Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth
00:48:16 · Jen Abel, Lenny Rachitsky
[00:48:16] S1: A champion. [00:48:25] S0: A champion. [00:48:25] S1: The champion. Yeah, because a champion can also be an executive, right? [00:48:30] S0: Yeah. And they're excited at this point in theory, very excited for this to work out. They're on your side. They're not trying to ... Yeah. [00:48:38] S1: And I define champion as who's the individual that really wants this to come to life that was there from day one, not necessarily the person that ... The C-suite executive could be the one shepherding this well, but they need to make sure that the people below them are brought in. [00:48:53] S0: Okay. Anything else around the demo or the post-demo discussion before we move on to the next step? [00:48:57] S1: No, I think we're good. [00:48:59] S0: Okay. So the next step, you call identifying pilot, move-forward process.
00:48:59 · Lenny Rachitsky, Jen Abel
[00:48:59] S0: Okay. So the next step, you call identifying pilot, move-forward process. [00:49:05] S1: The best thing you can do, assuming that you've built an incredible solution, right? If you're now this far in, you usually have something that allow them ... Now you can control the timeline above, "Hey, I want you guys to go in for two to three days." These specific users. Do not put your C-level executive into the product. They're not the user, okay? "Who are the users of this? I want them to experience the magic and the power of what this is," okay? Don't charge. You could charge them for a pilot if it's an extended period of time, but I'd rather forego the money and do a two to three-day pilot so that at least I can control the sales cycle a bit more, okay? But again if they ask for a month and there's a good reason for it, do charge for that. But I'd rather go in for two to three days and let them see if they can get the value from it. If they can. Sometimes I understand that there needs to be some level of configuration and extensive onboarding that needs to happen, but is there a sandbox where they can assess the value even if it's not on their own data? [00:50:07] S0: So this isn't yet the pilot, this is just prepping for the actual pilot.
00:50:07 · Lenny Rachitsky, Jen Abel
[00:50:07] S0: So this isn't yet the pilot, this is just prepping for the actual pilot. [00:50:10] S1: Correct. So there's two different pilots you can run. A pilot that does not require their data to be in the product to get the value or a pilot that you want to charge for because they need to see some level of integration on their end for the whole product to actually work, right? I understand that those are two very technical things. Let's talk about something that they can get in two to three days and it's pretty much of a light lift. Time box it to two or three days. Don't make it two weeks, okay? I've done this enough times to say people will go in usually for half a day and get what they need out of it, okay? Shorten your sales cycle by two weeks by doing 48 or 72 hours. Now if you need something a bit more integrated and it's a far more technical solution, what I'd highly recommend is do it for a month or two months, charge them for it and then use that fee that you charge them for and credit it back to them if they move forward, okay? If they're willing to pay, that is a huge, huge signal, especially if you're about to put in all this work. They have no problem paying for it. It's usually probably going to come out as services anyway because they're not buying technology, they're buying the services to go through it. And also make it a credit on the backend. Start the relationship up shift. Start the relationship off on a good foot.
00:50:10 · Jen Abel, Lenny Rachitsky
[00:50:10] S1: Correct. So there's two different pilots you can run. A pilot that does not require their data to be in the product to get the value or a pilot that you want to charge for because they need to see some level of integration on their end for the whole product to actually work, right? I understand that those are two very technical things. Let's talk about something that they can get in two to three days and it's pretty much of a light lift. Time box it to two or three days. Don't make it two weeks, okay? I've done this enough times to say people will go in usually for half a day and get what they need out of it, okay? Shorten your sales cycle by two weeks by doing 48 or 72 hours. Now if you need something a bit more integrated and it's a far more technical solution, what I'd highly recommend is do it for a month or two months, charge them for it and then use that fee that you charge them for and credit it back to them if they move forward, okay? If they're willing to pay, that is a huge, huge signal, especially if you're about to put in all this work. They have no problem paying for it. It's usually probably going to come out as services anyway because they're not buying technology, they're buying the services to go through it. And also make it a credit on the backend. Start the relationship up shift. Start the relationship off on a good foot. [00:51:32] S0: I'm definitely feeling the feeling I feel when we chat is like, "I just want to find something to sell." This is really- [00:51:38] S1: It's so fun. [00:51:38] S0: ... fun, yeah.
00:51:38 · Lenny Rachitsky, Jen Abel
[00:51:38] S0: ... fun, yeah. [00:51:40] S1: It's literally so fun. I think people read these sales books, go to these sales trainings and they try and take someone else's game and run with it and it never works that way. No one taught me this. I was just like, "Okay, if I collect more intel than the competitive set, that will be my special sauce." [00:52:00] S0: And it's more fun that way. You're building a relationship more. You're chatting more often. You're not trying to just- [00:52:06] S1: Yeah, speed bump. [00:52:07] S0: It feels more real. Yeah. Okay, a couple questions here. One is this idea of the two to three-day pilot. How do you convince them, "You only get two to three days," because that feels tough?
00:52:07 · Lenny Rachitsky, Jen Abel
[00:52:07] S0: It feels more real. Yeah. Okay, a couple questions here. One is this idea of the two to three-day pilot. How do you convince them, "You only get two to three days," because that feels tough? [00:52:16] S1: So I would say, "Here, this is what we typically do. Who are the three or four people we want to put in and assess the value from a user perspective?" Make sure it's your person, assuming that it's no ... or the person closest to the ... Don't put your C-suite executive in it. They're not going to go into the product and then two or three other people, okay? And I want you to say, "We're going to do two or three days. I'm going to onboard you each differently. We're going to do two or three different onboard sessions," before those two or three days. And I want you to go in and I want you to do these three specific tasks. Be very, very thoughtful and explicit and descriptive with what you want them to do, okay? "Here's how we're going to measure success." Define that with them. Co-author that. And that's no different than the thing that's a little bit longer where you require that integration and build out. Co-author it with them. What does success look like? What are the specific things they should be doing? They should not just be logging in and meandering. That puts the work back on them. Your job in sales is to take all the work off their plate, 99% of it. [00:53:27] S0: And help them discover the magic really easily.