the pilot engage pilot framework

Increased Revenues, Faster Sales Cycles, Better Results

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By Jonathan Jewett and Lance Knight

Principles, Process Engage

www.processengage.com

In today’s B2B marketplace, selling and buying have changed. More than

ever before, vendors are compelled to demonstrate their value through a

proof-of-concept – or pilot – of their product before prospective customers

will make a big purchase.

This whitepaper explores the best practices, systems and techniques that

have helped us to achieve mastery of the pilot process over a decade

selling complex solutions to corporate customers. We call this system the

Process Engage Pilots framework, and the results it generates have a

measurable and powerful impact on the bottom line:

• Increased revenue • Winning more deals • Winning bigger deals • Improved resource utilization • Better forecast accuracy • Sustained competitive advantage

We hope you find this information to be useful and would welcome the

opportunity for a dialogue.

The Process Engage Pilot Framework: Winning with Certainty

Increase Revenue, Shorten Sales Cycle, Reduce Customer Evaluation Times


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The Rise of the Pilot “It appears that your product does most of what we need, but before we buy it

we’d like to run a pilot...”

Pilots. Evaluations. Proofs-of-concept. Whatever the term, if you are hearing these words more

often from prospects, this whitepaper may be the most important document you read all year.

If you're like most companies selling in today's B2B marketplace, your prospective customers

are requiring hands-on evaluations – or pilots - of your product before they commit to buy. In

the past, pilots were required only for new vendors selling technically complex or very

expensive products and solutions. Today, pilots have become standard procedure for almost

every corporate purchase, and the burden is on you to prove your value before you are

rewarded with a contract.

There are powerful forces converging to perpetuate this growing trend, including more informed

buyers with enhanced access to data, a sluggish global economy, corporate aversion to risk

that demands an ironclad business case before funds are released and a shift in power as

buyers become increasingly assertive in the sales process.

Smart companies have recognized this fundamental shift and the profound impact it will have

on future revenues and market viability. They are examining their own evaluation processes

and taking steps to drive better, more consistent results.

As sales leaders, we saw our results suffer because our teams did not have the skills or training

they needed to run successful pilots. We needed to win more often and with a greater degree of

certainty. What emerged was a process framework that we field-tested and over a decade

selling complex B2B software solutions to corporate customers.

The results we achieved could be measured in millions of dollars in sales revenue, multiple trips

to President’s Club and the confidence to approach pilots with optimism rather than

apprehension. We’re so confident in the framework we developed that we wanted to share it

with others. This whitepaper summarizes many of these key concepts and techniques and we

invite you to contact us to learn more.


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The Proof is in the Results As we began to apply these best practices to our pilot processes, it wasn’t long before we

started to see powerful top-line results:

• Improved pilot win rates. At one of our companies, win rates soared from 50% to 95% in

less than a year.

• Increased sales revenue. We won more often, and we won bigger deals. One year, we

closed twice as many deals and grew deal size by 30%.

• Enhanced ability to control the sales process and dictate the terms of the sale

• Credibility that led to greater confidence and advocacy from the buyer

• Major efficiency improvements in terms of opportunity assessment, reduced cycle times,

better resource utilization and revenue forecasting

It’s important to note that successful pilot execution will always rely on good judgment and

sound business practices. You’re not likely to win if your prices are 3x those of your

competitors. You always need to demonstrate a strong ROI to the buyer. Don’t stick

dogmatically to a process if changing conditions and customer needs require you to pivot. We

highly recommend that you focus on driving outcomes, learn as you go and adapt your

approach as needed to achieve the desired end goal.

The Process Engage Pilot Framework

The Pilot Framework is specifically designed to “stack the deck” in your favor by driving

customer evaluations towards a rapid and successful conclusion. Once perfected, the impact

on your sales process is measurable and powerful: • Rapid assessment of deal viability. What is the potential business at stake? Is it worth

pursuing and how quickly can it close?

• Significant reduction in customer evaluation times. Map the quickest path to

implementation.

• Improvement in resource utilization. Critical for both you and the customer.

• Competitive differentiation. Present a professional and organized image of your

company that is highly valued in potential partners.


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• Increased sales forecast accuracy: Greater confidence in predicting sales and future

revenue.

The Process Engage Pilot Framework will help your sales team run a flawless pilot every time.

We’ll show you how to manage the process from start to finish, define what is most important to

the customer, remove roadblocks that might derail a successful outcome and position yourself

to ask for and win the business.

Although the framework is vast and nuanced, we have distilled it down to 3 critical phases –

Prepare, Prove and Close.

