Gated Demo
A gated demo sits behind a form or a sales call: the prospect gives their name, email and company, and only then gets to see the product. An ungated demo is available straight away, as a video, an interactive demo or an AI-led demo, with no details asked first.
Gated demo: a product demo that requires the prospect to submit contact details or book a meeting before they can see it. Ungated demo: one they can see immediately.
Why teams gate demos
The gate turns interest into a lead. It gives sales a name to follow up with, lets marketing count the lead, and lets sales qualify the prospect before spending a rep's time on a live demo.
What the gate costs
Many buyers want to evaluate on their own first. In Gartner's survey of 646 B2B buyers in 2025, 67% said they prefer a rep-free buying experience. (Gartner, March 2026) A gate also adds waiting: when Chili Piper requested demos from the 100 largest SaaS companies, they took 2 days on average to reply, and 35% never did. (Chili Piper, May 2023)
Where to put the gate
Many teams run both kinds of demo, so the real choice is where the gate goes:
- Before any demo. The classic demo request form.
- Partway through. The prospect starts an ungated demo and is asked for details to continue or go deeper. Interactive demo tools usually let you add a lead form inside the tour.
- Inside the conversation. An AI demo agent shows the product first, asks qualifying questions as it goes, and offers a meeting once the prospect has seen enough.
FAQ
Should I gate my product demo? It depends on what each demo costs you. A live demo with a sales engineer is expensive, so teams gate it. A recorded, interactive or AI-led demo costs little per viewer, so gating it mostly loses the visitors who wanted to look before talking to anyone.
What is an ungated demo? A product demo anyone can see without filling in a form: a recorded video, an interactive demo or a demo run by an AI demo agent.
Can an ungated demo still capture leads? Yes. Interactive demos can ask for an email partway through, and an AI demo agent can ask for contact details and qualifying answers during the conversation, once the prospect has a reason to share them.