I just recently saw an article by Karen Bannan at B2B-Online entitled “Instrument maker invests in 3-D demos“. It is great to see the word getting out regarding the success that companies are having who recognize the investment in online product demos. The article presents some of the typical argument for going this route, such as cost and logistics savings. The important parts are clearly that this company, Malvern Instruments, is
- Reaching many more people than it could ordinarily do so with demo units
- Helping customers understand a sophisticated device in an easy way
- Seeing that prospects/customers are using the online demos to gain confidence in the purchase
- Saving a lot of money.
Regarding the particulars, Malvern Instruments is using a 3-D modeling software from Kaon Interactive, but I don’t believe the results are necessarily special to that software. When I visited Kaon’s web site, they have demos of 3-D renderings of products, but as far as I could tell, little real interaction apart from zoom, pan, and rotate. So much more so, then, the arguments should be for demos in which prospects, customers, and salespeople can really try out the product, in a simulated real environment.
The article barely scratches the surface about what is possible, for example, the enhanced tracking and user behavior monitoring possibilities that can help companies understand how prospects are evaluating their products. Nonetheless, It’s always good to see these kinds of stories because ultimately companies considering going this route want to know there are real results.