The 3 Steps to Pilot Success

The Preparation phase helps your sales team to assert early control over the process, make

more informed go/no-go decisions, mitigate risk, assign resources and establish a solid

foundation that will maximize your chance of future success. Key concepts include:

CLOSE

PROVE PREPARE

1. PREPARE: Assert Control, Build Strong Foundation, Make ‘Go’ Decision


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• The Evaluation Questionnaire: This simple checklist defines customer viability, sets

evaluation boundaries and identifies potential roadblocks. It helps your team better

manage customer expectations while formalizing the pilot schedule, defining expected

outcomes and outlining your team’s next steps.

• Use Case Prompters steer customers towards your core strengths and away from your

competitor’s. Guided questions help formulate success criteria favorable to your

company that are also aligned with the customer’s proof points.

The Proof phase gives your company the chance to shine by running a precise process that

proceeds in an orderly manner towards meeting the customer’s goals, demonstrating their proof

points and positioning you to win the business. The goal is better execution.

• The Evaluation Charter becomes your roadmap through the evaluation process. It

outlines the roles and responsibilities for each team member and defines the actions,

expected outcomes and overall sales timeline in a clear, concise manner.

• The Customer Playbook combines recognized best practices with innovative new

sales techniques that will help your company to differentiate, execute and win.

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The Close Phase positions you to complete the pilot, close the business and build upon the

strong foundation you have established to drive future sales and revenues.

• Advocate Selling nurtures customer contacts into active advocates who will present a

powerful case for the sale to executives.

• Close Meetings secure your support among key players, give you the right to ask for

the business and help the relationship evolve to the next level.

2. PROVE: Run a Better Process, Prove Customer’s Success Criteria

3. CLOSE: Position Yourself to Win the Business


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Phase 1: Preparation When envisioning the Prepare phase, think of the foundation of a building. If that foundation is

weak or poorly structured, then the building will surely fall. It’s no different when pursuing large

contracts and enterprise sales. Building a strong foundation will enable you to run a stronger

process and better position you to win the business.

Before you even agree to run a pilot, there are important questions you need to answer:

• Are the right conditions in place to run a successful evaluation?

• Will you have access to the right personnel, business units and key decision makers?

• Are there clear and achievable business goals?

• Is there a plan to purchase upon a successful conclusion?

One of the reasons we have been able to increase win rates so dramatically is that we

sometimes said No. Simply put, some sales cycles just should not be pursued. It’s in your best

interests to make this determination upfront. Our strategy helps your sales team avoid these

no-win situations by reading early warning signs that point to futile pursuits and focus your time

and resources on sales that you can win.

Evaluation Questionnaire

The Evaluation Questionnaire (EQ) helps you to answer important customer questions upfront

and lays the foundation for the Evaluation Charter, which becomes the execution roadmap for

your engagement. The EQ is immediately sent to the customer the moment that they request a

pilot with an explanation that it is a mandatory step in the process. Key data points of the EQ

include:

• Stakeholders/Decision Makers: Each of the stakeholders within the pilot are identified,

including the roles they play in the evaluation, making decisions and authorizing budget.

• Schedule/Timeline: The expected timeline for the evaluation, including end date,

checkpoints, close meetings and other important events.

• Use cases: Customer use cases that will be proven during the evaluation.


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• Business Goals/Success Criteria: A list of what the prospective customer wants to

achieve through the evaluation and eventual implementation of your company’s product.

• Action Items/Responsibilities: A list of specific actionable items required to complete the

evaluation and the people or teams responsible for accomplishing them.

• Next Steps: This defines how you and the customer will proceed together once the

business goals and success criteria have been proven.

• Risks/Unknowns: An internal accounting of potential risks that need to be addressed

with the customer before agreeing to proceed.

• Financial: Will the buyer have “skin in the game”, or is it easy for them to walk? What

are your internal costs to pursue and win this business?

Use Case Prompters

If you have ever been lucky enough to help a prospect write their request for proposal (RFP),

then you have seen the power of use case prompters. Through a series of carefully crafted

questions, you guide the customer’s thought process in a way that benefits your company,

shapes the success criteria and gives you an early and distinctive advantage.

Questions are specifically designed to highlight your strengths and downplay the competition’s

perceived strengths. By guiding the customer to value the things that you do well, you are co-

creating the success criteria that you must prove to win the business and creating a playing

field that favors your company.

