CWN Collaborative Coffee: Selling to Convert
In last week’s CWN Collaborative Coffee, we chatted about tactics for developing B2B/SaaS pilots with our very own, Michele Perras, CWN Board Member and Founder & CEO of LaHave.io.
Here’s what we learned:
A pilot is about testing your product/tech AND testing whether or not you can sell it.
Pilots usually happen when you’ve built an MVP, and if you’re in a B2B or network/marketplace space, you want to take it to market in a controlled manner to learn as much as you can. You’re testing capabilities on a small scale with a lean budget, gathering data and insights to support further development efforts. And finally - you’re creating your first sales cycles with your first customers, learning how they buy and what it takes to sell to and retain them (... in addition to making sure your product works)
There are 5 key tactics that Michele walked us through on how to achieve a successful pilot:
Identify your customer. You have an assumption about who your customer is, but now you need to validate it, through conversations, research, and lots of discovery. Your goal is to understand who your buyers, users, or decision-makers are (if they’re different), and understand what motivates them to make a purchase, how they’ll use your product, what their pains are, and what their metrics of success are. And also! Find out how they do business with startups.
Build your pilot with the goal of customer retention. . You absolutely need to test your technology and user assumptions in a pilot, but also your potential customer’s willingness to purchase. You learn this through identifying your buyer/decision maker as well as your user and continuously meeting with them and gathering their feedback. Keep in mind that it is your willingness to solve their pain points that will get them to pay for your product/service and be your long term ambassadors! And create a pilot duration and structure that will allow you to gather this info - 2 weeks might not be long enough, but 2 months will.
Paid vs. unpaid pilots? If your customer pushes back on pricing - find out why! And if they can’t pay, ask for something in return - testimonials, case studies or other marketing, introductions to other customers. It helps place value in your product and customers will tend to feel like they are investing in your success as opposed to getting a freebie. If your pilots are paid, make sure your pricing is competitive or aligns with your intended pricing model at this stage.
Create a customer advisory board with 8-10 of your potential customers or partners. A CAB should be structured with regular meetings, a set term, and an expectation that you’ll be asking them to provide candid, honest feedback on the product or the go-to-market, and your pilots. Your CAB can help you align your product to what the market needs.
Lastly, set your ‘North Star’ and make sure every activity and plan you carry out aligns to your acquisition and retention strategy!
Are you currently running a pilot? We would love to hear what’s working (or not) for your startup.
You can also view the recording of our chat by submitting your information HERE and the recording will be sent to your email.
