DungeonsNDemos

Rolling 20's all day

Acclaimed Answer

How many proof of concepts do you juggle at a time?

It's been a busy February for me, and March looks to be about the same in terms of projects and pipeline.

I'm currently managing a bunch of proof of concepts, which we run for about a month in order to prove our value prop against what the prospect is looking for. I'm in the midst of SIX and they are taking over my schedule. It's been damn busy. This is the most I've ever had to juggle.

For other SaaS sellers in here, how many POCs do you run a quarter?

Also I'd love to hear how you balance them with your other daily activities of internal meetings and prospecting.

I find that time blocking, using templates, and mutual action plans are absolutely vital to my success when POCs are part of the cycle.

How many proof of concepts do you run per quarter?

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⏱ Time Management

7

9 comments

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poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

3

☕️

Is a POC required to prove out value, and are they paid or free?
I used to run a POC on EVERY deal when I sold a IaaS platform...and we started charging for them about 6-months into the launch of the POC program. It reduced the number of customers who wanted free consulting and illuminated real deals in the pipe.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

2

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Six is a lot! The upside is, sounds like your solution still has market interest. How many of those do you expect to convert?

In general, in busy times, obviously the tasks/motions that are closest to contributing revenue and converting into deals get the attention. Other tasks may have to necessarily take a back seat or have less priority. More contract discussions for me - less outbounding, for example.

That of course flips when things inevitably slow on the later stage deals, and I'm doing more prospecting/early stage activities.

DungeonsNDemos

Big Shot

2

Rolling 20's all day

For us, if we make it to the proof of concept we convert on 70% of opportunities. It’s a lot of upfront commitment but when we phrase it the right way and they buy in to the process it often works out well.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

1

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

That's really great. It means your POC is working for you. Do you set tangible KPIs and metrics for success when starting with the prospect?

detectivegibbles

Politicker

2

Sales Director

Anything you can delegate to free up time?

DungeonsNDemos

Big Shot

1

Rolling 20's all day

Yep! I have our support team build out the accounts, and our IT dept. always syncs with theirs to ensure everything lines up.
I’d say support making the account is the biggest help.

1nbatopshotfan

Politicker

2

Sales

Totally varies on the quarter, but having a well defined metric to evaluate before POC launch should keep both parties extra time commits limited.

Maximas

Tycoon

1

Senior Sales Executive

It varies, but mostly from 3 to 7 here.

UncleHoho

Good Citizen

0

Account Executive

I have a dumbass question: What exactly does a POC look like in your industry and how is it implemented? This is totally foreign to what I do, is it basically just a demo?

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