Prep a pre-demo company research brief that shapes the demo itself
Builds a research brief specifically shaped for an upcoming demo: the company in one breath, current signals, the lens they'll likely evaluate through, which capabilities to lead with and which to deliberately skip, industry-language framing per capability, and the hard questions to prep. It turns research into demo decisions instead of trivia.
You are a demo strategist who has watched a thousand demos die the same death: the rep shows the product they love instead of the product the room needs. Your briefs exist to prevent that. Research the company I'm demoing to (browse if possible; I'll also paste what I know) and produce a demo-shaping brief: 1. BUSINESS IN ONE BREATH — what they do, who pays them, how they win, in 3 lines. If I can't say this fluently in the demo, I've lost the room. 2. WHAT'S MOVING — 2 to 3 current signals (news, hires, launches, strategy shifts) that hint at priorities this quarter, dated. 3. LIKELY EVALUATION LENS — given their size, stage, and who's attending: what they'll judge us on (speed to value? security? admin burden? price?), ranked, with reasoning. 4. DEMO MAP — which 3 capabilities of mine to lead with and which to skip entirely, each tied to a reason from sections 2 or 3. Skipping is mandatory: name at least 2 things NOT to show. 5. STORY SWAP — for each capability I'm leading with, how to frame it in their world: their industry's language, a scenario using their customer type, not generic demo data. 6. LANDMINES — questions likely to come up that I should prep for, including the uncomfortable ones (missing integrations, a competitor they may love). Rules: no feature tours, no 'show everything just in case,' every DEMO MAP choice needs a because, and inferred priorities get labeled as inferred. Before you research, interview me. Ask me these questions ONE AT A TIME, waiting for my answer each time: 1. What company is the demo for, and who's attending (names/titles if known)? 2. What does your product do, and what are the 5-6 capabilities you could possibly show? 3. What happened in discovery — what pains or goals did they state? 4. How long is the demo, and is this first look or late-stage validation? Once you have my answers, build the brief.
How to use it
- 1
Copy the prompt into Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini — browsing enabled makes WHAT'S MOVING current.
- 2
List all your showable capabilities in question 2 honestly; the value is in what the brief tells you to cut.
- 3
Paste real discovery notes in question 3 — stated pains outrank inferred ones and the brief weighs them accordingly.
- 4
Rebuild your demo flow around the DEMO MAP: lead with capability one inside the first five minutes.
- 5
Rehearse answers to the LANDMINES section out loud, especially the uncomfortable ones.
Best practices
The skip list is the whole point — demos improve more by removing features than adding context. Honor at least one 'do not show.'
Use STORY SWAP literally: rename your demo data to their industry's nouns (their customer types, their deal sizes) before the call.
If attendees span functions, ask a follow-up: 'split the evaluation lens by attendee' — the CFO and the end user are watching different demos.
Run it again before second demos with the new attendee list; late-stage rooms evaluate on risk, not excitement.
Example: what this looks like in practice
An AE at a field-service software company has a 45-minute demo with a 150-person HVAC contractor: the owner, the ops manager, and a dispatcher attending. The brief reads the evaluation lens as 'dispatcher adoption first, owner ROI second, integrations a distant third' and maps a demo leading with the drag-and-drop scheduling board using HVAC job types, skipping the API tour and custom reporting entirely. LANDMINES flags QuickBooks sync — their current tool just broke it. The AE opens with the schedule board in minute four; the dispatcher takes over driving it. The owner's only question is price.
Best fit
This prompt is one gear in a bigger machine. We orchestrate 20+ tools into outbound systems our clients own — and guarantee the results.
Apply for a Pilot Spot → →Frequently asked questions
Research toward decisions, not facts. The three questions that shape a demo: what's moving at the company right now, what lens the attendees will judge through, and which of your capabilities map to both. This prompt structures research around exactly those, and forces the decision most reps skip — what NOT to show.
More account & prospect research prompts
Build a 10-minute company deep-dive brief before you touch an account
Produces a one-page, source-backed account brief with a fixed six-section structure: snapshot, revenue logic, recent momentum, evidence-based pressures, two outreach angles, and landmines to avoid. It compresses the hour of tab-hopping most reps do before a tier-one account into ten minutes, and forces every claim to carry a source.
Scan an account for trigger events: news, funding, leadership moves, layoffs
Runs a structured six-month trigger-event sweep on one account — funding, leadership changes, layoffs, launches, expansion, legal news — and returns a dated, sourced signal log, the top three events ranked by outreach value, a ready-to-adapt angle for the best one, and an honest timing call including 'no trigger exists.' It turns 'why now' from a guess into evidence.
Audit a prospect list for quality before a single email goes out
Audits a prospect list before launch: completeness and duplicates, out-of-ICP rows, stale-data risks, deliverability hazards like role-based emails and sequence collisions, and an honest A-F grade with a prioritized fix list. It catches the problems that get misdiagnosed as 'copy issues' three weeks and one burned domain later.