Turning Customer Problems into B2B SaaS Pilots
How we land our first customers without building any software
This guides details Stage 2 of our founder-driven sales framework. Be sure to see the overview to check your assumptions and use Stage 1, Prospects to Problems, before you try these techniques.
With a bunch of validated problem hypotheses in hand, it’s time to go build!
Hold up, wait a minute. Building is still one of the most expensive activities we can do with the lowest confidence returns. Before we get there, let’s be sure we understand what customers are willing to spend their extremely limited time and money on, via pilots in 3 steps.
Validate the value
Validate an offer
Convert the offer into a pilot
1. Validate the value
There’s a ton of ways to create value propositions and even more ways to test them. To name a few, Strategyzer has a Value Proposition Canvas, Pragmatic Institute uses Product Positioning, the Lean Product Playbook uses benefits lists and competitor tables, The Unicorn Within uses Storyboards, Sprint uses Prototypes, Unbiased Insights uses Product Concepts, and Lean Customer Development uses MVPs.
Write 3 value proposition statements
After years of delivering MVPs in record time and trying everything but, we’ve honed in on one of the simplest versions—a few words on a slide, following this template:
[PRODUCT NAME] is for [USERS] who need [RESULT] that
[DOES THESE 3 THINGS]
Here’s a consumer example that is easily understood:
Uber is for city dwellers with smart phones
who need a reliable way to get a taxi
that enables the user to hail a cab, feel in control, and pay for it automatically.
Here’s a B2B business example to Flywheel, an Uber platform for Taxi Companies:
Flywheel is for taxi dispatchers
who need an easy way to provide reliable and convenient service to customers
that tracks all active drivers, allows customers to book a cab online, and collects payments automatically.
This is absolutely an art and is very difficult to master. No matter where you are, try some of these techniques to improve each value proposition:
Write, rewrite, remove words, make it simple, be clear and straight forward.
Focus on the WHAT. A value proposition doesn’t tell you HOW.
Leave the clever marketing writing for later. Clear wins out over clever, every time.
Draw a picture. Act it out. The simpler the better
Write out what it DOESN’T solve. Clarity is about saying NO to everything else.
How do your benefits compare to the current competition?
Produce at least 3 value propositions. If you produce more than 3, keep others for later, but winnow down the selection based on your previous interviews and next conversations you have lined up. No need to be statistically significant here, you can and should mix choose the 3 most appropriate for each interview.
The value proposition you’ve created is yet another hypothesis—it’s the first time those words have been combined in that specific way. That means it’s time to test it again. But before we do that, let’s prioritize who we should talk to.
Estimate what your conversations will think
Go through all your interviews when you were searching for a problem.
Listen to the recordings and read the transcripts to see if this person has a problem that your value proposition will solve.
Based on what they said last time, estimate their answer to this question:
On a scale of 0 to 10, how important is this product to my role at company today?
If it’s above a 7, that is an 8, 9, or 10, add them to your prioritized list to contact.
If you have less than 5 prospects matching a 9 or 10 that you’ve already talked to, then you’re likely missing the right value to focus on.
Now you need to validate it with the market.
Talk to customers, again
Reach out to those contacts that you assumed to be above a 7 for a new call, using some easy language:
Hey <Name>, thanks again for sharing your experience with me! I’ve now talked with X people and come up with a lot of potential ideas, a few I think might be really applicable to you. I’d love to get your perspective on them.
You’ll also want to contact some net-new conversations. Using the same outreach flow as last time, you might adjust the template a few ways:
I have some ideas, but don’t know if it’s valuable… can we connect?
Get their quantitative and qualitative feedback
All our other protocols still apply to this second call. You’ll want to get permission to record the conversation, confirm any qualifications you’ve made of them, and thank them for their time.
During this call, you’ll share 3 of the value propositions with the language exactly the way you’ve written it down. Putting each on a single slide in big font and sharing your screen is a great way to stay consistent.
Ask them to read it out loud. You’ll hear if they struggle with any specific words or the wording is too complex
Ask them to describe it to a friend. See if they use the exact same words or different words and if they understood your intention.
For each value, you can then ask:
If you had $100 to spend on everything you need at work, how much would you spend on this solution out of that $100?
Ask them to explain their thinking and why they gave that number.
Go on to the next value and repeat that question.
After you ask all 3, reflect their numbers back to them and see if they still feel this way or want to change any of their numbers.
Then ask them to rank the value propositions together. I like to put up a visual scale of 0-10 and ask them to place the 3 value propositions on that scale, using the product names, with the question:
On a scale of 0 to 10, how important is this product to your role at company today?
Follow up with the usual qualitative “Why?” to get context on their rankings. Discussion here will continue to build rapport as well as provide additional insights that you can continue to ideate on.
With this foundational quantitative data, you can then ask them:
Are there any other products that are more important to you today.
Return to your consistent wrap-up protocol here, thanking them for their time, asking if you should’ve asked them anything else and a desired call to action.
Your next call to action depends on how they responded to the value propositions:
If they’re interested in one value more than another (10 vs 5 vs 1):
ask them to schedule another call to review the pilot offer you’re putting together. If you’re not sure this is the right value proposition, just keep it general—you’re collecting interest for the first pilot of this value and if they’d like to be included.If they rated things poorly or aren’t keen on these options that you really still want to pursue:
Share that you have more learning to do. Let them know you’ll reach out, if it’s OK, if you make progress on other ideas or other values based on their feedback.
