SHOULD WE OFFER PILOTS?

Summary from the TLDR Founders newsletter

A Chief Procurement Officer insists that not offering pilots is a "major red flag." However, the best sales teams do something counterintuitive - they default to no pilots and make buyers pay to prove they're serious. If you must offer one, take a page from CJ Edmonds at Conversion Logix, who structures pilots with continuation clauses that auto-convert to paid contracts unless cancelled within 120 days. Most buyers requesting pilots aren't actually testing functionality - they're testing whether you're enterprise-grade. So if you must offer one, define success metrics upfront, charge for it, and remember that pilots should be your last resort.