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Find the right pilot
How to choose pilot customers, compelling events, and paid pilots that can convert into purchase orders.
Pilot is not a science project
Customer pilots prove a prescribed product inside one org before rollout. Design partners and co-builds are a different motion: longer, discounted for proof points, and not the path this playbook optimizes.
Interest alone is not enough. You need someone who will buy if proof lands — at a price that matches your ACV goal.
What good looks like
A good pilot candidate has a compelling event, a path to budget, and a champion who can open the buying committee. Soft interest without a date or an economic buyer is nurture, not a pilot queue.
Use the child pages below to pressure-test customers, events, pricing thresholds, and why free pilots fail.
In this phase
- Good pilot customersTraits of customers who can convert a paid pilot into a purchase order.
- Design partner vs customer pilotWhy design partners and customer pilots are different motions.
- Compelling eventsHow to extract real deadlines that close pilots.
- Free pilots do not convertWhy unpaid pilots rarely become purchase orders.
- Budget and card thresholdsPrice the pilot under fast-path thresholds, then move to phase two.
Claims and patterns on this page are paraphrased from practitioner session notes and the Startup Bible pilots page. See Sources.
Continue the journey
- Qualify the closeWork backwards from ACV, map the buying committee, and parallel-path security and procurement before the pilot starts.
- Good pilot customersTraits of customers who can convert a paid pilot into a purchase order.
- TemplatesWorking templates for buying committee, success criteria, agreement, kickoff, midpoint, stall diagnostic, and ROI.