Pilots are the life blood of new products and services for SaaS startups. Successful pilots will demonstrate value to the customer, convert them to long-term customers, justify higher prices, and help acquire new business through referrals. 

So what does it take to win pilots? Here are the considerations I have found to be useful in improving probability of success in pilots. After reading this post, read learnings and the story of a pilot customer.

1. What’s the problem being solved? 

New products typically attempt to solve a single problem. Define the problem in a concrete non-fluffy non-jargon language that a customer can identify as a true problem. In the process, the customer may even enlighten you about other sub-problems that you could solve. Here’s some more on defining problems. 

2. Which prospective customers should be prioritized? 

Congratulations if your startup has the good fortune of a sizable list of prospective customers. But you are concerned you cannot do good pilots on all of them. So you grudgingly have to select – a great problem to have, by the way! In short, select based on whether you believe they have the mindset of early adopters as suggested by Crossing the Chasm. 

3. Who ‘decides’ at the customer? 

Ask the customer how decisions get made and who makes them as a good starting point. This is what MBAs call the Decision Making Process. The reason is people make decisions; organizations don’t.

4. What does success mean to the customer? 

Not in the metaphysical sense though that’s important too. Rather in concrete terms of what the customer expects. As noted earlier, people make decisions. And every person has their own financial, organizational, and – yes – personal motivations. So, set up success criteria for the pilot with the customer as a partnership.  

5. What will you communicate and how? 

The worst communication plan is to give a slides-based presentation on the pilot to all the people at your customer in one meeting. Needless to say, but even worse would be to not communicate because others will (mis-)communicate for you. Therefore, having a cadence of communication is key with the finale being converting the pilot to a long-term customer. Yes!

Finally be ready to iterate and learn. Good luck. Tell me about your experience and how I can help. Also read this story and learnings of a pilot customer.