That time a demo went sideways because our landing page crashed

I used to think pre-recorded demos were a cop out, but last month changed my mind. We were showing our phishing simulation tool to a prospect in Columbus, right in their conference room with five decision makers. The page froze for a full 30 seconds during the live part, and the IT director goes 'so that's your uptime guarantee?' I wanted to crawl under the table. After that mess, I spent a weekend rebuilding the demo environment in a sandbox that runs local only, no external calls. Now I pre-record the heavy lifting and keep the live part to just Q&A. Has anyone else had a live demo backfire because of internet lag or server hiccups?

3 comments

3 Comments

jake9861mo ago

Haven't you ever had a prospect actually appreciate seeing the real thing, warts and all? I get that the crash was brutal, but that IT director was probably testing you more than your software. I used to work at a company where we'd intentionally leave small bugs in live demos to show how fast we could fix them, and it actually closed deals because they saw how we handled pressure.

jordanblack1mo ago

That thing @jake986 said about keeping small bugs in demos is actually smart if you think about it. I've seen that work too where prospects like seeing you handle a problem instead of pretending everything is perfect. But the key difference is you have to control the situation, not let the internet or server decide when things break. My issue was that the crash made me look like I hadn't tested anything, not that I was showing off quick fixes. Now I run everything locally and record the complex parts, so if something goes wrong I can just say "let me show you the recorded version" and it looks intentional.

tylerj221mo ago

Recording the complex parts is basically admitting you don't trust your own product enough to show it live. I'd rather see it break and see how you recover than watch a polished playlist.