You’re eager to explain your product to prospects in your sales pipeline and match its features to their most common challenges. Instead of telling them about it, show them—with a sales demo. Sales demos can be the keys that unlock understanding and conversion for potential customers.
Creating effective demonstrations can be challenging without the right tools. The best product demo platforms showcase your product’s value in a clear, engaging way, with tools that let prospects explore product features both on their own and with sales reps.
This guide will explore the different types of sales demo software on the market, plus six of the best tools you can use to optimize your demo creation process and win customers. Whether you’re looking for simple screen recording capabilities or sophisticated interactive demo environments, this article will help you choose the right solution for your sales team’s needs.
4 types of sales demo software tools
Here are the four main types of sales demo software you’ll come across:
1. Screen recording tools
Screen recording tools offer browser extensions that can capture all or part of your screen, as well as record your webcam. These tools make it easy to create and share video product demonstrations that customers can access through multiple channels, such as web pages and social media.
The best screen recording tools, like Loom, come with advanced features you can use to personalize your demos for each prospect. You can also use editing tools and AI assistance to polish your sales demo videos with engaging visual effects and helpful resources like transcripts.
2. Interactive product demo tools
Interactive demo software lets you create a guided walk-through of products for prospective customers to explore on their own time. These tools work similarly to screen recording tools, in that they let sales engineers (SEs) record themselves using the product. But interactive demo tools also let SEs create a realistic overlay, with clickable components and a dynamic interface that give customers a naturally engaging product experience.
3. Live demo tools
Live product demo tools are made for in-person or virtual events that happen in real time. These tools include screen-sharing features, speaker notes, and whiteboard tools that make it easier to communicate with customers in a face-to-face setting.
4. Sandbox product tours
Sandbox demo software lets you create a fully interactive clone of your product that customers can use without affecting your backend code. This is the most complicated and expensive type of sales demo software, but it’s also the best way to give prospects an authentic product experience. With a sandbox demo, customers can even try out complex user interaction features like chatbots and widgets.
1. Loom
Loom’s screen recording tool offers a simple and easy way to create product demos without sacrificing premium features like AI assistance, editing tools, analytics, and tech stack integrations. Sales teams can use Loom video messaging tool to show off a product in real time while also capturing their faces and tone of voice via webcam—infusing a demonstration with warmth, excitement, and the confidence to preempt any sales objections.
Features:
- Screen and webcam recorder: Capture your screen, voice, and webcam simultaneously to give your product demo videos a human touch.
- Drawing tools: Annotate your screen while recording to draw viewers’ attention to key areas of your product.
- Embedded call-to-action (CTA) options: Add customizable CTA buttons to your videos to encourage viewer engagement and conversion.
- Loom AI assistance: Produce polished and professional demos with automatic captions and transcripts, video editing, and filler-word removal. Loom AI can also generate video descriptions and draft prospecting emails.
- Interactive elements: Boost engagement with viewer comments, emoji reactions, and video replies.
- Video analytics: See which prospective clients have watched your product demos and which parts of the video were most effective.
- Third-party integrations: Sync Loom with your existing tech stack, including tools like Salesforce and Slack.
Pros:
- Easy to learn and use for increased user adoption
- More affordable than many other product demo tools
- Available on Mac and Windows computers, iOS and Android devices, and Chrome browsers
- Improved accessibility with AI-generated resources like transcripts
Cons:
- Fewer interactive elements than some other product demo tools
Pricing: Loom offers four plan options, including the free Starter plan. Paid subscriptions start at $15 per user per month (billed annually) for the Business plan, which includes basic video editing and customization features. Get the Loom AI add-on for more advanced editing, customization, and automation options.
Try Loom for Sales for Free2. Navattic
Navattic is an interactive product demo software that uses a Chrome extension to capture your product through a URL in your browser. Alternatively, if your product is a mobile or desktop app, you can upload product screenshots and media files.
With the Chrome extension option, Navattic can record your screen while you interact with the product. Once you’ve created a recording, you can organize, edit, annotate, and polish it to create a professional product overlay that encourages customers to interact with it.
Features:
- No coding needed: Create interactive product demos without tapping engineering resources.
- Support for multiple product types: Create demos for web-based, mobile, and desktop apps.
- Embeddable/shareable demos: Embed or share your demos through multiple channels, including web pages and email campaigns.
- Analytics tools: Use Navattic to identify prospective clients and track engagement.
Pros:
- Free plan option
- Easy learning curve for SEs
- Multiple personalization options
Cons:
- Somewhat manual recording process
- No direct recording option for mobile- and desktop-based apps
Pricing: Navattic offers a free Starter plan, plus three paid plan options for more advanced features. The Base plan starts at $500 per month (billed annually) and comes with five builder licenses.
3. Demoboost
Demoboost lets you create multiple types of product demos, including video overviews, interactive walk-throughs, and sandboxes. The platform emphasizes interactive elements that engage customers and let them independently choose which topics they want to explore, which lets you appeal to multiple user types at once.
Features:
- Live environment overlays: Showcase every feature of your product without the restrictions of using static screenshots.
- Interactive elements: Engage customers with clickable components and a dynamic interface.
- Accurate simulation: Give users a realistic view of how your product works in real life.
- Analytics and tracking: Monitor the entire viewer journey for every prospect in your sales pipeline.
