One of your reps is about to present a super important demo. If they close this deal, they’ll hit their quota for Q4.

They spend half an hour preparing all the meeting tools for their pitch:

• Meeting platform (Zoom or Google Meet)
• Script and slides (Powerpoint)
• Objection notes (Google Doc)
• Demo version of your product to present via screen share

All their hard work has built up to this sales demo – and it’s about to pay off.

But what if their polished pitch is ruined by lag, lost notes, limited interactivity – or a cheeky Slack message popping up during a screen share?

Video conferencing is here to stay. But outdated meeting tools are putting important sales conversations, relationships, and deals at risk.

Read on to discover how to take your sales demos to the next level with meeting tools specifically built for sales.

5 Problems with Outdated Meeting Tools that are Bad for Sales

1. Disconnected from other sales tools

If your reps use Google Meet or Zoom to pitch a product, they’d probably have to open up several other tools to deliver a pitch successfully:

1. Scheduling software
2. A CRM
3. Sales playbooks
4. Notes for handling objections
5. Customer information
6. A demo version of the product to present via screen share.

That’s a lot of tabs to have open.

Even at a conservative estimate, disconnected and outdated meeting tools require a rep to access five separate platforms to present their pitch.

When outdated meeting tools are disconnected from your sales tech stack, it leads to a pile of other problems.

Let’s break them down.

More time wasted on admin tasks

You probably know that sales reps spend 65% of their time on admin tasks. Opening disconnected meeting tools and locating the right information before a pitch is a huge time-waster.

It also causes extra stress for your reps when they can’t find the notes they need.

Alternatively, you could find an intuitive sales-focused meeting tool that stores everything a rep needs within the platform – from sales playbooks and CRM data to scheduling and dynamic presentation content.

Unstructured sales pitches

Imagine this: a prospect brings up an objection while a rep is pitching. When clicking across their browser, they accidentally close the tab they needed to find the answer or forget where it is because of the pressure.

Before you know it, they’ve fumbled and lost the deal because they didn’t have a set-up that supported their pitch.

Research shows that successful demos have a clear structure, while unsuccessful ones are impromptu and disconnected.

Because they’re disconnected from other important apps, outdated meeting tools put your reps at greater risk of losing their place or forgetting their process while pitching.

Added difficulty to ramp new hires

What speeds up ramp time? Standardized, well-documented processes. What drags out ramp time? Confusing, disconnected sales tools.

And when your meeting tools aren’t connected to your other sales apps, new hires will have an even harder time learning the ropes and getting their script right.

Fumbling with trying to find their script, sales playbook, and prospect information quickly kills confidence for novice salespeople.

Plus, Google Meet and Zoom aren’t built to track new reps’ progress or facilitate coaching. You’d have to either require reps to record all their sales meetings or trust your new reps to tell you how their sales conversations are going.

Increased cost of a complex sales tech stack

This one’s a no-brainer. If you’re using a paid but generic meeting tool like Zoom, you’re adding another cost onto a pile of disconnected sales tools that’ll increase exponentially as you scale your team.

Modern sales meeting tools like Demodesk cost less than the above while combining the same features – plus so much more. So paying extra for a disconnected tech stack and outdated meeting tools just doesn’t make sense.

2. Causes friction for the prospect

Do you know what sucks? Clicking a meeting link to attend a sales demo only to be met with:

Generic meeting tools like Zoom immediately cause friction in sales conversations by pushing prospects to download the software before they can access the meeting.

This issue can be a dealbreaker. Even for the most promising sales pitches.

You might think “come on, it only takes a couple of minutes, it’s not a big deal” but it is a big deal because:

• Some organizations don’t allow employees to download new software on company-owned computers
• A prospect shouldn’t have to face any obstacles just to meet with you – as they might consider any barrier as a reason not to proceed
• Downloading software causes delays and delayed meetings mess up everyone's workflow

Reps have seconds to make a good first impression with their prospect. With outdated meeting tools, the prospect spends those crucial seconds fumbling with downloading and navigating a clunky system.

With a meeting tool that’s built for sales, prospects only need to click a link to access your meeting within their browser. It’s that simple!

3. Lag & bad resolution

Nothing kills the momentum of a sales demo like lag. When a rep is presenting the product, they should be crystal-clear that it’s a no-brainer to buy.

But generic meeting tools are notorious for lagging, particularly during sales conversations that involve screen-sharing.

This is bad for sales reps because product demonstrations are the most powerful part of the sales process, especially for SaaS companies.

Your reps have spent weeks perfecting your demo, finetuning its structure, and adapting it to meet a prospect’s specific needs & challenges. But when their screen-sharing has poor resolution or lags, the following problems kill their chances of closing the deal:

You might be thinking – duh, we all know that lag destroys sales conversations, but surely it’s just an inevitable part of remote sales? It’s not an outdated meeting tool that’s the problem, it’s just dodgy wifi – right?

Not exactly.

Outdated meeting tools like Zoom and Google Meet have a screen-sharing function that is designed in a way that causes lag.

To present your product, your video conferencing tool takes a recording of your local laptop screen, uploads it to a server in the cloud, then it’s downloaded by your guest.

That’s some serious technical gymnastics to be done by a sales rep on a laptop with home wifi. The resulting bottleneck of the upload stream is what causes the frustrating lags.

There’s another way to pitch a product that’s faster, clearer, and more collaborative.

Instead of performing a live stream of your local desktop, Demodesk is 100% web-based. This means that the virtual display’s journey is halved as it only makes one trip – from the server to your screen and your prospect’s screen.

4. Risk of sharing sensitive information or company data

Maybe it’s happened to you.

You’re sharing your screen during a meeting when you get a message, the kind you wouldn’t want your mother to see. So, imagine that happening in a sales meeting.

