GM!
A pilot can be busy and still fail to move a purchase.
Users log in. The team holds check-ins. The champion says the product is useful. The CRM shows an evaluation in progress.
But when the trial ends, the buyer asks for more time. Nobody disputes the product. Nobody owns the decision either.
The operating question is not, “Are they using it?”
It is: What evidence will let this buyer decide, and who agreed to act on that evidence?
A pilot should test a purchase claim. Without an agreed test and exit path, it becomes a courtesy deployment: real work for both teams, no controlled decision.
Start with the claim, not the trial period
Before granting access, ask what the buyer needs to learn that a demo, reference call, or technical review cannot settle.
A useful claim is narrow: “Can the RevOps team route inbound exceptions without manual spreadsheet reconciliation?”
“See if the platform feels right” is not a test. Neither is “Let the team play with it.” Those requests may be valid exploration, but they should not be forecast as a purchase evaluation.
Write down the current workflow, the specific failure, and the result that would change the buyer’s mind. If the buyer cannot name the uncertainty, a pilot may be premature.
Agree on the evidence contract
Use one page with five fields. The point is not paperwork; it is to make the buyer’s test inspectable.
Question. What purchase uncertainty are we testing? Keep it to one primary claim, with any secondary questions clearly subordinate.
Baseline. What happens today? Record the existing workflow or an observed example before the pilot starts. Without a baseline, “better” can mean whatever either side wants it to mean afterward.
Evidence. What output would count as a pass, partial pass, or fail? Name the artifact: a routing audit, an approved workflow, a user demonstration, or a security sign-off. Avoid invented numerical targets simply to make the scorecard look rigorous.
Buyer owner. Who will supply inputs, inspect the result, and speak for the business outcome? The champion can coordinate, but the person who owns the problem needs to accept the evidence.
Exit decision. When will the buyer review the result, who will attend, and what happens for pass, partial pass, and fail? A passed test is not a purchase order. It is the agreed trigger for the next commercial decision.
Call this the pilot evidence contract. If a field is still assumed rather than buyer-confirmed, label it. Do not treat a seller-authored success plan as mutual agreement.
Put the buyer’s work on the calendar
The seller usually controls product setup. The buyer controls the inputs that make the test credible.
Consider an illustrative scenario: a sales operations team wants to test automated lead routing. The seller configures rules in a sandbox. But the buyer has not supplied current exception cases, named a data owner, or secured a manager to review misroutes.
A week later, the system is running and the pilot is reported as “active.” The claim has not been tested. Usage is not evidence when the sample excludes the hard cases.
Before launch, list each buyer contribution: sample records, access permissions, reviewers, and time to observe the result. Assign an owner and a date. If those inputs do not arrive, pause the pilot clock rather than quietly extending it.
A pilot without buyer work is often a demo with an expiration date.
Define the exit before kickoff
Book the results review when the pilot starts. Invite the problem owner and whoever can authorize the next commercial step. The agenda should be agreed in advance:
Did the agreed claim pass, partially pass, or fail?
What evidence supports that assessment?
Which unresolved issue changes the purchase decision?
If the result is sufficient, what specific decision follows, and who owns it?
If the buyer cannot commit to an exit review, that is useful information. It may mean the team is exploring rather than buying. Keep the relationship open; change the forecast interpretation.
For partial passes, distinguish a fixable product gap from missing buyer input. A limited retest can be sensible if both sides specify the new evidence and decision date. An automatic extension only postpones the same ambiguity.
Do not grade a pilot by the effort spent running it. Grade it by the decision it made possible.
Inspect pilot deals differently
In a pipeline review, ask the rep for the evidence contract, not a usage update.
Is the purchase claim written in the buyer’s language? Is the baseline known? Has the problem owner agreed to the pass criteria? Are buyer inputs in hand? Is the exit meeting booked with a decision owner?
A pilot can be technically successful and commercially unresolved. Keep those statuses separate. Product validation can improve the case while budget, priority, or ownership remains open. Do not convert a green technical test into forecast confidence by default.
Weekly action
Pick three active pilots or trials attached to forecasted opportunities.
For each, write the claim, baseline, pass/partial/fail evidence, buyer owner, and exit decision in one page. Mark every item confirmed or assumed.
If the claim or decision owner is missing, ask the buyer to agree on it at the next check-in. If the pilot has no scheduled exit review, book one or recategorize it as exploration.
The test should end with a decision the buyer can defend internally, not another request for time.
— Pipeline Playbook