The Group Demo Meeting
How to Make Group Demos Actually Work
I used to have an aversion group demo meetings… and then the pandemic happened and somehow made them even worse. Which is ironic, because group demos have so much potential.
Think about what has to be true for one to even get on the calendar:
Someone was motivated enough by what you’re selling to rally a group.
They convinced busy, important people to block time.
They got buy-in across roles, teams, and agendas.
That’s not nothing.
But at the same time…
That room is full of people with completely different contexts. Different problems. Different incentives. Different levels of authority. Some are there because they’re curious. Some because they were told to be. Some will use the product. Some will approve the budget.
And in a group meeting, especially on Zoom, you’re rarely getting anyone’s full attention. You’re getting a fraction of many people’s attention.
That’s why group demos feel so fragile. They’re high-signal and high-noise at the same time.
After enough failed attempts (low participation, no momentum, or the nightmare scenario where pricing goes up in front of an unprepared exec) I finally built a system that makes these meetings actually work.
Here it is.
My Core Philosophy and Mindset for the Group Demo Meeting
A group demo doesn’t fail because the product isn’t good. It fails because no one in the room feels personally invested.
The real job of a group meeting is not to “present.” It’s to get as many people in the room as possible to have skin in the game.
When someone has nothing at stake, they check email. When someone has something at stake, they lean in. That’s the psychological difference between a room that converts and a room that politely disappears.
To make this real, put the shoe on the other foot for a moment. Think about the last time you were invited to a meeting with ten people, no individual context in advance, and a vague agenda at the top of the call. You probably showed up curious, but guarded. Half-present. Once the agenda was set, you decided how much this meeting mattered to you and how much multitasking you were going to do as a result.
If there came a moment when you realized this meeting wasn’t going to have a specific, needle-moving moment for you, what did you do? You tuned out. If you were in person, you probably started writing your to-do list. If you were virtual, you went camera-off and did the same thing.
Hopefully this is self-evident, but in case it’s not, let me say it plainly. Your buyers are doing the same thing.
Every single person in that group is silently asking:
Why am I here?
What does this mean for me?
Is this going to make my life better or harder?
So your job, darling seller, before, during, and after the meeting, is to answer those questions for each person individually, even while you’re addressing the whole room. That’s why all the work I’m about to walk you through really, really matters.
When you do this work, you engage an entire buying committee. You get them to see what’s at stake for them. You get them to critically think about whether and how your solution can help.
When you don’t do this work, you get half-ass buyers showing up with half-ass energy for your half-ass meeting. Or you get lucky. But luck isn’t a strategy. Harsh? Maybe. But I’ve been in too many indifferent rooms not to say it’s true.
Yes, what follows will probably feel extra. The 1:1 emails. The exec outreach. The introductions. The framing. The follow-ups.
But none of it is extra. It’s how you create personal stakes inside a group setting. Because you are not actually selling to a room of ten. You are selling to ten people, one at a time, in parallel.
And when you do it right, each of them walks into the demo thinking:
This might solve something I care about.
This might make me look good.
This might make my job easier.
This might move my team forward.
This is my road-tested formula for turning a group demo from a performance into a decision-making moment. When people understand what’s at stake for them, they stop being an audience and start being motivated buyers.
Know What Meeting You’re Walking Into
When we set up group meetings, there’s a lot at stake for us and our deal, but even more at stake for the person on the client side who is sponsoring it. This is their reputation. Their social capital. Their internal credibility.
Your job is to make them look good.
You want to show up with energy that says, “Your colleague did a great job understanding your business priorities and communicating them. We mapped our solution to those priorities. They believe we can help, and they want your input because it affects you too.”
To do that, you need real alignment ahead of time.
So before anything else, get clarity on who is setting this up, who will be in the room, what the objective and agenda are, what a great outcome looks like from their point of view, how much time is required, and whether money will be discussed, and if so, with whom.
If you don’t know these things, you’re not running a meeting. You’re walking into one blind.
One Week Before: Do This Work
With one week to go, you should meet with your sponsor, send 1:1 emails to everyone attending, and message the relevant execs who won’t be in the room. Here’s what that looks like.