That’s an extreme example, but even if the content is totally safe, it’s not a professional look for your prospect to see…

• Your company’s internal data (CRM information, spreadsheets, scripts)
• Internal conversations with your colleagues (Slack, email inbox)
• Personal conversations with friends or partners (social media, text messages)

Harmless screen share fails are awkward and embarrassing. But on the extreme end, this scenario could be catastrophic and quickly end a business relationship – or even a career.

This scenario can happen so easily with generic meeting tools like Zoom and Google Meet and screen recording tools like Vidyard, where screen-sharing gives you no control over the visibility of pop-up notifications.

This is another reason why 100% of web-based meeting tools are a game-changer for both internal and external conversations.

Demodesk eliminates the risk of screen sharing by providing the virtual display directly from the server – not a live stream from the rep’s desktop.

This gives sales reps complete control over what their prospect sees vs. what’s visible on their screen. It also allows sales reps to keep their battle cards and scripts on hand without seeming unprofessional or disengaged.

This technology enables sales leaders to discreetly shadow and provides coaching to new reps without being visible to prospects. It’s a gamechanger for sales teams looking to standardize their processes, minimize ramp time, and maintain professionalism.

5. Zero or limited collaboration

The whole point of a sales demo is that prospects gain an in-depth understanding of how your product works, the benefits it could have for them and whether it’s worth investing in.

But even if a sales demo offers the clearest and most immersive experience ever, it doesn’t facilitate a crucial method of learning & trying it out.

1. That is a decent number of people you’re isolating with a non-interactive sales demo
2. Even if they understand your product visually and audibly, prospects are more engaged if they can collaborate with you
3. Offering interactive sales demos demonstrate an above-and-beyond level of care for your customers

Interactive demos aren’t uncommon – but most SaaS companies separate the sales demo from the customer actually trying out the tool. You watch the sales rep using the product during a call, then try it yourself.

But this isn’t as valuable (or efficient!) as getting a chance to use the product while receiving an in-depth explanation and support from a sales rep.

This is where Demodesk is a game-changer. Sales reps can include opportunities for prospects to discover, explore, and collaborate with the product during the sales demo – without having to download additional software.

3 Tools to Level-up Your Sales Meetings

1. Demodesk

Toot, toot – it’s us.

So, the meeting problems we discussed earlier? Those problems are exactly what Demodesk was built to solve.

With Demodesk, your meeting software becomes your mission control for closing deals, building relationships, and coaching your team.

Outdated meeting tools facilitate a conversation – and that’s about it.

Demodesk combines several crucial sales tools and processes in one iterative system:

With access to all these functions within one platform, Demodesk empowers reps to be the best they can be, with access to the resources and coaching to help them boost conversion rates, save time on admin, and minimize ramp time.

Talk about a tech stack upgrade.

2. Gong

Like Demodesk, Gong was built for the new sales environment where 80% of sales cycles are happening remotely.

This is a next-level sales analytics tool – or, to use Gong’s words, a “leader in revenue intelligence”.

Gong’s powerful data analytics and automation features can supercharge efficiency and communication across departments.

But how does it help with sales meetings specifically? Well, this is how Gong’s own AE, Jared Nielsen uses it:

1. Improve follow-ups and teamwork with call recordings

Gong automatically records and stores calls for salespeople to listen back to at scale. They can share these calls with their team and with customers to reiterate important information.

Salespeople can tag their team at important points during the recording to ask for help or collaborate on an objection.

2. Track conversation history to manage deals

By storing call recordings and visually presenting the rates of engagement of each call, Gong helps AE’s search through past conversations.

Instead of reading through CRM data or staggered call notes, they can dive into real conversations and emails to bring more context to their next meeting.

3. Stay in front of the customer

Gong enables AE’s to see open deals from a satellite perspective and immediately see the ones that need nurturing.

Using effective visual design, Gong illustrates the white space where communication for open deals has trailed off, so AE’s can quickly prioritize the customers who need attention.

(This handy feature helped Talend save 31% of at-risk deals.)

With Gong in the tech stack, sales teams will be more strategic, collaborative, and effective in their meetings.

3. Guru

Imagine having a digital sidekick that tells you exactly what you need for a sales meeting?

Guru is a powerful sales enablement tool that collects, shares, and organizes information to help sales teams get what they need to close deals.

Here’s how it helps reps with their meetings, pitches, and demos:

It collects the right information

Guru effortlessly captures important knowledge from internal comms tools like Slack and the web. It then helps sales teams present this info into new playbooks, pitch decks, or meeting notes which they can then share with their team.

It promotes collaboration

Guru enables sales reps to share new documents with the whole team, tag new information, and verify important data from experts within their organization. This helps sales teams create the most current, smart, and helpful pitch decks that close deals faster.

Guru even eliminates duplicate content so your documents stay clean and organized!

It pops up when you need it

Guru’s browser extension eliminates the time spent hunting down the right information – no more “I’ll get back to that” in your sales meeting. It’ll detect a topic you’re writing about and show you the relevant pitch deck for your conversation. Perfect for prepping for meetings!

Conclusion: Discover a Meeting Tool that’s Actually Built for Sales

Zoom and Google Meet have enabled remote teams to function during a pandemic.

But when it comes to sales-specific processes, you need platforms that are built to help you impress prospects, close deals, ramp new reps, and scale your team.

That’s why Demodesk exists.

Demodesk has revolutionized sales meetings by giving teams an intuitive, integrated platform that actually makes sense.

With Demodesk, companies are benefitting from faster onboarding, higher conversion rates, and minimized admin tasks.

Skeptical? Check out Treatwell’s success story. We’ll be here when you’re ready to get started.