What is your strategy for creating dynamic, interactive "canned demos" for the sales team given that the product frequently changes?

We have been experimenting with a monthly recorded demo presented as a webinar. Our teams can then share out that latest recording with customers and they're never more than a month out from the latest product greatness. 

By nature of being a webinar, it saves us from the curse of perfection—we record it live, it does a great job of conveying the value, and we don't obsess over every phrasing. 

Align the demo updates with the larger product launches, so that you're highlighting some of the major product updates in the canned demo. I've found what works best in delivering canned demos is to create a script and get feedback on it from other GTM stakeholders prior to the launch, and then to work with sales enablement to deliver training on the demo and any updated messaging after. 

More tactically, here's a sample template originally from Salesforce that I use for training sales on demos. 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzSot4wxOi-VUk5TZTlwdVMyQ2M/view?usp=sharing

Recently, we moved from a long demo video (of 20 minutes) to several topic-specific short videos ranging from 1 min to 5 minutes. Having granular content helps us manage these videos easily without reproducing the entire video. 

We then use our own product to create a content page for these videos. In some cases, we create multiple pages. A sales rep never has to worry about video versions or product changes. As long as they are using latest video assets published in the portal, they are assured that it is the latest video. Plus, if a video is changed, all shared links automatically show the latest video. So customers always see the latest vetted videos. 

Here is a screenshot of the video page . 

I hope the details and features of the product change and improve often… but hopefully the overarching story of what you do and why does not often change. If you keep the “canned demo” focused on the vision and benefits of your product or solution (rather than features and specific functionality) it should stand the test of time. If you need to include more specifics on “how it works” you could always at the end of the video or webinar point to a more detailed “how it works” page where you dive deeper into features. It’s easier to update as things evolve, and is another good indicator (if you’re using lead scoring, etc) that the lead or prospect is highly engaged. 

If your product is self-serve you may lead with the benefits narrative, and also make it super clear that the “must have” features are available. 

If your product is not self-serve (ie if the prospect needs to speak to a salesperson to experience the product), you may want to end with a teaser on specific features, but encourage the prospect to get more information (or a consultation or a demo) from a sales rep to see how it works. Sometimes sharing every detail of every feature before talking to sales doesn’t help.