find
Compelling events
How to extract real deadlines that close pilots.
What counts
Acquisition cutovers, system sunsets, safety or compliance mandates, board or fiscal deadlines — these close.
Ask why this has to start then and end then. If there is no answer, you do not yet have a convertible pilot.
How to use it
Put the event and dates in the agreement. When procurement stalls, loop the champion and tie pressure back to the event.
Without an event
You can still run paid diagnostics and nurture, but treat urgency as a qualification gap.
Claims and patterns on this page are paraphrased from practitioner session notes and the Startup Bible pilots page. See Sources.