Optimizing B2B SaaS Demo Processes: Qualification Steps and Reducing Time Sinks for Small SE Teams

I tracked my demos for a quarter. 15+ per week. Maybe 3 turned into real pipeline. The rest were basic product education that could've been a 5-minute video. I mapped out the full demo flow at a multi-product B2B SaaS company: 9 steps from inbound to close, 8-12 SE hours per opportunity, about 40% conversion. The biggest time sink wasn't the demo itself. It was repeated walkthroughs across different stakeholders who all needed the same context, and PoV setups for deals that never closed. For SE teams of 1-3 people: do you even have a qualification step before the demo hits your calendar, or does every inbound request get a live call? Curious how this plays out at earlier-stage companies vs. the enterprise motion I mapped.