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Software demos are broken, and everyone who sells software knows it.
Greg Dickenson realized that when his boys came home from college for a visit. They needed to keep up with their online courses while they were home, so they pulled up a 90-minute video that claimed to cover the topic they needed to study, but most of it was about something else. They asked Dad how to find the part they needed and he said, “Well, just do a search for it.”
They both looked at him like he had two heads and said,
How do you search a video?”
That’s when the light bulb went off.
Greg was in the business of doing software demos and realized he had the same problem.
I spoke with Greg on my podcast this week and learned more about the problems with software demos and the solutions his company Omedym solves. You can listen to that conversation aobve. But here are a few highlights:
Problem #1: 96% of all companies selling software have a button on their website to request a demo. But when you click that button, most of them require that you give them your name and email address first, so they can contact you later. 86% of people will not fill in that information, and therefore won’t get to see the demo. That’s a problem. Companies are turning away interested buyers.
Problem #2: 60% of demo requests are for times outside normal business hours. You need a video people can watch when your sales department isn’t open.
Problem #3: The average watch time of a video on Youtube is 2 minutes and 37 seconds. But the typical software demo might be 30 minutes long. Most buyers aren’t going to watch the whole video. You need a way for them to watch just the part they’re most interested in.
Problem #4: Buyers spend 95% of their time learning on their own about a solution to a problem they have, and only 5% with a salesperson. Demo videos need to work harder for the buyer (and the salesperson).
The Solution
What’s Greg’s solution? A demo video that is accessible 24/7 and completely searchable the way a website is searchable. Just type in a keyword or ask a question, and you’re directed to the precise moment in the demo video that addresses your question.
Then the salesperson gets a summary of what parts of the video were watched, what keywords were searched for and what questions were asked, so they’re better able to talk about what the prospects are interested in.
And now it makes sense why Greg’s company name is Omedym. It’s MyDemo spelled backward.
Now, in the spirit of finding the exact right place, if you’ll go to the 11:40 mark in the podcast, you can hear Greg talk you through how the process works to get your demo or sales presentation turned into a video that’s completely searchable.
Learn more about Greg and his solution at www.omedym.com.
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Paul Smith is one of the world’s leading experts on business storytelling. He’s a keynote speaker, storytelling coach, and bestselling author of the books Lead with a Story, Parenting with a Story, and Sell with a Story.
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