The big day is here

You've worked hard to get that pilot program with a major new customer, and you're ready to take on the world. If they can just see your product in action, they'll be blown away and sign the big contract. You're locked and loaded. Just fire away. STOP. Reset. That was close -- you almost blew your big opportunity. Step back and ask yourself a couple of questions. Why did the customer want a pilot in the first place? Was it really about your product, or something else? Moreover, how can you leverage the pilot to close the deal and build your overall business with this customer as well as others?

Your performance foreshadows the real customer experience

On the surface, a pilot is about evaluating your product in an operational setting. Chances are, your customer is already somewhat familiar with your product. So now you have to prove that your product holds up under live fire. However, that's usually only part of the story. It's really about your company's performance. So you need to be prepared to put your best foot forward on a variety of fronts. For a customer, a pilot is usually about understanding the experience they are likely to have working with your company. That involves your product, of course. But it's also about business transactions, support, relationships, and, yes, fun.

Make sure everyone understands what success means

If you go into a pilot without knowing what it means to succeed, you are doomed to failure. Make no mistake about it. In absence of an explicit agreement between you and your customer about success metrics, you'll end up with the inevitable default. You will have one definition, your customer will have another one, and your customer's consultants will probably have something all together different in mind. One other thing is also certain in this case. Everyone's definition will change over the course of the pilot -- probably to your detriment.

Practice everything

Pilots are great for optimizing your business model. There's nothing like the pressure of customer expectations to help you tighten up your products and streamline your operational procedures. But don't neglect your sales and marketing machine. Pilots offer you a unique opportunity to practice in an environment where you have access to people AND good reasons to talk to them. So use the time to identify buying influences, develop sales strategies and tactics, elicit references and PR material, and test new marketing ideas. You'll up your chances of closing the deal after the pilot, and you'll also take away lessons learned to build a stronger business and accelerate your sales growth. Remember, a pilot is a terrible thing to waste.