Customer Testimonial – One prospect was so impressed with our organized

approach to the pilot, they just figured we had our act together and awarded us the

business. We didn’t even run the pilot. Following this framework gave us an unfair

advantage from the start as we were able to project an image of professionalism and

organization that every company is looking for in a prospective partner.


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Phase 2: Prove Here’s a little secret – most companies have no idea how to run a product evaluation. They do

it because procurement or management tells them that they have to. By stepping in, asserting

control and guiding them through the process, you can better anticipate their needs and show

them how to buy your solution.

Although some companies support self-service pilots, our experience has shown that simply

letting customers loose with your product and fielding support calls does not give you an

advantage or ability to shape the outcome. You don’t want to be a Help Desk – you want to be

a Sherpa who will guide the customer along their journey to a desired endpoint. Along the way,

you help the evaluators to build their business case, break down perceptions of risk and take

ownership of your solution.

By leveraging the aforementioned Preparation techniques, you have built a strong foundation to

prove out your value and established clear advantages:

• You have stacked the deck in your favor, mitigated your risk and minimized roadblocks

that could sabotage a successful outcome

• You have taken control of the process and introduced a framework that will help your

customer build the strongest possible business case

• You are demonstrating the professionalism that the buyer can expect from you as a

future partner

• You have mobilized the right resources to win – on both sides

• You have differentiated yourself from your competitors, most of whom will be running a

haphazard, ad-hoc pilot process

• You are teaching the customer how to run their evaluation and buy your products

• You are forecasting projected revenue and close dates with more confidence


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The Evaluation Charter

The Evaluation Charter is a key element of your execution strategy. It builds upon the

information captured in the pre-evaluation stage by helping you create a comprehensive action

plan. Every aspect of the evaluation is captured, including activities, players, timeframes,

business goals and next steps. Both you and the customer endorse the plan and it becomes

the single point of truth and governance throughout the pilot.

While the framework is important, execution relies on your skills, training and experience as

professional salespeople. Process Engage is essentially sales process-agnostic. At various

points, we employed techniques from Challenger Rep, SPIN selling, Solution Sales, Sandler

and others. The overall framework provides stability and structure while empowering your team

to employ the right sales technique to help you drive the best possible outcome.

We had just finished running a pilot with a large multinational. Their evaluation

team was very complimentary of our evaluation process and the results, and they

decided to buy our solution. An issue arose as we were the most expensive

alternative and Procurement pushed back. Fortunately, the credibility and goodwill

we had built up with the business sponsors made this objection disappear. We didn’t

even have to drop our price. The difference this made to us? Almost $50,000 –

on one deal.

We ran a competitive pilot with a major tech company who wanted to test

our software solution. Their evaluation team was big – 50 people across 8 separate

divisions who were charged with proving out 15 specific use cases. Digging deep in

our Playbook, we decided to create a project website for the evaluation team. We

shot videos of users proving out all 15 use cases with our software and posted these

videos to the project website. We added a live blog for questions. We met face-to-

face with as many people as we could and did not stop until we had spoken with

everyone at least once. We ran individual demos and scheduled webinars for the

entire evaluation team. When we won, the sponsor told us that we had run the best

process that he had ever seen from a vendor.


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Customer Playbook

The Customer Playbook provides you with a number of customer-focused strategies that have

been proven to help you win. These best practices and essential sales techniques will help you

operate within the overall pilot framework while designing the right program for each unique

customer situation. As your sales team innovates and finds new ways to win, the Playbook is

updated and becomes a knowledge base of successful techniques for your entire sales

organization.

We start our clients with best practices and techniques that have worked for us, but over time

companies make the Playbook their own. As your team improves, you’ll find that these

principles become second nature for your salespeople and a training guide for new hires.

Step #3: Closing the Deal In general, companies run pilots because they are a necessary step towards closing a deal.

Everything we do leads to the Close. It's hard to believe, but many of the best sales reps we’ve

are afraid to ask for the business. They run a perfect process, handle objections with a smile

and bring the ball right to the goal line, but then…they…just…go…to...pieces.

As we leveraged our process and began to learn and improve, we found that closing became

an almost foregone conclusion rather than a daunting challenge. Since the evaluation goals

We made the final cut for an RFP issued by one of the biggest apparel

manufacturers in the world. Our competition frankly had a better product than ours. It

became incredibly important to think outside of the box and redefine the rules in our

favor. In addition to a custom demo environment, we harnessed the power of

storytelling to create a “day in the life” narrative of an employee who used our

software to do their job better. Our story specifically addressed all of the customer’s

use cases in a more engaging manner. It demonstrated that we thought differently

and would go the extra mile. It allowed individuals to study our solution at their own

pace. Finally, it gave everyone something tangible with our logo on it. When we won,

the customer specifically mentioned this story as a decisive factor in their decision.


