How do you send a working demo instead of a pitch deck?
Swap the slides for the real thing: trim a demo to what matters, write a short tour, send one link per person and follow up on what they did.
On this page
- A deck and a demo, side by side
- Why send a demo instead of a deck?
- What should the demo include?
- How do you write the tour?
- How do you send it?
- How do you follow up?
- What should you measure?
- Questions people ask
- Do I need an engineer?
- What if they want the deck too?
- Will it work on their phone?
- Can one prospect break it for the others?
- What if the demo changes after I send it?
- Sources
- About the author
- Related guides
By Kaz Kato · Published 12 October 2026 · Updated 12 October 2026
Put the working thing where the deck would go. Trim a demo down to the screens that make your case, on mock data. Write a short guided tour of three to six steps, give each person their own link, and send it with one line saying what to try. Then follow up on what each person looked at.
This guide covers why a demo beats a deck, what to put in it, how to write the tour, how to send it and how to follow up. It ends with what to measure, so you can tell whether the switch worked for you. The examples use Roomi, which the product page shows working.
A deck and a demo, side by side
| A deck as an attachment | A deck on a tracked link | A demo in a Roomi room | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What the prospect does | Reads your claims | Reads your claims | Tries the thing for themselves |
| What you learn | Nothing, unless they reply | Who opened it, and the time on each page | Who opened it, the time on each screen, how far they got and what they said |
| If they forward it | You never know | Varies by tool | The next person is asked who they are |
| When it goes out of date | You send a new file | You upload a new version | You deploy again, and every link has it |
| What happens next | They email you | They email you | They answer in the room, or book a meeting |
DocSend lists each visit to a document with the time spent on each page and how much of it was viewed. It names the visitor only when the link requires an email to view. DocSend can track a link to an outside web page on its Standard plan and above, not on a trial. For such a link it records only the visitor’s device and operating system, their location and the time of the visit. So a document tracker can link to a live demo, but it cannot see inside it.
Why send a demo instead of a deck?
A deck tells a prospect what your product does. A demo lets them find out, on their own time, with nobody talking over them. They believe what they found themselves. And because they click through it, you learn which part landed, which you never learn from a deck that was only opened.
A deck is still right for some things: the numbers, the terms, the legal detail. Those can sit beside the demo in the same room, as a page or a PDF, so nobody has to choose. How to pitch an idea to a client shows where each fits in one pitch.
What should the demo include?
Include only the two or three moments that win this client: the screen that solves their problem, the result they care about and what it costs them. Fill it with mock data shaped like their world, so they recognise it. Leave out everything else. A demo that does less, clearly, is easier to say yes to.
- The moments that matter to them. Not every feature: the ones this client will pay for.
- Mock data that looks like theirs. Their kind of customer, their kind of numbers, all invented. Every room tells viewers the demo runs on mock data.
- A page for the context. A short briefing under Read more says why it matters and what it costs. Pages covers what a page can hold.
- The deck, if they want it. Add it as a PDF in the room, where it opens in the room’s own reader.
How do you write the tour?
Write three to six steps, one idea each, in the order you would pitch it out loud. Each step opens the right screen, says in a sentence or two what to notice, and rings the part that matters. The tour is how the demo pitches itself when you are not in the room.
- Start where the client’s problem starts, not on your home screen.
- Give each step a title of a few words, and one or two sentences on what to notice.
- End on the moment that should make them reply.
- Let Claude draft it, then rewrite it in your own words.
A viewer can leave the tour at any point and explore, and pick it up again from any step. Writing the tour has the rules. The demo tour script template gives you one to fill in.
How do you send it?
Make one link per person, named for them, with an expiry if you want one. Send it yourself with one line saying what to try and how long it takes. Roomi sends nothing for you. If they pass it on, the room asks the next person who they are, so you see the buying group.
- Make a link for each person: in the app’s Links tab, with
roomi link, or by asking Claude. - Write one line, not a covering essay: “Here is the new ordering flow, live. The tour takes five minutes; try placing an order.”
- Send it the way you usually reach them.
Say in your message that the room shows you what they look at: Roomi’s terms ask you to tell each viewer that it logs what they do there.
Forwarding is expected, and welcome. Whoever opens a forwarded link is asked “Are you Priya Shah?”, and someone who says no gives their name. They then appear under Priya’s link as forwarded.
How do you follow up?
Read what they did before you pick up the phone. Their journey shows each visit, the screens they spent time on, how far through the tour they got and what they said. Then call about the part that held them. Roomi names who to call first, with the evidence, so you start with the warmest.
| What they did | What to do |
|---|---|
| Not opened after a few days | A short, friendly nudge |
| Came back to pricing, or brought someone in | Call, today |
| Booked a meeting | Prepare for the screens they spent time on |
| Said “Get back to me” | Set a follow-up date on their card |
| Said “Not for me”, with a reason | Thank them, and learn from the reason |
Book a meeting either books a time in the room from the weekly hours you set, or opens your own booking page. Your own Claude can draft a follow-up to one person from exactly what they did, through the connector. Ask it “draft a follow-up to Priya from what she did”. Nothing is sent until you send it. Brand and next steps covers the answers a room offers. How to follow up after a demo says what to send for each thing a viewer did.
What should you measure?
Measure what the room counts, and compare it with your last round of decks, if you kept track. Four figures tell you whether the switch is working. How many links were opened, and how many people reached the end of the tour. How soon they opened it, and the meetings per link sent.
- Opened. The share of links opened at all. The project’s Overview shows how many you shared it with and how many opened it.
- Reached the end. How many finished the tour, and where the rest stopped, step by step.
- Time to first open. How long after you sent it each person first looked.
- Meetings per link sent. How many “Book a meeting” and “Yes” answers came back, against how many links went out.
Nobody can promise you a figure before you try it, and we will not. Run one round, read the numbers, and keep what works. Analytics and the pipeline has every measure, and tech sales shows the same loop in a sales team.
Questions people ask
Do I need an engineer?
No, not for a demo that runs in the browser. If you built it with Claude, say “deploy it to roomi” in the same chat. Claude writes the files and the tour, rehearses, and publishes only on your yes.
What if they want the deck too?
Put it in the room. A PDF opens in the room’s own reader, a page at a time, beside the demo, and you see which pages were read. Or link your proposal from the room’s “Yes — send the proposal” answer.
Will it work on their phone?
Yes. The room fits a phone, and “On your phone” shows a QR code that opens the same demo on a phone, as the same person. What they do on one screen shows on the other.
Can one prospect break it for the others?
No. A demo with a server gives each link a fresh copy of its own, and a demo without one runs in each viewer’s own browser. Nothing one person does reaches anyone else.
What if the demo changes after I send it?
Deploy again. The new version goes live, and everyone opening a link gets it on their next page load. Nobody’s link changes, so you never have to send a second one.
Sources
DocSend: help.dropbox.com/share/dropbox-docsend-documents-activity-tab, checked 12 October 2026
DocSend: help.dropbox.com/share/dropbox-docsend-share-external-url-links, checked 12 October 2026
About the author
Kaz Kato, Co-founder & CTO, Roomi. Kaz co-founded Roomi with Tesh, whom he has built with since 2017: two startups that failed, one venture studio that didn’t, and an exit.