Running pilots or trials? Here are 5 rules for successful startup pilot programs.
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Pilots, proof of concepts, and trials are a great way to gain adoption with early customers. In planning for this, founders may be asking themselves questions like How to set up a pilot startup program? Should I charge for a pilot project? How to conduct a test pilot? While startup trials are distinct from startup pilots, many founders make similar mistakes when giving customers a test drive of their product. This could come in many forms including setting up poor startup pilot study design, failing to include the right KPIs in the startup pilot agreement, or not giving their startup pilot program strong enough legs to stand on. Since pilot customers are not yet converted contractual customers, elements like these matter significantly. In this Dreamit Dose, Managing Partner Steve Barsh offers 5 key steps to a successful startup pilot for enterprise customers. We’ll highlight startup lessons around running a pilot program, startup pilot pricing, startup sales - how to get pilot customers to pay, and a pilot plan example to guide your strategy. That’s how to run a successful startup pilot in a short 5-minute Dreamit Dose!

0:00 - Intro
0:35 - Terms | Trials, POC, Pilot
1:39 - Clear Success Criteria
2:12 - Quantitative Not Qualitative KPIs
2:49 - Define Your “Love Metric”
2:58 - Define a Clear Time Frame
3:20 - Reducing Pilot Friction
4:25 - Pilot Pricing and Conversion
6:22 - Takeaways
7:15 - Outro