How do Sherwood demos work?

What is the difference between a public demo and a private demo?

Definition: public demo. A live, working sample anyone can try, built for a fictional business in a focus industry. It answers: "Can Sherwood build something impressive and relevant to a business like mine?"

Definition: private demo. A sample built after discovery around one prospect's goals, industry and problem. It answers: "What could this do for my business?"

A public demo is a taste, not the whole meal. It is deliberately focused, so it never replaces a real conversation about your business.

Which demos can you try right now?

1. Live industry demos on the Sherwood home page. Each runs a working assistant for a fictional sample business in Real Estate, Automotive or Health and Wellness. You can chat with it or talk to it.
2. The Architect at sherwoodsoftware.ai/architect. Pick a goal, add capabilities and watch a system take shape. "Preview your website" shows a sketch. "See it live" builds a working sample website in a private copy just for you. Nothing is sent to anyone from it, and it is deleted after 24 hours.
3. Sherwood's own assistant on sherwoodsoftware.ai, which answers questions and can book a consultation. It is the clearest proof that Sherwood runs what it sells.
4. The Repertoire live demo, covered in Lesson 5.
5. A free SEO audit, by request at sherwoodsoftware.ai/free-seo-audit. Sherwood reviews your site and walks you through what is helping and what is holding it back, with no cost and no obligation.

What rules does every Sherwood demo follow?

• Samples are samples. Every demo business is fictional, and a sample is never presented as your real site or as a client's system.
• No invented facts. Demos do not make up business facts, prices, availability or market figures for real businesses.
• No real brands. Samples do not use real brand names or product images.
• Real estate: facts only. A demo assistant that describes a street or home as quiet, safe or similar would be stopped and corrected. Every line should be checkable.
• Demonstrations are not deployments. A salesperson never says "this is running for a client".
• In progress means in progress. If a capability is not yet ready for real businesses, it is described as in progress, never shown as finished.

What happens in a private demo?

After discovery, the salesperson builds a sample around what they learned: your industry, your goal, your colors and the capabilities that answer your problem. They walk you through it in the order your customer experiences it: someone finds you, asks a question, gets answered, gets booked, gets followed up. Each step is tied back to the problem in your own words.

Common mistakes

Demoing everything. Ten capabilities blur together. Three that match the problem land.

Explaining before showing. Send the demo, then talk.

Letting a prospect think the sample is theirs. Say "sample" out loud.

Showing an unfinished feature as finished. One broken promise costs more than one lost demo.

Worked example

A dealership general manager says after-hours website questions about inventory sit until morning.

1. The salesperson sends the automotive demo link: "Ask it about a vehicle or a test drive, the way a shopper would at 9 PM."
2. He tries it and asks whether it could know his own inventory.
3. They open the Architect together, choose the dealership industry, add the assistant, lead capture, follow-ups and a pipeline, then press "See it live". The salesperson says it is a sample with sample vehicles and sample prices, deleted after 24 hours.
4. They book a consultation to scope how his real inventory and process would connect.

No promise of more test drives. Just a clear view of what the system does.

Checklist

• The demo matches this prospect's problem.
• I said "sample", and explained that nothing is sent and the sample is deleted.
• I showed only what is ready, and labeled anything in progress.
• No real brands and no subjective real estate claims.
• The demo ended with a clear, optional next step.

Try it

Open one of the live demos on sherwoodsoftware.ai and ask it three questions your own customers ask. Then build a sample in the Architect for your business type with only two or three capabilities. Notice what you understood from trying it that a description would not have told you.

Tips

• Test every demo link the morning you use it.
• Let the prospect type or talk to the assistant themselves; trying beats watching.
• Keep an Architect build focused on two or three capabilities.
• After a demo, ask one open question instead of pitching.

Sources

1. Sherwood live industry demos: https://sherwoodsoftware.ai/#demos
2. Sherwood Architect: https://sherwoodsoftware.ai/architect
3. Free SEO audit: https://sherwoodsoftware.ai/free-seo-audit