4 Best Practices for Successul Proof of Concepts (POC) and Proof of Values (POV)
The Proof of Concept (POC) is the most critical step in your sales cycle.
They are how you win or lose deals.
Follow these best practices to run POCs that finish on time, in scope, and with demonstrated success.
Best Practice #1
Design POC Evaluation Plans that Get Technical Wins
A formal POC Evaluation Plan for your POC brings structure to your POC and aligns you and your buyer on the definition of success.
It documents the set of POC use cases / test cases (what needs to be shown and tested) and the corresponding POC success criteria (how do both you and your buyer know that they were shown and tested satisfactorily).
Well-designed POC Evaluation Plans avoid costly scope creep and keep POCs on time and on track.
Creating POC Evaluation Plans
Creating a POC Evaluation Plan can be challenging:
Buyers may not know what their use cases should be.
Buyers do not always know how to test their use cases.
Buyers are busy with their regular job activities and do have time to figure out the best way to test your product.
Show your buyer that you are experienced and value their time by recommending a list of use cases that will demonstrate how your product solves their business problems.
Your POC Evaluation Plans should lead buyers to test the most valuable features of your product.
If your POC is part of a competitive deal, include special use cases for which you know you will excel and your competitor(s) will struggle. Highlight your key differentiators.
GET BUYER BUY-IN UPFRONT
You want explicit buy-in and approval from your buyer on the Evaluation Plan before you begin the POC.
They should agree upfront that if you complete the Evaluation Plan with demonstrated success, then you will be the ‘vendor of choice’ (VOC).
If they do not agree to that upfront, then your Evaluation Plan needs some work. Ask what else must be included before they can agree. This is your primary way to avoid scope creep in your POCs.
A POC Evaluation Plan brings your POC to a logical conclusion as quickly as possible with demonstrated success. Congratulations! This is the very definition of the Technical Win.
BUILD A LIBRARY OF POC TEMPLATES
Codify your standard steps, tasks, best practices, uses cases, test cases, and success criteria into a library of reusable Evaluation Plan templates.
Create templates for setting up new POCs, closing them down, and everything in between.
Ensure your team is consistent on every POC and following a repeatable process based on your best practices.
Learn how to build POC Evaluation Plans in Homerun Presales.
Best Practice #2
Manage POCs and Related Data in a Centralized Presales Workspace
Centralize all POC information, data, activities for each POC in dedicated presales workspaces.
Centralized POC management keep everyone organized, on track, and on task for every POC. Your workspaces should include your Evaluation Plans, technical attributes and related info, warning signs, highlights, follow-up action items, feature requests/product gaps, and call/meeting notes.
Everyone has instant access to every detail about your POCs whenever they need it, whether you need weekly status updates or whether a teammate needs to take over a POC while the lead sales engineer (or solutions engineer, solutions consultant, solutions architect) is out sick or on vacation.
Share your POC data with other teams who need it:
Keep your sales team informed on POC progress and technical risks. They need this data to guide their sales forecasts and deal strategy.
Notify your product team about critical product gaps learned during a POC. They need this data to unblock deals and guide the product roadmap.
Bring your post-sales / customer success team up to speed on everything that was done during the POC. They need to know this to kick-off the onboarding / implementation with a new customer.
Check out a purpose-built presales workspace in Homerun Presales.
Best Practice #3
Engage Your Buyers and Jointly Track POC Progress
We are in the era of Buyer Enablement. Engage your buyers during your POCs by sharing your POC Evaluation Plans with them via digital and interactive collaboration tools.
Using digital, interactive technology enables you and your buyer to:
Jointly and digitally track progress of every step, task, use case, test case, and success criteria in real-time.
Get automated alerts on issues and ‘blockers’ (i.e. you or your buyer are stuck on a step or there is a failing use case or test case).
Document the details of your progress with notes and back-and-forth messaging.
Know if your buyers is making progress or if your POC is stalling out.
Have a POC summary report at the end of your POC of what was done, what was tested/proved, and all the results.
Engage your buyers during POCs with Homerun’s Customer Portal.
Best Practice #4
Get Real-time Visibility into your POCs
Whether your team runs fewer-but-complex POCs or many-but-simpler POCs, you need to keep track of all of them, all the time.
Leverage real-time dashboards to monitor the status, progress, and health of your POCs.
Alert teammates and managers to blockers and warning signs about POC health so you can intervene and course-correct before it is too late.
Report on the information that you have learned during a POC such as the technical details, implementation ‘gotchas’, and feature requests/ product gaps.
Understand your time and effort investment on any given POC and overall across all your POCs to determine how best to allocate everyone’s time and effort.
Discover how to boost POC performance by analyzing your POC activities and technical profiles to see what is working and what is not.
Share POC status and health information with sales leadership and become a valuable contributor to your sales forecasting process.
Get POC metrics, reports, ad dashboard in with Homerun Presales.
Summary
Your proof of concepts will be well-designed and well-run with these 4 POC best practices.
You will prevent scope creep, remove deal risk, reduce sales cycle durations, improve customer goodwill, and eliminate wasted time and effort.
You will get more technical wins and win more deals.
Level-up your POCs from start to finish with Homerun Presales.
Presales Teams Love Homerun
“We can directly measure our team's overall health and effectiveness from the POC stage to Tech Win.”
Brian Skrocki
Director, Pre-Sales Engineering
JupiterOne
“Homerun gives every user the quick visibility they need to see the details of a POC.”
Matt Sywulak
Director, Sales Engineering
INKY Technology
“Homerun Presales is helping me to be more organized in how I run my POVs."
Cara Seely
Senior Solution Architect
JupiterOne