How do you run a Demo Equipment Program that converts?

Demo equipment management program is recognized as the best way to showcase the product’s effectiveness to your potential customers. But did you notice that when demo program is poorly planned it negatively impacts sales conversion and significantly slows down close rates? And, on the contrary, when the program is organized properly and runs smoothly, it helps to close deals faster and win more customers.

It all seems obvious in theory, but what makes demo equipment program successful in practice?

To understand what stands behind a demo program that converts better and faster, let’s quickly resume the old process of handling demo equipment along with operational challenges on the way.

Bottlenecks in the traditional way of demo management process

The major challenge in the traditional process of handling demo equipment is time. And it’s a well-known fact that the faster you deliver your equipment to a prospect, and the faster you pick it up to re-customize and send it to the next potential customer, the higher are the chances to close more deals. Of course, if the whole process is smooth and your prospect really needs your product.

But what challenges don’t allow the demo program to obtain that desired speed? There are a few that we noticed:

• Import issues

Shipping mission-critical equipment to another country or continent requires compliance with specific regulations and accurate product classification in line with each country laws. If the imported item fails to obtain any necessary documentation, certification or classification, it can result in penalties, fines and cause some unpleasant delays if the items are held at customs.

• Delayed delivery and mismanagement returns

If an organization doesn’t have an agile supply chain and logistic provider, issues like delayed delivery are bound to occur. Late or poorly organized delivery can set an organization for failure and give a negative first impression. And if the unit is not collected in time when the demo period is over, it will also affect the speed of your demo unit rotation cycle to new prospects.

• Visibility of demo products

It’s very important that the sales and logistics team of vendors has full visibility on demo equipment process and can track each item on every phase of the demo program, including where each unit is, when the demo was started, whether it was delivered on time, when the return collection will happen and when the team needs to follow-up with a customer. Usually, the logistics team and sales team work in silos and it affects the overall performance of the demo management campaign.

• Poor geographical coverage

When it comes to the Middle East, it’s impossible to be physically present for a manufacturer in all countries. But since the market size and potential is huge it’s important to adapt and look for an option to deliver demo products to the customer that needs them in a specific country. And here, all those regulatory challenges we described earlier come along with the continuous search for a trustworthy local partner that can import, store, deliver, re-customize and rotate your demo product locally. Very often, this is a responsibility of the sales team that needs to be focused on sales instead of operational and logistics issues.

• Absence of local re-customization process

Before the next equipment demonstration, the unit needs to be tested, re-customized/ imaged and re-packaged to be ready for a new customer. If there is no local process to handle this, sending the unit back to the origin country to get prepared is a quite costly and time-consuming procedure. It will involve additional import charges, handling fees, shipment costs, etc.

All these and more challenges are an integral part of almost every sales process that often have a negative impact on revenue numbers and waste a lot of sales resources.

Is there a solution?

At Pedigri Technologies we designed an industry-leading demo-management solution to equip your sales team with a turn-key “try-before-you-buy” program that covers the entire cycle of field demo product management and allows hassle-free product re-utilization.

We import your demo products to 40+ countries in the Middle East and Africa and deliver them 24/7 to the precise customer location as per your request, providing end-to-end visibility on the exact site and demo expiry period of your products using our AI-based platform PRODIGY.

And when it’s time to extract your demo product from the customer, the system automatically notifies our team to pick it up. We bring the unit to our customs-bonded warehouse (free trade zone exempted from local duties and taxes), where the equipment is staged, re-imaged and tested, and the product is re-packed for delivery to a new potential customer.

As a result of this seamless experience, your demo products get to your potential customers faster, your sales are growing, and program cost reduces. It helps to maximize the productivity of your Field Installation Engineers and minimize the number of required demo assets to improve the ROI.

Learn more about our demo equipment management solution to run a demo program that will double your sales in the MEA & APAC region. Contact us at info@pedigritechnologies.com.