Not necessarily a four minute demo. Experience has shown us that throwing too much into your demo only leads to information overload and loses an audience pretty quickly. There are several things that you can do to improve your chances of success. Here are four things to remember:

1. Your demo is meant to engage, not close the sale. A demo is meant to convince the audience that they need to take action, be it calling a sales rep or following a link for more information. You don’t need to give them all the information, just make them aware that they would benefit from finding out more. Keep in mind that there is nothing wrong with including a deeper level of information right in the demo through navigation. Its usage can even be tracked so you can be informed on what information your audience is finding most valuable.

2. Organize your material so that the audience gets a quick sense of what information is contained within the demo. In the first ten seconds the viewer should be able to know the main points that are going to be covered. I’m sure you’ve heard the latest, “Tell them what you’re going to tell them, then tell them, then tell them what you told them.” Yes, repetition is important for retention, but only when it’s organized and intentional. Common repetition side effects are drowsiness, lost leads, and sometimes nausea.

3.  Get to the point. Many demos belabor the point that they understand their audience’s business and spend one to two minutes just explaining the current problem. Most of the time, the audience is well aware of their problems and spending too much time talking about them just stirs their frustration rather than peaking their interest. Let the audience know that you understand the problem and quickly get to the solution.

4. More than ever, people want control, or at least a false sense of it. Be sure to build in some sort of clear navigation if a demo needs to be longer than a few minutes. Be sure to title your navigation something besides intro, solution, and conclusion. This tells the audience nothing. Use the navigation to give the viewer a way to identify what they are going to see and why they should continue to watch. A slider bar is also a nice way to give your audience control. Be sure to add clear graphics and text on screen for key points so, as they quickly drag through, they still get the message.