11 Best Tactics to Improve SaaS B2B Demo Show Rates & Close Rates (2025)

💬 I don't need to go into the key reasons/benefits on why demos are important for some B2B SaaS companies (as good chance if you're reading this, that you already know :) - In this checklist, I will share some cost-effective tactics and strategies that I've seen work well over the years being in the world of SaaS/B2B that marketers, sales teams and founders can apply/think about for their context.

Lots of 'quick wins' and optimisations that you can make which can help with better % performance across both show and close rates. I've also included some examples and software tooling that can help achieve some of the below checkpoints.

Some low-cost optimisations to help improve demo show rates

💬 Here are some tactics I've seen work below that have helped with demo show rates.

Everyone's busy these days, with fluctuating schedules and time changes - so it's paramount to ensure both parties (your team and the prospect) have control and convenience to choose a time that works.

‍Tip: As a tip for sales teams - limit your availabilty no longer than 7 days I've found. The longer time periods between the time when they want to book a demo and when the demo actually happens, greater chance it can increase no shows (this is what I've found from experience).

The good news is that most calendar scheduling tools like Calendly and Cal do this automation work for you.

This is actually a critical element I've found to help with show rates, as well as help with more productive demo meetings.

When you do the confirmation and reminder emails, prompt prospects to share questions up front via replying to the email directly.

This helps ensure sales team members are 'off and running' and well-prepared before the demo.

Plus, it's a great way to show prospects that you're prepared, understand their needs, and can provide quick answers.

Something to consider as part of the meeting reminder emails is to add 1-2 helpful resource links to give prospects further reading prior. Or simply, even just linking to case studies can be effective too (good social proof prior).

An extra step I recommend doing is sending personalised/dynamic email reminders based on the attributes sent through the demo booking form.

For example, if prospect is from X industry, send them a resource link(s) that's relevant to them.

Related to the above points, as part of the email reminders, make sure to highlight key social proof elements, such as 3rd-party reviews/testimonial badges, awards/recognition badges, etc.

A tactic I've done in the past prior to demo calls when a prospect books, is send a LinkedIn connection request saying that you're looking forward to the call with them, and anything else that makes contextual sense to add.

Normally accept rates are high and I've found that it's helped with show rates too.

Now this is more dependent on the amount of bookings you have in an audience bucket, but a potential initiative you can do is setup dynamic remarketing ads for nurturing demo leads as a way to help with show rates, and getting prospects warmed up.

‍Tip: as another thing to consider, you can also setup dynamic audiences for leads who booked and didn't show up - you can run "reach" objective to help serve ads to these audiences to remind them to book again anytime.

‍

Items and areas that you can test to help improve close rates from your demos

💬 To maximise your efforts with improving show rates, it's then all about optimising for close rates - here are some tactical optimisations. tothink about that have worked well for me.

Bit of a no brainer here, but for effective demos that can lead to better engagement, and ultimately more closes, comes down to awesome questions and prep from the get-go.

First impressions certainly do count, and prospects want to feel that you truly understand their needs/problems, and the fact that you can help deliver a solution.

Just implementing a couple of the checklist point tactics above, such as prompting questions prior and adding them on LinkedIn (and checking their profile for content), can go a long way to having an effective and productive demo call.

As part of effective prep, sign up the prospect's platform (if applicable and makes sense), and delve into understanding what their product does, and work out 'why' they're interested and need your product.

Plus, to go that extra step, follow them on socials and make a comment from the start of the meeting that you've done your homework.

Before as well as during the call, as part of the initial preparation, make sure to have 'proof' on hand - whether that be case studies, or a scenario to share, etc - that makes contextual relevance to their business you're having a demo call with.

Even if you don't have case studies available or say something on the website to show, make sure to have a story or something to visually communicate to show that the solution can apply to them too.

‍Thing to remember: Prospects and businesses love to know that others in their industry/vertical are using your solution (or achieving something with a similar solution) - which helps them better picture what's possible.

One of the more critical things to remember when it comes to demos and closing potential customers, is remembering that you're not the only vendor that they're assessing - most likely, anyway.

In many cases, they would be signing up to competitor solutions and also booking calls to find out more info.

So, it's important to be properly prepared and highlight (in a digestible format - ie. visual comparison) information alongside other players in the market.