Demo automation was named one of the “Top 10 New Categories With the Most Buyer Traffic” by G2.

So what’s all the hype about?

Keep reading to find out what demo automation is and how you can use automated demos as part of your sales motion.

What is demo automation software?

According to G2, demo automation software is “used to automate the creation of product demonstrations.”

It also enables prospects to get an early product experience through a customized and personalized demo.

Unlike a demo video recording, automated demo software gets your prospect in front of the actual product before qualifying themselves or committing to the sale.

At Navattic, we see our customers use demo automation to create self-serve, click-through demos for their website or to build shareable demo assets during the sales cycle.

There are a lot of choices out there for demo automation software. Here are the top ones:

Navattic

Testbox

Consensus

Loom

ScreenRec

Reprise

Navattic’s guided HTML/CSS demos empower any team member to create demos without having to consult engineering or IT.

Type: Interactive demo platform, video + screenshot

Pros:

• Navattic interactive demos can be used in follow-up material post-live demos, email sequences, ads, or on your website.
• Our drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to build and personalize interactive demos for mobile apps, desktop apps, and web-based tools.
• Besides integrations with Salesforce and HubSpot, we have integrations with G2, Twilio Segment, Marketo Google Analytics, Mutiny, Chameleon, and more.

Cons:

• Navattic is focused on more of the marketing side of things, like website embeds, Demand Gen campaigns, and sales follow-ups than live demo sales environment capabilities.

Pricing: 2 plans:

1. Base: $500/month, which comes with unlimited users, demo views, demos, and integrations. It also has demo analytics, the in-app demo suggestion feature, and a dedicated CSM.
2. Growth: $1,000/month, which comes with all base plan features plus account engagement, in-app collaboration, audiences, custom domains, multi-team onboarding, translation, and demo coaching.

Testbox sits atop a live instance of your product and acts as a demo environment for prospects to explore.

Type: Live demo

Pros:

• Users can create their own TestBox sandboxes and tailor them to each prospect’s needs.
• It’s not just a copy of your product, so there are no limitations on the features you can show.
• Analytics tell you who has interacted with your TestBox demo environment and what they did.

Cons:

• Live demo instances can have embedded errors that show up during stakeholder testing.
• Initial implementation takes roughly 45 days, and you’re reliant on the Testbox team.

Pricing: TestBox starts at $38,000/year for 15 users. Additional users come at $1,200 a piece. With this plan, you get unlimited live demos, unlimited POCs, PII-free custom data, a dedicated CSM, and Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack, and Marketo integrations.

Consensus is a demo automation video platform that focuses on reducing the number of unqualified demos for your sales and presales teams.

Type: Video

Pros:

• You can customize videos for specific prospects or customers.
• Consensus offers features like analytics, which allow sales to see who has viewed your video and when, and gives you insights into when sales should be engaged.

Cons:

• On G2, users have complained that the platform isn’t user friendly, without the ability to search through your videos.
• Sales and Marketing components of Consensus seem to be sold separately, which could be a deal breaker for your team’s budget.

Pricing: Not available unless you talk to sales. Their website says, “Pricing is based upon role and license quantity.”

Loom is more of a DIY demo software solution that helps users with screen recording and converting them into demo videos.

Type: Video

Pros:

• Loom is easy to set up, just add it to your browser and click start.
• It’s not limited to just demo automation but can be used throughout your entire organization for video creation.
• Loom videos can be used as a post-mortem of a sales demo so your champion can use it to help with organization onboarding.

Cons:

• Loom videos don’t give users the feeling that they are using your product like an interactive or live demo software.
• Users complain about the interoperability between the desktop and web client.

Pricing: Loom has three different plans:

• Free: $0, which comes with 25 videos/person, 5 minutes of video, unlimited transcriptions, team workspace, viewer insights.
• Business: $12.50/mo, which comes with everything in the free plan, unlimited recording length, ability to add Loom AI, no Loom branding, embedded links, password-protected videos, and a 14-day free trial.
• Enterprise: Talk to sales, which comes with everything in the business plan, Salesforce integration, request email to view, SSO and SCIM.

Like Loom, ScreenRec is another video recording software that users can then convert into demo videos.

Type: Video

Pros:

• Ease of use — simple interface, simple setup, and high-quality recording.
• ScreenRec offers an analytics feature that allows you to keep track of who has watched your video, when, and for how long.

Cons:

• Videos don’t give users the feeling they’re actually using your product.
• Though you are recording your screen, users may still be skeptical about whether features will look or perform the same way in reality.
• 5-minute recording limitation in the free tier.

Pricing: Screenrec has three pricing plans:

• Free: $0, which comes with 2 GB of storage and unlimited recording but is for personal use only and comes with 1 user seat.
• Pro: $4/mo, which comes with 50 GB of storage, higher recording quality, and support via email and chat.
• Premium: $49/mo, which comes with 200 GB of storage, 4K recording quality, 5 user seats and support via phone, email, and chat.

In Reprise, users can build three kinds of demos: walk-throughs, live demo overlays, and sandboxes, making it a good fit for companies that need all three and want to centralize demo creation.

Type: Interactive Demo, Live Demo

Pros:

• Its most sophisticated product, Replicate, can fully clone your application down to code level.
• There are a lot of customization options, so demos can be highly tailored to knowledge level and function.

Cons:

• If you want the full Reprise experience, you need all three of their products, and each is sold separately.
• G2 reviews indicate a lack of guidance, meaning the time it takes to create live and interactive demos can be substantially longer than other tools (4.4/5 versus Navattic’s 4.7/5).

Pricing: Contact sales. Reprise doesn’t have public pricing, but our customers and prospects say they use a per demo / per seat model.

Top ways to use demo automation

Now that you’ve picked your software, here are two ways our customers use demo automation in their sales cycle:

1. Increase the number of quality leads coming from the website

Interactive demos are attractive to buyers who want early, hands-on experience with your product without talking to sales.

The prospects who interact with your demo are more likely to align with your product’s core use cases and value prop, making them more qualified leads.

One of our customers, EVOLVE, nearly doubled their monthly rate of “hot” leads after putting a Navattic demo on their website.

Another customer, Insider, said that Navattic demos have “generated 1000s of high-intent leads that enter our sales cycle already familiar with our product and key use cases.”

2. Make the sales cycle more efficient

Automated demos can also reduce pre-sales costs and resources.

Our customer Sourceday said they spent “30% less time on early-stage demos,” which allowed them to “fully focus their resources on higher value and more strategic deals.”

Athennian said something similar. Navattic has saved its team time by sourcing only the most highly qualified product leads. “Leads from Navattic already know what the Athennian product does and are confident that it addresses a pain point that they have. This allows our sales reps to focus on specific questions during their demos and significantly reduces the time spent on initial discovery.”

Other customers, like Coupa, use Navattic demos as leave-behinds after live demos. These assets give champions a way to communicate exactly what the product does and how it functions to their team.

Coupa’s GTM team says, “Sharing an interactive demo as a leave-behind allows decision-makers to revisit the value messaging even when we’re not physically present and to easily share the resource internally.”

With the right tools —which include demo automation software —you can shorten your sales cycle, save on resources, and, ultimately, convert your prospects.