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Find the right pilot
How to choose pilot customers, compelling events, and paid pilots that can convert into purchase orders.
Customer pilots and science projects
A customer pilot proves a prescribed product inside one org before rollout. Design partners and co-builds run longer, trade discount for proof points, and follow a different playbook than this one.
Interest alone won't carry a pilot to a PO. You need someone who will buy if the proof lands, at a price that matches your ACV goal.
What a good candidate has
A good pilot candidate has a compelling event, a path to budget, and a champion who can open the buying committee. If you hear soft interest with no date and no economic buyer, put the account in nurture and keep the pilot slot open.
Use the pages below to pressure-test customers, events, pricing thresholds, and the case against free pilots.
In this phase
- Good pilot customersTraits of customers who can convert a paid pilot into a purchase order.
- Design partner vs customer pilotDesign partners and customer pilots are different motions with different clocks, prices, and outcomes.
- Compelling eventsFind the real deadlines that force a pilot to start and finish on specific dates.
- Free pilots do not convertUnpaid pilots get less attention and seldom 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 that convert). 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.