How to close an Enterprise Pilot.
I closed a pilot with the world’s largest beverage manufacturer ($50B+), soon after I joined. Here is how:
The team had done some initial work for free (testing a use case at a LA brewery.).
They weren’t getting very far and planned to “fire” client.
I came to the next couple of calls listened in, introduced myself and mostly built a little rapport (nothing aggressive).
On the third call, I suggested that our team research a different approach to a stalled POC.
We went about our business for a couple of months.
Later another prospect mentioned a hardware setup that was relevant.
We went back to the brewery, made a recommendation and started trying again.
Our quarter end was coming up. I needed to show results. So I asked our champion here if he was willing to find us some budget and that we would cut him a deal. He agreed.
Later I found out that we were the only player who tried, relentlessly to solve a problem that other vendors didn’t even want to touch.
In their words, “we knew what we were getting into” and we didn’t run away.
Imagine how much lessons, credibility and traction a story of this client did for our overall Go-To-Market.
Caveat: This works only on, as the startup is discovering where the market is.
You still want to be very specific about the bounds of the POC and say no to crazy ideas.