With the person who set up the meeting, the goal is alignment. You want to review the agenda, any content they should see early, whether there should be a pre-read, who is excited, who is skeptical, why, and how everyone reports to each other. This tells you where the energy and the landmines are.
With the attendees, the goal is to get them bought in on you and why this meeting matters. You send a simple, no-homework note:
“Hi ___,
I’m looking forward to meeting you next week. I’ve heard ___ about you and your role, and I think you’ll find ___ part of the agenda especially compelling for ___ reason. I wanted to introduce myself and open a line of communication in case any questions come up before or after the session. Feel free to reply here or reach me by phone or text at ___.
See you soon.”
You’re not asking them to prepare. You’re not pitching. You’re just becoming a human. This alone raises participation.
For the execs who will be in the meeting, it’s the same note with one addition. Be genuinely complimentary about their team. Let them know you respect their people and value their time. You are not trying to make them your sponsor. You’re signaling that you take their presence seriously.
For the relevant execs who won’t be there, send a simple heads-up. Let them know you’re meeting with their team to solve a problem they care about and that you’ll keep them posted. No homework. No ask. At minimum they think, “This vendor seems legit.” At best, they get intrigued and start asking their team questions.
For your internal team, the day before the meeting, do a full dress rehearsal with your team. Your deck should be done. Your demo should be clean. Rehearse out loud. Align on roles, timing, and who the important people in the room are. Share LinkedIns. Know who you’re walking into. And if anything needs adjusting, agree on it and get it done.
During the Meeting
This meeting is big stakes for you and for your sponsor. Show up early enough that nothing can go wrong and still be okay. If it’s in person, I plan to arrive close to 30 minutes early. It’s better to be embarrassingly early than to embarrass your sponsor because you can’t get on the wifi, the TV won’t work, and you need to wait on IT to get a Mac dongle out of a dusty storage closet.
Start on time. Set the agenda. Explain how the meeting came to be. Introduce yourself and your team. Let them know you will have them to introduce themselves too, but only after you set the tone with some of what we’ve heard from our conversations with their business so far.
Pull up a slide showing what you already know about their priorities and what they stand to gain or lose. Then, and only then, have them introduce themselves by providing specific prompts that require them to go much deeper than name and title:
Ask about the most important business objective they’re responsible for this year
Ask what they’re excited about, or hoping to walk away from this meeting knowing
Ask them to share a career win they’ve experienced using your tool or a similar one in the past
This does three things: It gives you context, it gives you their language, and it gets them talking. Once people speak, they’re more likely to speak again. Once they think critically in front of peers, ego and social capital kick in. They associate you with the problem they’re trying to solve.
You are building trust that you, your team, and your product are different, and that because of that, despite everything that they’ve tried previously that hasn’t worked out, working with you means their business will finally get a different result. If the experience feels this different, they associate you with the outcome having the possibility of being different too.
Your presentation will land ten times better because you’re now speaking to the room you actually have.
After the Meeting
If you can, do an immediate debrief with your sponsor: the “let me walk you to the elevator” moments with clients are oftentimes the most telling, most potent five minutes you get with them. If you’re not seeing them in person (which I do recommend), recreate the “elevator walk” virtually by having it scheduled in advance.
Then follow up three ways:
Send the full group any promised resources, a clear summary within 24 hours.
Send your sponsor and any additional individuals identified to be part of the formal next steps a calendar invite as well.
Reach out 1:1 to anyone who engaged in a meaningful capacity within 48 hours.
Let the execs who weren’t there know how it went and what’s next within 72 hours. Again, for these execs, there’s No homework, No ask.. Just visibility.
Do This More Often Than Not, and Watch Your Deals Thrive
Is this more work than you are used to? Yes, this is more work.
Will it be worth it? Yes, it’s worth it.
Do you need to do all of these steps every single time? You should. But the reality of a sales persons life and calendar is that sometimes even with the best intentions there’s simply not enough time in the day. So… Here's what I’ll say, aim to do as many of these tactics as you can, more often than not.
If you’ve done proper territory planning, you already know which accounts are your biggest priority ones, meant to pay your bills. Try to get an A+ on those. Give yourself some grace on the other ones if you need to.
Happy selling.
