8 Ways to Leverage Screen Sharing to Enhance Virtual Product Demonstrations
The modern sales process demands flexibility, personalization, and engagement—especially in virtual environments. Yet, many virtual product demonstrations encounter challenges like low engagement or lack of clarity, ultimately failing to impact potential clients.
Picture this scenario: you deliver a demo, but instead of captivating your audience, you see a sea of distractions and technical difficulties derailing your presentation. Sound familiar?
Screen sharing tools like CrankWheel, with their simplicity and one-click sharing capability, unlock new opportunities to make your virtual demos compelling, interactive, and visually engaging.
This guide explores eight practical strategies for using screen sharing during product demos to land more deals, shorten your sales cycle, and create meaningful customer connections.
The Benefits of Using Screen Sharing for Virtual Product Demonstrations
Before we discuss the “how,” let’s fully understand the “why.”
Effective screen sharing helps you clearly convey your message, while also keeping your audience engaged with visuals. By sharing your screen, you can walk participants through processes step-by-step, demonstrate product features in real time, and ensure everyone is on the same page, making your presentation more impactful and easier to follow.
- Builds Trust Through Transparency
Screen sharing creates an open and trustworthy experience. Your audience can see your product in action, leaving no room for ambiguity. You can also show your friendly, professional face using your webcam feed as an overlay on the demo.
- Enhances Engagement
Visual aids and live interactions are far more engaging than static slideshows. Screen sharing allows your audience to stay focused, interested, and involved throughout the demo.
- Improves Understanding
Seeing is believing. Whether you’re guiding prospects through a product feature or explaining results, live visuals make complex ideas more digestible and easier to comprehend.
- Boosts Conversions
A seamless, visually engaging demo that addresses the prospect’s needs can significantly shorten your sales cycle, making it easier to close deals faster.
8 Ways to Leverage Screen Sharing for Effective Virtual Demos
1. Start with a Clear Agenda
Set the tone for your demo by sharing a clear and concise agenda. If it’s a pre-arranged demo, you can do this a few hours/days before the demo is scheduled. If it’s an impromptu demo, responding quickly to inbound interest or even transforming an outbound call into a demo, make sure to outline the demo at the start.
Providing an outline helps your audience understand what to expect and ensures everyone is on the same page. This simple step makes the session more organized and keeps the discussion focused and on track, maximizing the value of the time spent together.
Pro Tip: Begin by displaying a simple slide with 2-3 bullet points outlining the structure of your demo. For example:
- Brief intro and overview
- Product walkthrough tailored to their pain points
- Q\&A and next steps
2. Customize the Demo to the Prospect’s Needs
Generic presentations often fail to hold your audience’s attention and can leave prospects disengaged. Instead, use screen sharing to create a more personalized and impactful experience. Tailor your demo to address your prospect’s specific goals, pain points, and industry use cases. By showing them how your solution fits their unique needs, you can build stronger connections, keep their focus, and increase your chances of closing the deal.
3. Keep It Visual and Interactive
Leverage screen sharing tools to make your demo dynamic and engaging. Use features like annotations or callouts to direct attention to key elements, and if your tool allows, enable prospects to interact with your product directly through remote control.
Pro Tip: Annotate data fields, click paths, or other important areas during your demo while narrating what’s happening. This keeps your audience focused and enhances comprehension.
4. Highlight Key Features with Storytelling
Don’t just present features—bring them to life through storytelling. Highlight how your product’s capabilities solve real problems or improve daily life. Frame these features within relatable, real-world scenarios that resonate with your audience. Show them not just what your product does, but why it matters and how it can make a meaningful difference for them.
Example: Instead of saying, “CrankWheel offers seamless CRM compatibility,” tell a story of how a sales team used CrankWheel to integrate with their CRM and reduced their response time by 50%.
5. Engage with Questions Throughout the Demo
Demos shouldn’t be a one-way street! Instead of only presenting your product or solution, engage your audience by asking open-ended questions. This approach encourages interaction, helps you better understand their needs, and keeps your presentation dynamic. Involving your audience in the conversation will create a more memorable and impactful experience.
Example: Use the screen-sharing feature to ask, “Which feature do you think would save your team the most time so far?” Adjust your demo based on their input to show your flexibility and attention to detail.
6. Demonstrate Real-World Scenarios
Prospects care about practical application, not abstract theory.
To engage them effectively, use screen sharing to showcase real-world scenarios. Demonstrate live environments to highlight how your product works in action, present detailed case studies that illustrate measurable results, or share compelling customer success stories that show the tangible impact of your solution. Providing this level of detail helps prospects visualize how your offering can address their specific needs and challenges.
Example: Show how your product integrates with a CRM by walking through a live example. Demonstrate a seamless handoff from the demo to follow-up tasks, reducing guesswork for the prospect.
7. Provide a Quick Recap and Next Steps
Once you’re done dazzling your audience, wrap up your presentation with a recap slide that clearly highlights the main takeaways from your demo. Reinforce the key points you want your audience to remember, and ensure they leave with a strong understanding of your message.
Follow this with clear and actionable next steps, such as scheduling a follow-up meeting, providing additional resources, or outlining a timeline for the next phase. Taking the time to define these steps will keep momentum going and make it easier for everyone to stay aligned moving forward.
Pro Tip: Use screen sharing to pull up your calendar and confirm a follow-up date on the spot. This reduces delays and maintains momentum.
8. Record and Share the Demo for Future Reference
Not every decision-maker will attend your demo, which means key stakeholders might miss seeing your product in action. Recording and sharing your demo can be a game-changer in these situations.
With CrankWheel’s built-in recording feature, you can easily provide prospects with a high-quality, shareable resource that highlights your product’s value. This ensures your demo stays top-of-mind during internal discussions and helps keep everyone on the same page, even if they couldn’t attend live. You can share the recording by pasting it right into an email as a playable link with animated preview.
Pro Tip: Use this feature to follow up with personalized messages, strengthening the most important aspects of your demo!
Best Practices for Delivering Virtual Product Demos
To maximize the effectiveness of these strategies:
- Test Your Tools: Run through your software to ensure there are no unexpected glitches.
- Stable Internet Connection: A poor connection can ruin even the best-prepared demo. Test your connection and have a backup plan ready.
- Keep It Short: Attention spans are limited online. Aim for a demo length of 20-30 minutes.
- Use Minimal Slides: Focus on live interactions instead of lengthy PowerPoint presentations.
- Practice Active Listening: Pay attention to your audience’s responses to adapt your demo on the fly.
Transform Your Virtual Demos Today
Effective virtual product demonstrations go beyond basic presentations. They require thoughtful communication, intentional interactivity, and the right tools to create impactful experiences that drive conversions. Screen sharing opens the door to bring your product to life for prospects, showcases its value in real time, and allows you to connect with your audience in meaningful ways.
Want to elevate your sales game? Start a free trial of CrankWheel today, and discover how seamless screen sharing can transform your virtual product demos into conversion-driving powerhouses.