What we have seen is that free trials or reduced fee pilots are most effective when the need/pain point etc. is clearly discussed and the expectations from the pilot/trial are very clear. This ensures that the prospect is positioned to evaluate the product or service based on specific criterion and at the end of it a decision can be made.

Another aspect is that self-service trials rarely work well in B2B because (1) context and expectation setting is critical (2) setup and trial of the product or solution in a way that the prospect sees the true value is tough to achieve in a self-service fashion.

Having said that free trial/pilot is the best sales tool and we have seen a much stronger conversion with them rather than having to push hard on making prospects commit to buying before trying. Making them try is much easier and if the trial is done right and you exceed their expectations, the prospects will definitely come back to you sooner or later.

The major issue I see around free trials is context — or, at least, the frequent lack of it. Just giving someone carte blanche on your product without a guided tour that takes into account the prospect’s needs and how this maps to capabilities can be perilous. This speaks to the point David raises, above. That’s why I’m a big fan of this guided tour approach. The trial needs to be packaged with high-touch pre-sales support that places the product trial in context and that focuses testing/trial on the capabilities that directly map to buyer needs.

I think it is also interesting to think about diagnostics as a precursor to a trial — which you touch on a bit, above, Jep. Maybe the issue in the buyer education proces you need to focus on is not well addressed by the trial, per se. So you need additional tools in your belt. This touches on Steve’s comments, as well. The free trial is not a panacea.

Great dialogue, Jep. Thanks for launching this thread. For anyone in B2B software marketing, this is a key topic we need to be addressing right now.

In B2B selling situations that require sales/customer interaction to move through the sales process, I think many companies make the mistake of trying to sell the product on the website instead of selling the conversation with sales. Screen shots, recorded “how it works” videos and the like may actually reduce conversions. Leave some meat on the bone for sales.

I like the idea of a Paid Trial. One way we do this is by establishing a “Setup Fee” that is deferred until the trial is over. It is only charged if the customer wants to proceed. The goal is to put value on the trial without actually making a company pay upfront and also to weed out casual prospects.

Also, it bugs me when a company is obviously pushing a “Free Demo” but they don’t have any way for me to understand what it will cost in the future if I decide to use it. I simply abandon those sites.

I wrote a post “Why Free Trials Aren’t” (http://www.b2bconversationsnow.com/?p=52) and you touched on it when you mentioned that time and effort are not free, they cost money. If you can help a customer generate real results at the same time you do a trial then you have a win-win.

Dale – EchoQuote

I try to explain to engineers that this is a perfect opportunity to script first customer experience – a killer tutorial or set of demos will set customers off in the right direction.

Good consumer software companies have always done this well (check out Apple iWork and Aperture for examples). SaaS companies are catching up as well.

-Sam

If it’s proving a business case, a pilot may be better. If it’s making sure they system is stable and reliable, customer references can often be better. If it’s ensuring that the user experience is top notch (when actually using the product to run your business), a money back guarantee is often a better technique.

Thanks for bringing up another important topic for discussion.