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Live, recorded, or interactive: which demo when?
The three demo formats across a sales cycle — what each does that the others cannot, and the sequence most teams settle on.
4 min read · Updated August 23, 2026 · By Tellane team
The short answer. Interactive before the meeting (to qualify and let the buyer explore), live during it (to answer the questions only a person can), and interactive again after it (a leave-behind the champion can share). Recorded video fits where someone wants a summary rather than an experience — executives, support, social.
What only a live demo does
Answers the buyer's actual question. Adapts the route to what they said in discovery. Reads the room. It does not scale past the number of calls a team can run, and it is wasted on buyers who have not yet decided the product is worth an hour.
What only an interactive demo does
Lets the buyer experience the product before a call, alone, at their pace — and records where they stopped, what they clicked, and, with a form, who they are. It cannot answer a question it was not built for.
What a recorded video does
Explains. A two-minute overview for someone who wants the gist, a walkthrough for support, a clip for social. It is watched, not driven, and measured only in plays and watch time.
The sequence
- Website: interactive demo, open, six to ten stops.
- Outbound: interactive demo on a personalized link.
- Meeting: live demo, shaped by what the interactive drive showed they looked at.
- After: interactive leave-behind of the screens discussed, personalized, for the champion to share.
- Anywhere a summary is wanted: the recorded video.
Comparing tools?
The buyer's guides
Last stop
Put buyers in the driver's seat.
Your product already knows how to sell itself. Give it a lane.
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