Most organizations fall into one of three categories for letting prospects try their product:
- Prospects create an account right on your website.
- Your website converts visitors to a sales meeting, sales vets the deal, and then provisions a trial.
- You reserve use of your product for after a deal is signed. You miiiiight allow a “proof of concept” right before they sign, but that might even just be a paid pilot.
That’s a wide spectrum.
So, why do we pick one over the others? Here’s a simple grid that shows three questions that likely informed your executive team’s decision.
| Product-Led | Sales-vetted Trials | Enterprise | |
| Growth Strategy | “We’re going viral” | “We’re going hybrid” | “We’re going whale hunting” |
| Initial Price Point | $0 | >$35k | >$250k |
| Onboarding | Self | ~2 support calls | >1 week by both buyer and seller |
Growth Strategy: Having a low barrier to entry means you get lots of volume. But bigger fish take longer to catch, and require more attention. Life (and sales) is a spectrum, and this is the first decision about where on that spectrum you want to live. This needs to be a purposeful decision on strategy, and not one that’s retrofitted after the fact. The wrong move is picking this growth strategy while ignoring that you’re not a match in the other categories.
Price Point: Your price point is connected to your growth strategy – and to the size/scope of a deployment. Enterprise products come with service packages, so buyers generally understand that they can rely on those and contracted features instead of taking your product for a generic test run before they sign.
Technology: If your product is easy to onboard, you could consider opening the floodgates and trusting that if you build it, they will come. If the following questions sound like problems to you, consider requiring a sales touch. How many config calls do you need? Are you requesting sensitive data? Does your buyer shop themselves or delegate? Does your product require integrations your typical shopper can’t grant themselves? Does a user see value in the first session or do they need to use for days or weeks?
Feel like you’re in the wrong column? Call me.
Joe Caprio is a cofounder at Reprise.
He also advocates for ICW, ask him about it!
