sales, customer-development, pitchI am building and finalizing my startup product. It will be first targeted to local market in my own country. I want to contact potential customers and do a pilot period of 3 weeks with them, to testdrive the product and gather feedback. I’m not sure if I should let them pay for this a small amount yet. “ The real product will be 199 but you have the opportunity to testdrive it for 99 and get a discount afterwards if you become a customer” could work ( opinions on communicating it that way? ).
The idea is to get them “on board” Gathering real feedback from potential customers is gold and gives me an idea if the market is really looking for my product as I believe in. My thought would be to get 3 of them “on board” and deliver them a presentation and product that they can use for 3/4 weeks. At a discounted or free rate. The only thing asking back would be feedback and evaluation of the product and if it meets expectations / solves real word problems for them.
Any thoughts, suggestions regarding getting a pilot off the ground? I would be very interested in founders that have used a pilot approach to land and improve there product and interested in your ideas and thoughts regarding this issue. I’m a small startup and its a 1 man-show so far.
My Idea is also to create a simple few slides presentation in keynote Apple style. This will be to introduce the product, give some facts and figures regarding the market. Then heading over to the browser and give a presentation with some real world data using an account that is setup for this demonstration in advance.
Also would it be wise to let them sign a confidentiality document as part of the pilot or any contract in general?
Kind regards looking forward to all your expert advice!
I think you are getting the cart before the horse. Getting 3 companies to pilot is not as easy as post a web site or send out an email and call to schedule an appointment.
Let them pay? You have no reference accounts and you want them to pilot and you you think they are going to pay? You need to give them like a year free and half price for life.
I don’t think you get how hard it is to market a product.
Are you going to be disclosing confidential information? If so get them to sign a confidentiality document. Why would you need to disclose confidential information to execute a pilot?
I don’t think you get how much goes between finalizing my startup product and going to market. You need a polished product, protect the IP, license agreement, a way to take in money, web site ….
If your potential customers are really having a problem they will endure a pilot program as long as they are informed about it firsthand, I guarantee it. If your potential customers are unaware they are having a problem, educate them. If your potential customers don’t really have a problem then you don’t really have a product. Simple as that.
Sorry, please let me see if I understand what you’re asking.
You get the following:
They get the following:
Now, you might be a nice guy, with very good intentions. However, if some entrepreneur approached me with this proposal, I would laugh at his face, and probably wonder: “Who does he think he is?”
If you want anyone to give you 5 minutes of their time, especially since you have no track record, you’re going to have to have done your homework ahead of time, and be confident that some subset of society needs your product/service. There are many ways to do this before having someone demo your solution: it’s called market research.
When you’re ready to test your product/service, you’re going to have to give it away for free initially, and not a penny more. Regardless of the price, the burden of paying money speaks louder than any potential benefit (at the product’s earliest stage). Give the test subject a free trial period for a month or two. That may not even be enough: test subjects in focus groups, or even those who have to endure Powerpoint/Keynote presentations, expect to be compensated in some way.
In fact, if I was to go back to your original post, I’d say that you have the payment plan backwards: you should be paying those testing your product/service $99 for a month’s time of usage and providing reports/feedback, not the other way around.
Oh, and this goes without saying: if you will be charging $199/period to have people use your product/service, this product/service of yours must be pretty compelling.
daOnlyBG has some very good points in his answer.
First things first, I assume you have a B2B product. Moreover, that is it a B2B Enterprise SaaS product.
The absolute best thing that can happen to a B2B startup with a great concept but no developed product (and that cannot really showcase the technology without a product – and that IS possible!) is to have your client(s) pay for your initial development. That is the sole and absolute proof that your product has real and tangible value, and a good product/market fit.
Having someone knowingly pay you IN ADVANCE, BEFORE your product really exists is the ultimate proof that you really have value in your proposal.
But that is very, really very hard to happen. I have seen only a handful of that events in many years, and all of them had incredible founders involved.
If you need to educate your clients about the value of your product, that doesn’t mean it is a bad product, but it will most likely not be something that they will pay in advance, because the value to them isn’t obvious.
Most likely you will need to get out of the building and knock on your clients’ doors, find a champion in each of them, assuming that you already know your market and that you have a good beach head (accessible, not too big, not too small etc.) selected and ready to be attacked.
Online marketing will most likely take you nowhere. It can work for B2B Enterprise, but rule of thumb you will be better off having a door-to-door selling approach, at least for this pilot phase.
Give them free access for one month, fully deployed, let the early adopters taste it fully and give you valuable feedback. Turn them into development partners, give them special deals, give them free perpetual licenses if you need. Use their names and testimonials as marketing material. Find their competitors, tell them that their competitor is using your product (and not that they are free riders!). Draw their attention. “Close” the vertical, sell to >30% of all players in that industry/market/region. Then replicate the model to the next vertical.
After the first early adopters are on board, test the pricing model. Trial or freemium. Per seat, per access, per transaction, fixed price. It is rarely obvious, and you might pivot a few times among them, and even have different models set for different clients.
And good luck!
All content is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.