The Ten Minutes Before You Share Your Screen
August 25, 2026
The strongest predictor of whether a demo call goes well is what happened in the first ten minutes, before anything was shown.
Skipping that is understandable — you booked the call to demo, and the prospect came to see it — and it is what turns a demo into a feature tour nobody remembers.
Four questions, ten minutes
- "What made you take this call?" Something happened. That something is what the demo has to answer.
- "How do you do it now?" You are replacing a spreadsheet, a person, or a competitor. Which one changes everything you show.
- "Who else has to be happy with this?" Names the room you are not in, which decides what they will need to re-explain later.
- "What would make this an easy yes?" People answer this honestly far more often than they answer "what is your budget".
Say what you are doing
Open with it: "Before I show you anything — two or three questions, so I show you the right part rather than all of it." Prospects almost never object, because the alternative is a tour they will have to sit through.
It also reframes the call from a presentation into a conversation, which is where objections actually surface.
Then show three things, not thirty
Pick the parts that answer what you just heard, and say so out loud: "You mentioned reconciliation takes two days — that is this." The link between their words and your screen is the whole value of having asked.
A demo of three relevant things beats a complete one, and it finishes early, which nobody has ever complained about.
When there is no time for discovery
Some calls arrive with an audience expecting a demonstration immediately. Then send an async walkthrough beforehand covering the basics, and spend the live time on what they asked after watching it.
That is the highest-leverage use of a recorded demo for anyone running several calls a week: it moves the generic half out of the meeting entirely.
Frequently asked questions
- Should you run discovery before a demo?
- Yes, and it takes about ten minutes: what made them take the call, how they do it today, who else has to be happy, and what would make it an easy yes. A demo given before you know any of that is a product tour.
- Will prospects object to questions first?
- Rarely, if you say why -- "two or three questions so I show you the right part rather than all of it". The alternative is a tour they have to sit through, and framing it as a conversation is where objections actually surface.
- What if there is no time for discovery?
- Send an async walkthrough covering the basics beforehand and spend the live time on what they ask after watching. For anyone running several calls a week, that moves the generic half out of the meeting entirely.
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