What are the best ways to deliver technical presentations and demos to customers?

Understanding customer and his requirements is the key. Understanding audience is equally important. It gives perspective of what to present and how technical the discussion will be .

I have found it very helpful to understand the customer’s business so I could demonstrate how my proposed solution has helped similarly situated customers.

The starting point is knowing your audience by knowing their background, I mean, if is technical or business oriented person, after this starting point you can adjust your speech to focus on subjects the people know and be easier to understand your message. The other point, after mapping gaps, business goals and pain points is prepare yourself by knowing and bringing use cases that are close to audience reality in order to show them your are an expert and the message also will be easier to understand.

You must present your product or service in a way that explains their value to the customer and their business. How is your product going to make their lives easier and their work better? That’s what everyone wants and needs in a product. If the product provides true value to processes or people, cost becomes less of a factor. If your product saves time, money or provides a path to a better overall outcome yo a person’s work…you are set up perfectly to make a sale.

* Keep minimum slides * A minute per slide is ideal * Take questions at the end for a technical presentation * Interactive presentation during Sales pitching ic ideal * Keep FAQ in notes....update faq's frequently * Have hidden FAQ slides

Rehearsing with an internal audience has been helpful; especially in confirming that the audience is receiving the message I want to send, identifying likely questions that may be asked and uncovering possible, unintended misunderstandings or information gaps. Organizing the content to anticipate and answer the audience’s questions before they are asked shows that the presenter “gets” the audience and has an understanding of their needs. This has helped me build a rapport with my customers quickly.

Some of the biggest mistakes I see in the industry are delivering presentations through web conferences. As much as we enjoy the comfort of our home or office, there's a significant difference between delivering something to an audience you can't see and one you can, especially that you can, as a seasoned presenter, immediately gauge the audience and see if they are interested in the current topic or product. This is SIGNIFICANTLY more important than having a huge structured presentation and blindly present to someone you can't see. By judging the audience interest, and knowing your products and material well, you will always succeed, since you will be able to juggle the slides and tailor them on the spot for your current audience.

You always plan and structure your presentation but that structure should have flexibility. One person you are presenting to may have a repeating theme of questions that leads you to expand in one area you had not planned on. If it is important to them, follow their lead and go deeper into that subject.

The most important thing on your structure is how would be your storytelling. The most of them starts using impactful message on the early slides, for example, you will get 40% of cost saving by using this solution. After that is important to envolve your speech by describing how your solution will achieve that by solving gaps, increase improvements and so on.

While planning and preparing the material, consulting with cross-functional colleagues can yield better material that covers all aspects of the product or the specific business case you need to demonstrate. These colleagues can be product management team to ensure the information relating to the product features and benefits is correct. Sales or commercial people to make sure the use cases, business values, and numbers are demonstrated. Engineering team to provide relevant uses cases for every product feature.

I have found recording my presentation to be super useful in ensuring a smoother delivery. It is also critical to not ‘read the slides,’ but to use my own language and speaking directly to the members of the audience. Where possible, I have found it very useful to walk around the audience; creating more of a connection with them. Arriving early and testing the connections ‘live’ is very important… having a failure during a presentation can derail everything quickly. Being prepared with spare cables, extension cords, batteries and peripherals has also helped. I won over one audience when a bad power cord caused my laptop battery to die and I kept up the presentation while swapping to a good cord, never breaking stride.

It is important to practice with your internal audience and ask to them constructive feedbacks. Recording the presentation for yourself analysis is important also. By asking to your internal audience what is the points are not clear is important to presentation refactoring.

I found it always helpful to ask a colleague to review my presentation and identify potential knowledge gaps, missing points, or areas for improvement. It's also important to anticipate questions relating to each topic and prepare your answers to close any gap in your presentation and to make sure you fully understand the complete picture before conveying that to customer.