Either way, focus this next ask as a reach out to them again, not any connections that they might make. You’re starting to build a relationship with them and will remain top of mind to them—they’ll start to connect you with others if it makes sense.
Analyze your results
Take the data from all these conversations and compare them to what you predicted. You’re looking for high signal that one of these value propositions is standing out among the others. This comparison delta will help you filter through all positives and all negative feedback, as you ultimately want an outlier.
Ideally you’ll have 5 potential people to pilot this with (think of this as the minimum requirement to get to your first pilot, with a 20% success conversion rate).
2. Validate an offer
With the outlier value proposition in hand, it’s time to create an offer to pilot.
Plan an offer
Starting with the end value that you just validated, go through the user journey you think happens leading up to that value. Rely on the contextual information you learned from these qualitative calls, but don’t sweat too much—it’s just a thinking framework for the first version. Map out the user story map of how a manual pilot would operate. Think about all the nitty gritty details to the point where you know exactly how each step will work.
You can document the really expensive stuff you want to do, but ideally think of manual, cheaper slices—ways that you can deliver the same value without building anything—you want to maximize value and minimize investment, even if it won’t scale as-is.
For example, in order for Uber to test their feasibility pilot, they gave a small app to 5 of their friends in San Francisco with a map and a single button. Every time their friend pressed the button, they would get an alert and their friends’ location. Once they got the alert, they would call a taxi company that they would pay to send a cab out to pick them up and take them to where they wanted to go. This is a long way off from the first release of the Uber app.
For B2B software, we like to test willingness to pay, even if it initially loses money. At this point, you’ve proven initial user desirability—not buyer desirability.
If you want to test feasibility, make the offer free. This validates that you are able to connect with customers that have this problem and are willing to give you their time, data, or other resources in order to see it done.
If you want to test viability, make the offer commensurate with the value.
What’s commensurate value? Here’s a consultant’s answer: it depends. Typically products are anchored against 3 variables: Time, Cost, or Quality. If you’re anchoring on cost, go 10x cheaper than the alternatives. If you’re anchoring on time, estimate a price for an intern or new college graduate to do the work manually. If you’re anchoring on quality, match the price of a competitor.
No matter how you determine initial value, you’ll need to round out the offer a bit:
Provide a 50% “pilot discount” for your first round of pilots (3 or so)
Come up with a small and a large alternative. What would an offer 2x smaller look like. What would an offer 2x bigger look like?
Come up with a list of requirements that you need from them, with the hardest call-outs first. You want them to tell you NO.
Note: With these 3 offers in hand, do some quick financial modeling. Gut check to make sure IF you were to build this offer into a product it would generate returns at some basic scale.
Document the offer as a pilot
Once you’re comfortable with how it’ll work and what the offer is, combine this into a pilot deck that includes:
The problem you’re solving
The pilot value you’re delivering
The general pilot process
Any call-out requirements you have of the pilot goers
The 3 different versions of the pilot
The 50% off deal
Now lets go get punched.
Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.
- Mike Tyson
3. Convert them to a pilot
Your plans are beautiful. Your pitch is perfect… to learn from. So let’s go learn what “the market” thinks.
Reach back out to people you’ve been building relationships with that validated the value they want to see—anyone that rated a value proposition you’ve codified into a pilot a 9 or 10.
On this 45-minute call, you’ll want to walk through the pitch deck and ask for their feedback. A good sign is when they’re saying YES, AND in response to things.
Either way, ask them to co-design the pilot with you. What would they change? Ask them their requirements if they were to run this pilot.
Showcase your flexibility, speed, and ability to listen—3 powerful benefits this pilot will bring them that competitors with static plans and large teams can’t. These are your unfair competitive advantage.
If they haven’t already, directly ask them what it’ll take to work on this pilot together.
See who else they need to introduce you to at their company to get this pilot started.
The easy way, or the better way
The easiest way to get a pilot with a customer is to say yes to whatever they ask for, including all the ridiculous demands or requirements they have.
HIPAA compliance? Yes.
Business Insurance? Absolutely.
Do they want to pay with NET90 terms? Of course.
50 page legal contract? Signed.
The better way to get the right pilot is to ask more questions. Discuss each of their objections and questions.
Why is that a requirement?
What about that is absolutely a requirement or is there any way we can work around that?
When was the last time your procurement department made an exception to this?
Well that level of insurance costs X, would you be willing to pay extra for that?
What if we were to put that on a credit card or bill it differently, what would change?
Does time zones matter?
Can we deliver that faster or slower?
What does this clause in the contract mean to you, exactly?
Can I talk to Jim in IT or Jennifer in Legal directly?
It doesn’t hurt to ask your potential pilots these questions—in fact, it hurts you not to ask these questions.
🎯 It adds friction, but your point here is not to create the most frictionless experience possible. Your goal is to learn—to understand their perspective, process, and motivations—to maximize your learning.
Remember, this pilot isn’t a long-term solution that you’ll tell anyone else the details about. It’s just for you and them. It’s OK if none of this is ideal.
Only two things matter:
That you deliver value
That you keep the relationship healthy
These are the core results that you’ll need for the Stage 3, Pilots to Proof, on how to move from one-off pilots to selling a scalable product.