Is a live demo really required?

I believe the final decision to purchase a product quite often happens during a live demonstration. As a result I have spent a lot of time an energy learning products and developing demonstration techniques. I have done thousands of demos and trained many sales people on demonstration technique. Over the years I have seen some very successful sales people sell equipment without doing demonstrations. And I have seen new sales people try to emulate these successful sales people and fail. What I discovered is that the successful sales people used to do live demonstrations...and after many years of success...have refined their craft to the point where they can tell such compelling stories...that they can cut out the step of doing a physical demo. In other words...they have put in the work of doing live demos (many times) and they have "paid the price". The problem occurs when a new sales person sees that the successful sales person does not do physical demonstrations...so they try to get away without doing them. Quite often they do not end up with good sales results. The reason is that the new sales person has not paid the price...they have not done so many physical demos that they can cut that step out of their process...and win business. They can not tell stories and make the prospect understand the benefits of the product just with words. So my advice to new sales people...is not to try to emulate this part of the successful sales person's process...but instead...put the time in to become proficient and demonstrating the product you sell. Excellent Selling!