I feel like the best way to “rehearse” for a product presentation or demo is by working the product and truly understanding what it does and how it works. Not just the specs but how it is used in specific applications or industries. Where does it shine and where does it fail? If you know this, it becomes akin to telling someone what you had for breakfast. You know what you ate, and if someone asks, you don’t need time to prepare the answer or your delivery. While understanding and delivering a product is more complex than this, the same principles apply. Yes, some structure is needed and a good delivery happens with repetition and training. But don’t confuse this with the ability to sell.

It is important to be clear you are open to interact from the first minute, after that is important to bring your audience to speak and bring them to describe the expectations, pain points and so on. During the sessions is important to confirm to the audience if you are clear or if we on the right direction in order to get feedbacks. By the end moments, bring the audience to an open session to discuss next steps.

I always invite the audience to ask questions and if none are asked, I would call on folks for their input to get the interaction going. Knowing my topic is important in ensuring I could answer the questions confidently. I also found it very important to positively acknowledge when I did not know an answer; and pause to ensure I captured such questions so I could get back to the audience with the answers in a follow-up. Part of my wrap up always included noting the open questions and providing realistic expectations on when I would provide the answers. I found it best to undercommit and overdeliver: ensure I gave myself adequate time to get the answers and respond as soon as possible; before the committed time.

Moving away from lecturing style towards interactive discussions and fostering customer engagement while preserving and controlling the flow is key to build rapport and ensuring key messages are delivered and understood by the audience.

Don't be afraid of silence. If you ask an open ended question and the audience stays quiet wait for them to respond. They might respond with an evasive answer to keep the demo going but based on what they respond you can ask a follow up question or call up other people on the call to offer their take. This brings back the audience into the session and also will give you new points to touch on as you go along. It will also tell you if you are covering their needs and if not then you can pivot.

During a demo/presentation, you are leading the room. But do you feel more comfortable in a social or professional setting when you are being talked at or when you’re sitting around having an open discussion? I don’t enjoy hearing someone droll on for 30 mins and then ask if I have any questions…You have to present your part, but I enjoy keeping an open forum as the presentation goes along or having a shorter presentation and longer open discussion. When I sell, I am also gathering info. Learn what you can at all times even during the later stages of the sales cycle. This may be where you can gain the most pertinent data from prospective customers.

In order to ensure folks in the audience paid attention; I generally would not share copies of the presentation in advance. This would keep folks from ‘skipping ahead’ to look for pricing or specific items , out of my intended order. I would also announce that I would send copies afterwards to lessen folks attempting to write too many notes and falling behind. This also ensured I had the opportunity to follow-up with an e-mail that same day. That e-mail was another opportunity to thank the audience; ensure they got my contact information; and gave me another chance to highlight my main points.

It is important to do personal follow ups, I mean if you discussed regarding a technical point, share to your previous audience some cases and articles related to the topic you have discussed.

BEWARE OF GOING ON AUTOPILOT A common pitfall among experienced customer facing presenters is getting into an automatic presentation mode where you stop focusing on your audience and just run through the material. This is often the result of delivering the same old presentations and demos over and over, becoming effectively a "recording" that is being played back. Audiences are quite sensitive to this and can often perceive this as the presenter being less empathetic and trustworthy. Another downside is missing out on product changes and changing customer needs. You can overcome this by regularly updating your material and restructuring it to keep it fresh for both you and your audience.

Engage, Simplify, Conquer Demos! Tailor Your Pitch: Understand audience tech levels, address pain points effectively. Structured Impact: Hook, solution process, benefits, seamless demo, strong conclusion. Engage Audiences: Start with compelling intro, visuals, real-world examples. Simplify Complexities: Break tech jargon, analogies for relatability. Flawless Demos: Rehearsed, backup plans, smooth execution. Practice for Confidence: Master content, timing, dynamic delivery. Showcase Value: Highlight problem-solving, unique features. Clarity Matters: Avoid jargon, clear language for comprehension. Handle Queries: Prep for objections, provide strong answers. Respect Time: Stick to schedule, balance content and demo.

Remember that customers have access to data online including your equipment/product specs. No need to read them a brochure during a presentation.