Think about the last time you had to get up to speed on a new product. How did you learn about it?
A doc? Maybe a Loom? Or if someone was feeling ambitious, a slide deck.
GitLab went a different direction.
Buried in a public GitLab issue titled “Learning GitLab Duo” — which doubles as a training module for their own Support Engineers — Stage 1 hands new reps an interactive walkthrough of GitLab Duo Enterprise.
Jason and I love this because there are a lot of visual learners out there. So we believe that a rep who's CLICKED through a feature answers tickets faster, and more confidently, than one who skimmed the docs.
We spend a lot of time talking about demos as a buyer thing. This is a good reminder that demos can moonlight as new-hire training material.
You land on a demo and immediately hit a signup form. Are you ready to hand over your email yet? (I know I'm not.)
Togal.AI makes you wait for it.
Their self-guided tour spends its first four steps showing off the “Togal Button.” After one click, the AI runs a full construction takeoff, measuring every area, line, and count on a real floor plan.
Step four lands the payoff with a literal “Bingo! Your takeoff is done.” THEN the gate drops… and the finished results are sitting right behind the form, greyed out.
You can see the prize. You just can't read it yet.
This gets the Dash Brothers stamp of approval because:
the ask lands at peak curiosity
showing the locked prize creates FOMO
We saw a different version of this back in Edition #46. Show them something good before you ask for the email, people.
We just talked about WHEN to gate. Here's the other lever nobody touches: how OFTEN.
We’ve seen companies with a handful of demos put a form in front of each one (yikes).
Splunk did something interesting. Their Enterprise Security Premier demos add one form in front of a checklist. Fill it out once and all eight demos open up. Come back a few days later to finish the ones you skipped, without filling out the long form again.
It remembers enough about your last visit, so all you have to do is confirm your email. Keep this in your bag of tricks because:
one email for eight demos is a trade buyers will take… but eight emails for eight demos is a trade nobody takes
you can basically create a demo library that is gated through a checklist
If you’re going to gate your demos, try not to ask more than once.
Everything you need to know about capturing and editing screens in Navattic 👇
Screen captures are the building blocks of your interactive demo. You simply can't have a demo without them!
So we created a 101-level intro on how to create/edit them in Navattic.
If you're new to Navattic or still feel like you've barely scratched the surface with screen capturing and editing, this is a video you won't want to miss.
PLUS, you'll get a sneak peek of their new In-line and Copilot editor, which brings Navattic's capture editing, and new AI editing capabilities, directly into the demo builder.
A live, FREE coaching session to help you build better interactive demos (and make them your top marketing asset.)
In these 45-minute coaching sessions, Eric and Jason answer your questions about demo strategy, distribution, sales enablement, and any other challenges you're facing with interactive demos.
The next session is Wednesday, August 25th at 12PM ET.