The 90-Second Demo: Why Less Is More

Hello Predictable Revenue community,

Book update: I’m placing the order for books at the end of the month. This has got to be one of the hardest things to forecast. While I think it’s a great book that will help a lot of founders, most books sell fewer than 500 copies. Fortunately, we seem to have pre-orders (wholesale + individual) for a few thousand already. 

If you know any VCs that would be interested in receiving a box of books to share with their portfolio companies, hit me back and I’ll add them to the list.

How long are your demos? When you pull out your deck or share your screen, do you find that you just end up giving everyone the same autopilot tour?

I was on a call with a founder this week who had built an incredible product but felt something was off about his demos.

"I still feel a little awkward going through my demo," he confessed. "It feels like a feature march rather than what I'd like it to be." And the results were telling, his demo wasn’t adding momentum to the sales call, it was slowing it down. 

Sound familiar? As founders, we love our products. We've poured our souls into building them, and we want prospects to see ALL the cool things we've created. We assume that showing more features creates more value.

But what I've observed over thousands of sales calls is the exact opposite. The most effective demos aren't comprehensive - they're targeted.

The Problem with Your Demo

Let me ask you a simple question: Could a YouTube video replace your 'demo'? If the answer is yes, you need to do it differently.

Having a 'standard demo' is mentally easier but is a waste of human time. If you're going to do the same walkthrough for everyone, just record a YouTube video and send it to prospects before the call. Then at least they can skip the stuff they don't care about and watch at 2x speed.

What typically happens in a standard demo?

1. You enthusiastically share your screen

2. You launch into a 30-45 minute feature walkthrough

3. The prospect sits back passively, occasionally nodding

4. You might hear "That's interesting" a few times

5. You finish and ask, "Any questions?"

6. Crickets (or surface-level questions)

What's really happening: It's as if the founder has stopped being interested in the conversation and decides "now I'm going to talk AT you for 10-15 minutes." You've trained the prospect to be passive. They've disengaged mentally, probably checked email, and have retained maybe 10% of what you showed.

The last time a sales rep did this to me, I asked them to stop, provided a little coaching, and asked them kindly to just show me the relevant parts. They tried once and got pulled back into automatic mode. 5 minutes of irrelevant rambling later, I flipped off my video and went upstairs to make some lunch. I could still hear them but I figured if they weren’t going to engage in the conversation, neither was I. You’ll never believe it but I didn’t end up buying from them. 

Enter the 90-Second Demo Technique

What you want to do instead is the 90-second demo. Instead of showing prospects all of the things your product does, you identify the top 3-5 things they really care about and then show them one at a time.

Here's the alternative approach:

1. Discovery first - Spend 80-90% of your time understanding their pain points

2. Identify 3-4 specific challenges they've mentioned

3. Preview what you'll show - "Based on what you've shared, there are three specific features that would help you. Let me show each one briefly."

4. For each feature:

   • Share your screen for just 90 seconds

   • Show ONLY the solution to their specific pain point

   • End screen share

   • Ask for feedback: "What did you think about that? Would that solve your problem?"

   • Get permission before moving to the next feature

This creates an entirely different dynamic. The prospect remains engaged because they're constantly interacting. They don't have time to check out mentally or open email.

Why It Works: The Psychology Behind It

1. It creates curiosity - When you only show snippets, they want to see more

2. It forces engagement - The prospect has to process what they've seen in real-time

3. It respects their time - You're only showing what's relevant to them

4. It builds trust - You're demonstrating that you listened to their specific needs

5. It creates a dialogue - Instead of a monologue, you're using a screenshare to advance the conversation 

Think of it this way: Imagine the total length of time you could talk about your product without stopping or repeating yourself. For me, it's in the hours. That's your "product ramble playlist." It probably sounds like you've recorded a short podcast about each feature you built and then stitched them together.

Here's the thing: prospects don't want to listen to a playlist of podcasts about your product. There are some absolute hits they're really interested in, but they don't want to listen to the 3-hour playlist. They want to hear about the 3 or 4 things they really care about.

From experience, prospects are deaf to anything we tell them until we've directly answered their questions. This is why your demos aren't landing - they're seeing too many things they don't care about and are patiently waiting for you to show them something they actually care about.

The Selling V: Building Context Before Features

I bet you’re thinking “if I’m not going to screenshare awkwardly for 20 minutes, what will I do on my demo calls!?” Ok, maybe I’m being a little facetious. Here’s how I recommend structuring your calls so that you learn first and share second. I call it the Selling V, here’s how it works: 

• Left side of the V: You're trying to understand the prospect's situation

  • Understand the context relevant to solving their problem 

  • Help them define the specific progress they want to make 

  • Walk through the impact the progress will have on them and their business 

• Bottom of the V: You demonstrate your understanding (diagnose and confirm*)

• Right side of the V: You help them understand how you could help them make progress

  • Help them understand any relevant context about your solution 

  • Show them how your solution will help them make the progress (this is where your demo lives)

  • Discuss the impact of implementing your solution 

Here's a counterintuitive sales truth: good salespeople want to lose a deal as early in the process as they possibly can. This allows us to weed out the tire kickers (and follow up with them at an appropriate time) and focus our time with people that are actively trying to solve a problem. By walking prospects through the Selling V, you get to understand whether or not they’re a fit before you invest any more time together. 

*The "Diagnose and Confirm" Technique

One technique that pairs perfectly with the 90-second demo is what I call "diagnose and confirm." This is something I picked up from Mark Kosoglow years ago when he was Outreach’s VP of Sales.

Along the sales process, most salespeople are trained to pause and check if prospects are following along. The trouble is, often that pause comes with all-too-simple questions like: "Does that make sense?" Or, "Are you following?"

Those questions invariably produce a simple answer: "yes." No one wants to admit they don't understand.

Instead, try this approach: repeat what the prospect has told you, and then confirm if you've gotten it right. This is powerful because it elicits a response regardless of whether you're right or have misunderstood.

"So what I'm hearing is that your engineering team spends about 3 hours per week generating these reports manually, and it's pulling them away from core development work. Is that accurate?"

This approach:

1. Corrects information if you've misunderstood

2. Often prompts prospects to share even more information

3. Ensures everyone is on the same page

The Results

When I coach founders through this transition to 90-second demos, they typically see:

• Higher engagement during demos

• More revealing questions from prospects

• Shorter sales cycles (because prospects are more engaged throughout)

What's particularly interesting: prospects often ask to see MORE once you've shown less. By creating curiosity and demonstrating value in small chunks, prospects lean forward and ask for additional features rather than leaning back and tuning out.

Try it Yourself

The goal here isn't really to get you to ONLY talk for 90 seconds - some things do take a little longer to explain. There are two goals:

1. Force you to think through your answers ahead of time (focus on being concise)

2. Prevent you from reverting back to your automatic demo

Knowing you're only allowed to screenshare for 90 seconds at a time is a great way to force yourself to focus. Remember, your demo isn't about showing how much your product can do. It's about showing how your product can solve their specific problems.

What's your experience with product demos? Have you tried a more focused approach? Hit reply and let me know - I'd love to hear what's working for you.

Until next week,

Collin

PS - If you're struggling with your demo approach, I've put together a simple Demo Planning Worksheet that helps structure discoveries and identify which features to prioritize. Feel free to download it and let me know if it helps!

PPS - here’s the youtube link I promised last week but forgot to add, let me know if you want to see more content like this.

PPPS - I’ve been using a tool called mouseless this week and it’s wheel mode is a game changer for working in spreadsheets and not having to touch your mouse. If you’re a keyboard shortcut junkie like me, you’ll love it.