Pros:
- Showcases more complicated product features, like chatbots and widgets
- Allows SEs to customize the product for each demo without affecting backend code
- Offers a digital sales room with tailored content for each stakeholder in the sales cycle
Cons:
- No pricing listed online
- Higher learning curve than simpler screen recorder tools
Pricing: Demoboost doesn’t post its pricing online, so you’ll need to contact a sales rep to get a quote for your business.
4. Storylane
Storylane’s product demo tool gives you the option to create either guided demos or sandbox demos. If you want to present multiple product demos in one place, you can even create a demo hub.
Features:
- Supports independent exploration: Let your prospects choose their own journey through the product demo.
- AI assistance: Use Storylane AI to find ways to improve your content, add voiceover, and provide translations.
- Personalization variables: Easily adjust demo content for each prospective customer.
- Detailed analytics: Get a replay of each customer’s demo experience.
Pros:
- Offers prebuilt templates for smoother go-to-market team adoption
- Excellent customer support
- Relatively affordable pricing
Cons:
- Could use more image editing features, like blurring options
- Only one seat available under the two cheapest plans
Pricing: Storylane offers five plans, including the basic Free plan. The Starter plan costs $40 per month (billed annually), but it supports only one seat. If you need more than one seat, you’ll need to upgrade to the Growth plan or above.
5. Walnut.io
Walnut is an interactive product demo tool that works as a browser extension to take screen recordings of your app. You can edit, annotate, and personalize each product demo to suit different types of customers and formats, then embed your demos across multiple platforms.
Features:
- Personalization features: Customize product demos for different user types or specific prospects.
- AI tools: Let Walnut’s AI assistant write and improve supporting content, like titles and in-demo text.
- Customer analytics: Track sales prospects’ engagement and use this information to improve your product demos.
- Integration with sales tools: Sync with your existing sales tools, including Salesforce, Marketo, and Slack.
Pros:
- Easily captures web-based product apps
- Lets you customize the same demo for multiple uses
Cons:
- More expensive than some other product demo tools
- Complicated to capture some interactive elements
Pricing: Walnut offers three paid plan options—it doesn’t have a free version. Lite is the lowest-priced Walnut plan, starting at $766.67 per month (billed annually). If you need more advanced features, like a dedicated CRM or advanced integrations, then you’ll need the Pro or Enterprise plan.
Alternatively, Walnut offers custom plan options that could potentially bring the price down for early-stage start-ups with less than 25 employees, but you’ll need to contact the sales team for pricing.
6. Consensus
Consensus lets you create interactive product walkthroughs in a similar way to Navattic and Walnut. After you capture yourself using the product, you can edit, annotate, and personalize product images to create polished final demos. Consensus also includes excellent analytics you can use to assess and evolve your sales demos.
Features:
- Screen recorder: Record your screen to capture your product.
- Chrome browser extension: Use the convenient browser extension for built-in app capture of web-based apps.
- Shareable links: Embed product demos directly into sales assets.
- Robust analytics: Track lead engagement with Consensus analytics.
Pros:
- Easy to learn and use, which increases user adoption
- Integrates with popular sales tools
- More detailed analytics than some other demo tools
Cons:
- No pricing listed online
- Video organization can be challenging
Pricing: You’ll need to contact the Consensus sales team to get a quote.
What to look for when building your sales demo software tech stack
Here are the most important qualities to look for before adding a new sales demo software solution to your tech stack:
Integration with the sales tools you already use
Many sales demo platforms include analytics for the demos themselves, but you’ll be working in a silo unless the software also integrates with your CRM, sales intelligence, and communication platforms to give you full visibility into your sales pipeline.
According to Gartner, it takes an average of three product demos to close a deal. Effective integration between your product demo software and other tools will make it easier to optimize your sales cadence—shortening your sales cycle and reducing lag time. You can map product demos to specific points in the customer journey and follow up at optimal times with the right prospects.
Loom works with a range of other software tools for seamless communication and collaboration, including CRMs like Salesforce, email clients like Gmail, and customer experience platforms like Zendesk.
Personalization features
Typical individual contributors (ICs) report that only half of their demo content is customized to their audience. You should aim to boost that number even higher.
The best sales demo tools make it easy to personalize multiple aspects of a product demo so you can increase engagement and conversion. Loom AI can adjust customer names, titles, and company names for you in both text and audio using the Variables feature, so you can use the same product demo video for multiple prospects.
Multiple share options
Look for sales demo software that lets you embed or share your finished demos across multiple channels, including web pages, social media, and email.
Loom lets you share videos via links and embed custom videos into most websites and platforms. You can embed entire videos into a web page, or create animated gif previews to include in customer emails.
Tracking and analytics
Your sales demo software should offer engagement analytics that tells you who viewed which demos, for how long, and whether or not they moved on to the next step in the sales process and/or closed a sale.
With Loom, you can also see individual avatars for a number of logged-in viewers, so you can keep track of specific prospects’ activity.
Create personalized sales demos with Loom
Loom offers a simple and affordable way to create sales demos you can deliver through any channel, whether they’re inbound or outbound in your sales pipeline.
Loom’s screen recorder tool has a gentle learning curve for your entire team, and Loom’s AI features help every product demo come across as polished and professional.
Enhance your presentations and create personalized sales videos with Loom.
Try Loom for Sales for Free