Garin Hess, a technology entrepreneur based in Utah, encountered a “demo bottleneck” while presenting to potential clients at a previous software-as-a-service (SaaS) start-up. He realized that a self-directed interactive demo that is personalized to each stakeholder could streamline the process, save time, and engage with other stakeholders who are often missed.
This led to the creation of Consensus, a platform for interactive video demos that allows engineering teams to build a library of reusable demos that sales teams can access on demand. The platform enables users to create demo videos and send them via email to prospects. The prospects can select what they want to learn about, and Consensus will provide a personalized demo that can be shared with their organization.
Consensus tracks engagement throughout the process and identifies new stakeholders by role and priority. Unlike other video platforms, Consensus personalizes the demo experience based on specific questions asked upfront. It also provides data analytics to help sales teams drive alignment in the buying group.
To differentiate itself from its competitors, Consensus recently launched Tours, which enables salespeople to demonstrate product features via video and then hand it off to prospects to explore the same features through a self-directed click-through experience.
Consensus has attracted customers from 15 of the 30 largest software companies, including Coupa, Oracle, and Autodesk. Its revenue grew by 60% in 2022. The COVID-19 pandemic has helped accelerate the shift from in-person demos to remote demos, opening up minds to the usefulness of demo automation. Consensus is well-positioned to capitalize on this trend as it automates a function that many enterprise software companies have never automated before.
