POC Best Practices: Evaluation Plans – The Key to Great POCs and POVs
Presales Leader: “Our POCs drag on and never seem to end.”
Homerun: “Do you create and share formal Evaluation Plans?”
Presales Leader: “Sort of…”
Homerun: “Well that’s sort of why they drag on. Let’s chat!”
For many companies, the Proof-of-Concept (POC) or Proof-of-Value (POV) is an essential and/or mandatory step in the sales cycle.
The POC/POV is also one of the most expensive presales activities that you can engage in.
If you must do them… and if they’re internally expensive… then do them right
The key to a great POC/POV is the Evaluation Plan.
The Evaluation Plan aligns you and your prospect on:
The use cases that will be tested/shown, and
The associated definitions of success (aka, success criteria).
Creating an Evaluation Plan can be challenging:
Prospects may not know what their use cases should be.
Prospects do not always know how to test their use cases.
Prospects may be busy with their regular job activities and may not have time to figure out the best way to test your product.
Show your prospect 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 Evaluation Plans should lead customers to test the most valuable features of your product without overloading or overwhelming them with every bell and whistle.
After creating the initial version of your Evaluation Plan, share it with your prospect and collaborate until it is finished. You should be able to ask your prospect “If you test all the use cases, and we satisfy all the success criteria… will we be your vendor of choice?” If the answer is no, then iterate on your Evaluation Plan until the answer is yes.
If your prospect will be hands-on with your product, your Evaluation Plan should include step-by-step instructions for how to test each use case. Your prospect is not yet an expert in your product. Don’t assume your product is as easy to use as you think it is!
You and your prospect should be both able to digitally track the status of each of use case (e.g. In Progress, Completed, or Blocked), highlight and alert on blockers, and document the results.
Doing so keeps your POC/POV on track, on time, and in scope.
Homerun's Shareable Evaluation Plans and Customer Portal are the perfect way to do this!
A well-designed Evaluation Plan brings your POC/POV to a logical conclusion as quickly as possible with demonstrated success. Congratulations! This is the very definition of the technical win.
Do you need help keeping your POCs and POVs on track, on time, and in scope? Talk to one of our presales experts about Homerun's Evaluation Plans. Click here to get started!