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and next steps were already established in the Evaluation Charter, closing became just another

step in the process. It was natural and relatively stress-free.

Strong planning in the Preparation phase enables you to anticipate and eliminate the “gotchas”

that can sneak up on you at the end. Solid execution through the Proof phase builds the

customer’s business case, breaks down their aversion to risk and instills confidence in you as a

partner. These are the conditions you need to close. In fact, many prospects were so pleased

with our pilot performance that they would be pushing us to sign the deal and get started.

Advocate Selling

Advocate selling is a cornerstone of Process Engage that helps you to transform project

sponsors into enthusiastic advocates who will help you to sell. Advocates will take ownership of

your solution, give positive feedback to executives, work their internal systems and over time

assume a major role in helping you close the deal. The real power of Advocate Selling lies in

the fact that, ultimately, you are not selling your solution…the customer is.

Here is how we approached Advocate Selling: We would assign a specific resource – often

technical - as the frontline contact for the customer throughout the pilot. Their agenda was

simple – establish credibility as an expert and internal advocate for the customer, build a strong

relationship with the sponsor and guide them towards taking ownership of the solution.

As the pilot progressed, we earned trust and helped the sponsor to build a strong business

case for our solution. We instilled a sense of confidence in our people and company, and

demonstrated how our solution would help them to succeed.

In turn, we asked for their advocacy with executives and Procurement. Advocate Selling can

make the difference in your sales cycle and ability to win.


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The Close Meeting

Close meetings are planned events in which you secure the support you need to complete the

pilot and ask for the business. We recommend that you schedule two close meetings – first with

the sponsor, then with the executive.

The sponsor close meeting has the explicit intent of validating the sponsor’s satisfaction with

the pilot results and asking for their recommendation. If they are no actively advocating for your

solution in their company, they need to begin doing this. You want them to take ownership and

start envisioning your solution as their solution. The close meeting is a formal opportunity to

make this transition and collaborate on the end game.

Once your advocate is on board, work with them to plan out the executive meeting. The intent

of the executive close meeting is to review results of the pilot, validate the business case and

ask the executive for their support to move forward. By recommending your solution, the

advocate is staking their reputation on your ability to deliver. Take the time to help them

develop an airtight business case that speaks directly to the areas most important to the

executive.

One very effective tactic for the executive close meeting is to coach and prepare your advocate

to deliver the presentation – instead of you. Their recommendation carries more gravitas than a

vendor asking for their business. We employed this technique with great success, and could not

recall a single instance when the team’s recommendation was overruled by the executive.

After winning a pilot, we asked the customer why they chose us. To our surprise,

they cited our responsiveness and professionalism. Whenever the customer made a

request, we responded immediately. We delivered on every commitment we made. If

we didn’t have the answer, we found it quickly. We even coached the sponsors on how

to effectively deliver the final executive presentation. In sum, we ran a better process

than the other guy and transformed every interaction – big and small – into an

opportunity to differentiate and demonstrate our value as a partner.


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By following the methodology, you have proven your value, secured the support of key people

and positioned yourself to ask for the business. Even better, you have earned the right to ask

for the business. Gaining the executive’s support formally wraps up your pilot and opens the

door to further partnership and revenue opportunities.

We were concluding a competitive, 3-month evaluation with a Fortune 50

company. We had earned the sponsor’s recommendation and requested an executive

wrap-up to present the results and ask for the bigger deal. The plan was to walk the

executive through their most important use cases using our software…only we wouldn’t

be presenting. We spent quite a bit of time training our sponsor to be proficient with our

solution and he was able to walk the executive through every use case. Without even

speaking, we had achieved instant credibility and built the business case for our

solution. The following week, we met the executive and signed a deal worth several

hundred thousand dollars.


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Invest in Results We made a conscious effort to improve our pilot execution because we found that our success

as salespeople – and our company’s success – was tied directly to our ability to run a stronger

evaluation process and win more often. The confidence and skill we developed carried over into

other aspects of our sales efforts and ultimately made us better salespeople. Mastery of our

framework and its techniques has led to more revenue, greater success and stronger

partnerships with our clients.

The Process Engage Pilot Framework is part of Process Engage Consulting. We invite you to

learn more at www.processengage.com and contact us to discuss how this smart investment

might help your business to drive better, more consistent sales results.

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