A demo is a live walkthrough of your product for a prospect, run after an SDR or BDR books the qualified meeting. It is the account executive's job, not the SDR's — the SDR's role ends at the booking. A good demo isn't a feature tour; it's the product solving the exact problem the prospect described, with the prospect talking more than the presenter. The demo is where a lead starts to feel like a real deal.
In plain English
A demo is show-and-tell, done right. Instead of listing features, you show the product fixing a real problem the buyer has, and you get them to react. If a demo is all features and no problem, it's a lecture, and lectures don't close deals. If it's built around their situation, it moves the deal toward a decision.
Why it matters to you
As an SDR, you won't run the demo — but you should know what you're booking. The qualified meeting you hand off becomes a demo, and the quality of that demo decides whether your booking mattered. It's also your next skill: the move from SDR to AE is partly the move from booking meetings to running demos, handling objections, and closing. Learn what makes a demo work and you're learning your own promotion.
For the discovery work that makes a demo land, see Discovery That Sets Up the Demo.
For AE-level guidance, see How to Run a Sales Demo and demoing to the right audience.
For winning an AE presentation or mock-demo round, see Win the AE Presentation Round.