to engage with you and your brand while building trust and brand reputation. Social selling moves away from the ‘spray and pray’ methodology and focuses rather on building meaningful relationships and adding value through relevant content, thoughtful engagement, and personalised communication.

Social selling can take many forms, from sharing relevant industry news and insights to participating in online discussions, answering questions, or event being a guest on a podcast. Social selling is essential focused on establishing a presence on social media that positions you and your company as experts in your field.

By developing your own personal brand and becoming an industry authority or thought leader, you can help foster trust from your prospects and allow your company a reinforced credibility. Engaging with others in a social environment can lead you to new leads, will help you build new relationships, and will create an environment that allows for improved trust, understanding, and ultimately, more closed deals.

Using LinkedIn to book 4x more demos

To make sure your personal brand is sufficiently polished and ready for you to reach out to potential customers, first consider the following points:

• Refine your LinkedIn profile – start off by making sure your profile is complete, professional, and includes your job title, industry, and relevant keywords and skills. Firstly, this will help you to show up in searches and make it easier for potential customers to find you, but also once someone has landed on your profile, they’re far more likely to have a look at your posts or try and connect if their first impression of you is one that demonstrates your professionalism, areas of expertise, and places you as a person of knowledge in your field.
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• Build a relevant network – connecting with a few relevant people in your target market, including decision-makers at companies you want to work with, every week, will soon see your network and outreach grow in the right direction. You want to make sure you’re connecting with ICPs as well as contemporaries to stand yourself in the best stead. Join LinkedIn groups that are related to your industry and engage with others to help expand your network.
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• Share valuable content – it's not just about connecting with the right people to grow your network. Sharing relevant content that showcases your expertise and provides value to your target audience, joining in discussions, and commenting on other people’s posts, will help you to establish yourself as a thought leader and build credibility and trust with potential customers.
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• Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator – if you have access to Sales Nav or Recruiter, using them effectively can help you to identify and target potential customers. By creating custom lists of prospects, you can also track their activity and receive alerts when they engage with your content. This is a brilliant way for picking up a warm lead and starting a conversation (or re-engaging) when the prospect’s interest has already been piqued enough to read what you’re saying. Having identified some potential customers, you can then reach out to them with a personalised message and highlight how your product or services can solve their specific challenges.
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• Follow up – don't be afraid to follow up with prospects who have previously expressed interest but haven't yet booked a demo. A friendly reminder or additional information can help to move them towards a decision.

Selligence’s very own Arran Nicholson, an SDR Team Lead, has seen a huge uptick in the demos he’s booked since structuring more LinkedIn time into his diary. Arran has paired his knowledge and sales trigger pre-intent intelligence with his personalised outreach to increase the number of demos he’s booking.

In a recent interview Nicholson commented, “reaching out with a reason, drip-feeding leads... I had 24 demos booked in December.” He continued this momentum into January, booking 50 demos, and 32 more in February. The combination of a diary full of demos, warm and relevant outreach, and relevance at a notoriously difficult time of year, saw Nicholson’s conversion rate at 85%.

For Nicholson, having a daily structure is key to his success with LinkedIn-booked demos. By developing a strict routine he has uncovered insights into when people are more likely to answer the phone, which days people are more receptive to outreach, and how to better approach ICP companies for maximum impact.

Nicholson has even broken down his day into manageable hour-chunks that make it easier for him to always stay on top of his admin. Want to try and replicate his success? Here’s how his day shapes up:

Being smart with communication is so important. Arguably, gone are the days of cold calling seven hours a day. Nicholson recalls a day he cold-called over 100 people, only managing to really engage three of them in conversation about the product itself. Conversely, he’s posted on LinkedIn and achieved thousands of impressions from one post alone. Social selling via LinkedIn will allow you time back into your day to follow up on those impressions, to engage and respond with those commenting, and will spark positive, relevant discussions that can be eye-opening for both parties.

Finally, Nicholson advises on LinkedIn “you get 100 connection requests a week, so try and use them wisely”. Once mutual connections, you will see their content, and they yours, so use this as an opportunity to post some relevant insights or opinions for those you’ve recently connected with before reaching out.

If they’ve already seen some of your posts, read them, and digested what you’ve had to say, you’ll already be paving the way for a smoother introduction when you do reach out directly a few days later. If you can make a positive subliminal impression before you make a direct approach, a prospect is more likely to recognise your name and attach it to a pre-conceived idea of authority.

Based on Nicholson’s standard three posts per week, across a 90-day period he achieved 32,000 impressions. Having focused his LinkedIn connections only on ICP prospects, this has meant that in just a few minutes, three times a week, he has been able to put his name, the Selligence brand name, and information and insights about the company directly in front of over 30,000 people who could be potential customers. What would have taken weeks of cold calling, has been reduced to just a few minutes of admin time, three times a week.

Remember

Generating content is becoming increasingly important for engaging with potential customers and contacts. As the saying goes, people buy from people, so it’s important to present yourself as an individual – an informative, interesting and insightful one! To make an impact, it's necessary to be visible and authentic.

The best content, content that gets the most positive responses is genuine, adds value to the audience, is engaging, and is visually appealing. On platforms like LinkedIn, visuals such as videos and images are especially useful, but even using emojis in what would otherwise be just plain old text, can inject a bit of personality and lift a post from being too dry.

For individuals publishing posts on LinkedIn (which is more effective than posting from a company page), writing in your real voice is important; your audience needs to feel like they know you, the real you, before they will begin to trust you. LinkedIn is an extension of your professional identity, so it's important to make a positive, consistent impression.

Not only do you need to create your own content but engage with others too. Commenting on ICPs or peers' posts, will help grow your outreach and increase your impressions, but it will also help secure and develop your company’s reputation. Build this into you prospecting tasks and you’ll soon find that you’ve ready-made, organic topics to turn to and warm up your outreach.

Don’t forget!

LinkedIn provides a large, captive audience of potential customers for you to capitalise on. With the addition of Sales Navigator or Recruiter, you will also have the tools for targeted list-making and easy outreach.

Regular use of LinkedIn will also allow you to establish yourself as an expert in your field; this in turn will make it easier for you to build trust with potential customers through sharing relevant content and participating in online discussions, demonstrating your knowledge, understand, and credibility. LinkedIn provides an opportunity for personalised communication, allowing you to tailor your messaging for each prospect, which will help increase the chances of booking (and converting) a demo.

As industry leaders in tracking the pre-intent data provided through sales triggers, at Selligence we know how important sales intelligence and business intelligence is to the success of your sales team. For more ideas on how to warm up your outreach and integrate sales event triggers into your outreach, get in touch for a demo of the Selligence platform.