Appearance
Alakris — Demo Playbook 2026
| Version | v1.0 |
| Date | 2026-07-12 |
| Status | APPROVED — published 2026-07-12 |
| Contract | MKT-030-5 (PARENT: MKT-030) |
| References | AI Employee Catalog (ai-employee-catalog-2026.md, MKT-030-1), Pricing Book (pricing-book-2026.md, MKT-030-3), Sales Playbook (sales-playbook-2026.md, MKT-030-4) |
Demo principle: problem-agitate-solve
The demo starts with stating the client's pain out loud ("here is what I heard on the last call — here is what is a priority for you"), not with a product tour. Only what solves the top-priority pain is shown — not a full walkthrough of all modules. Every screen shown must be tied back to the pain named on the discovery call (Sales Playbook, section 2).
Common mistakes to avoid at every stage:
- Feature dump without tying it to the client's pain;
- Demo with no anchor to discovery (as if the first conversation never happened);
- No explicit CTA at the end (the most common failure in SMB-oriented SaaS teams);
- Moving to price before value is clear to the client.
Stage 1 — Introduction
- Goal: Build rapport, confirm the call agenda, align expectations for the demo (how long it will take, what we will show, what the client wants to see first).
- What to show: Nothing in the product yet — only your face/voice, and if necessary a short agenda slide.
- What to say (sample phrases):
"Thanks for making the time. We have 30 minutes — I want to use them to show exactly what solves [pain named on the last call], not the whole product. Agreed?" "Before we start — what would be the most valuable confirmation for you today that we are the right fit?"
- What to avoid: A long self-introduction about the company and the history of Alakris; generic "about us" slides longer than 1 minute — the client came for a solution to their pain, not a company pitch.
Stage 2 — Problem discovery (discovery-in-demo)
- Goal: Re-confirm the pain and priority recorded on the first call — if time has passed between discovery and demo, the client's priorities may have changed.
- What to show: Nothing in the product — this is a conversational stage.
- What to say (sample phrases):
"On the last call you said that [specific pain from the CRM card, MEDDPICC Pain/Impact]. Is this still the top priority, or has something changed?" "If we could solve only one thing today — what would it be?"
- What to avoid: Skipping this stage assuming the discovery call already figured everything out — priorities change, and a demo built on an outdated pain looks irrelevant.
Stage 3 — Platform demo (tailored demo)
- Goal: Show the platform itself (Merchant Admin, AI employee management screen) through the lens of the client's specific pain, not as a generic tour.
- What to show: Only relevant screens. For example, if the pain is "we lose night requests," show Alex's chat widget in action + the captured lead card in Marina's CRM, not the entire Merchant Admin.
- What to say (sample phrases):
"Look — this is what a conversation with a website visitor looks like at 3 a.m. The answer comes in seconds, not in the morning when the manager gets to work." "And this same request automatically enters the funnel — it does not need to be manually transferred from chat to CRM."
- What to avoid: Showing functionality unrelated to the named pain "just to show everything the platform can do" — this is a feature dump that blurs the demo's focus.
Stage 4 — Showing the result
- Goal: Convert the shown functionality into a measurable result the client can calculate for their own business.
- What to show: The analytics dashboard (Sofia, AI analyst) — metrics of captured requests, first-response time, conversion.
- What to say (sample phrases):
"Here is Sofia's dashboard — you can see how many requests would have been missed without the AI consultant, and how many were actually caught." "You currently have [figure from discovery, Impact block] inquiries per month going unanswered in time — here is what it looks like when an agent catches them."
- What to avoid: Abstract phrases like "the platform improves efficiency" without specific numbers tied to what the client themselves named on the discovery call (Impact section, Sales Playbook).
Stage 5 — Showing AI employees
- Goal: Show specific digital employees relevant to the pain and recommended tier — not abstract "agent functionality."
- What to show: Personas from
ai-employee-catalog-2026.mdrelevant to the client's situation — for example, for e-commerce with abandoned requests: Alex (consultant) + Marina (CRM); for a client with content needs: Katya (content marketer). - What to say (sample phrases):
"This is Alex — he will answer website visitors 24/7. And this is Marina — she manages the entire lead funnel so no warm contact is lost between channels." "On your tier, [N] AI employees are available simultaneously — here are the specific ones who close your current pain."
- What to avoid: Calling agents by technical terms ("chat widget," "CRM endpoint," "module") — the client is hiring an employee with a name and role, not subscribing to an API.
Stage 6 — Case demonstration
- Goal: Provide proof — confirmation that a similar pain has already been solved, ideally with a metric.
- What to show: An approved case study if there is one matching the segment. If there are no published cases for this segment/tier — honestly say so, do not invent numbers.
- What to say (sample phrases), if a case exists:
"A similar situation occurred at a client in [segment, without disclosing confidential details if the case is not anonymized-approved] — after launch [growth metric]."
- What to say if there is no suitable case:
"We do not yet have a published case exactly for your segment — I will be honest about that. But let me show you how the same logic works on demo data, and you can assess the applicability yourself."
- What to avoid: Making up or generalizing metrics from another segment as a "typical result" — if there is no case, this is directly acknowledged (same principle as in the Pricing Book: "In development," not a made-up example).
Stage 7 — Moving to tiers
- Goal: Confirm the tier already determined during qualification (Sales Playbook, decision tree section 3) — the demo does not "guess" the tier again, but confirms it through the value shown.
- What to show: The relevant tier card from the Pricing Book (only the tier that fits the decision tree — not all 4 at once, to avoid paradox of choice).
- What to say (sample phrases):
"Based on what you shared on the first call — [N] channels, [M] processes — this fits the [name] tier. Here is what is included." If the client asks for the price early (edge case, see below): "Roughly this is [range/tier] — but I want to first show exactly what you will get for that price, so the figure does not sound abstract."
- What to avoid: Moving to price BEFORE platform/result/AI employees/case have been shown (stages 3–6) — price without value context is perceived as "expensive" regardless of the actual figure.
Edge case — client asks for the price at the start of the demo
Give an honest guideline (tier range from the decision tree in the Sales Playbook), do not ignore the question or evade the answer, but explicitly state that the full pricing transition (details, what is included) will come at the end of the demo, after showing value:
"Briefly — based on what you described, this is roughly [tier/range]. The exact details of what is included and how the final figure is calculated I will show at the end — so it is concrete, not abstract."
Edge case — demo for multiple stakeholders with different pain priorities
Do not turn the demo into a feature dump to "show everyone something of their own." Rule: in advance (at stage 2, discovery-in-demo), explicitly ask the group whose pain priority is primary for the purchase decision (usually the Economic Buyer), and build the demo around them, briefly touching on the pains of other stakeholders with individual asides ("and this, by the way, also closes what you mentioned" — addressed by name), not separate full demo blocks for each person.
Stage 8 — Closing
- Goal: Lock in an explicit, concrete next step — do not end the demo with "think it over and write back."
- What to show: Nothing new — a summary of what was seen (1 slide/verbally: "today we showed X, Y, Z, which solve your pain A").
- What to say (sample phrases):
"Next — [specific action: I will send a proposal by the end of today / we schedule a call with [Economic Buyer] on [date] / you register via the link right now if this is Lite/Self-Service]. Agreed?"
- What to avoid (mandatory, not optional): Ending the demo without an explicit CTA. Wording like "I will write to you" or "think it over and let me know" is forbidden as the sole outcome of the call; a date/action with owner must always be recorded (see Sales Playbook, next-steps rule).
Document maintained under separate task MKT-030-5. The list of personas to show is taken only from ai-employee-catalog-2026.md (MKT-030-1); new personas are not invented here.