Try Before You Buy: 4 Reasons You Should Ask Vendors for a Proof of Concept
You’ve been through it all before: Corporate suitors courting your business to purchase the latest and greatest technology they have to offer. You have watched the presentations, sat through the demos and read the leave-behinds, but what you really need to see is whether the technology will work for you through a proof of concept (POC).
And we’re not just talking about slapping a new logo on the demo and calling it a day.
What Is a Proof of Concept?
A POC is more than the standard “here’s how it works” demo of an existing product that every potential client sees. Instead, it takes things a step further by creating a customized version of the demo built specifically around your company’s needs, pain points and objectives.
The goal of a POC, after all, is to show you that the product they want you to buy is actually the product you want to buy. This is an important part of our approach at FatTail, giving our prospective customers the confidence and comfort with choosing us as their trusted partner.
“This isn’t simply switching over your wireless service,” said Richard Letaw, Director of Business Development at FatTail, “It can be easy to make your platform look amazing in the context of a presentation deck or short demos, but we want to show people that we are not hiding behind those layers, and are willing to show what we’ve got in an in-depth way.”
4 Benefits of a Proof of Concept
While the concept of “try before you buy” has been growing in popularity for consumers in the retail space over the years, it is not yet common practice in the tech space. But here’s why it should be:
It confirms that the vendor can talk the talk and walk the walk. A POC demonstrates that the vendor has listened to your specific needs and what solutions they will provide in response.
A company that provides a POC is committed to your business. It also gives you a glimpse of how that service will be provided. In other words, it is the best way to validate that both the technology AND the partnership (service delivery) meet your requirements.
It could be the tipping point in the decision-making process. With tech decisions often impacting multiple departments at many levels, it is important for key stakeholders to align. Holdouts can often be convinced that the product does indeed meet their needs by seeing how a POC addresses the specific requirements of their department.
See your product in action. The POC not only allows you to see how the technology addresses your pain points, but it may even show you how it solves the problems you didn’t know you had.
POC as SOP
For FatTail, creating a POC is becoming more standard operating procedure (SOP) than a nice-to-have when it comes to showcasing the technology that has made us a popular fit for many large-scale publishers.
In many cases, the POC is the tipping point that quells any concerns from management and unifies the team on making the final decision.
“Increasingly, we’re finding that publishers really like having the proof of concept as part of their vendor evaluation process. It requires an upfront investment of time, but given the business impact this type of software has, it’s an insurance policy for your future that’s more than worth it,” Letaw said.