Derek Smith
At Plug In Ventures, many of our founders are in the critical phase of securing customer pilots to validate their market positioning and drive their businesses forward. If you’re planning a pilot or refining past efforts, here are some key points to consider. Pilots should lead to repeat business—if they don’t, something went wrong. It could be due to overpromising, misaligned expectations, a failure to deliver on your value proposition, or an unclear scope of work. Address these issues before you even start pitching the pilot.
Working with big or medium-sized companies on pilots is challenging. Success demands patience, diligence, and a well-defined sales process. Before you begin prospecting, ensure you have a clear and organized approach. This includes a capabilities deck that clearly outlines your value proposition, a simple and transparent pricing structure, a detailed scope of work, and a meticulous onboarding process.
It’s also crucial to establish ownership of the customer relationship and have a solid plan to see the pilot through to completion. In the early stages, this responsibility often falls on the founder, but as your company grows, a sales lead or junior manager typically takes over. This process is make-or-break for securing repeat business, and without these critical elements in place, successfully executing a pilot will be challenging.
I’m a big believer in having these elements in place, especially if you haven’t secured significant capital yet and are focusing on customer acquisition and sales. Sometimes, you have to operationalize these items in real time while moving the business forward. However, investing time upfront in developing repeatable processes will save you headaches and pave the way for your customers to become advocates who can sell on your behalf. Without these processes, even your most supportive customers will struggle to convince their internal stakeholders to get behind you.
How do you set up your test pilots? What successes have you had, or what learnings have you come across in the process?