Part Two: The product · Finding and trying
A polished demo with sample data is easy to stage. People cannot tell from it whether the product will handle their own messy situation.
A demo account is a stage set, whether a visitor opens it alone or a salesperson drives. The supporters have sensible names, the numbers add up, and every record fits the product perfectly. It shows the product at its best and answers a question nobody asked.
The question the person has is about their own situation. The donor who gives under two names. Nine years of history. The gift that is split between two funds. Only their own material can answer it. So a trial, or a sales demonstration, should run on a real piece of their work: last winter's appeal, one actual project, a single branch's records.
It should also say plainly what did not come across. Finding that out after paying is worse for everyone, including the company that made the sale.
Real work brings real risk. A product that emails supporters, takes payments or files claims can do damage while someone is only experimenting. So anything that leaves the product stays off until the person turns it on, and the screen says so. Getting out has to be as easy as getting in: what they put in they can take back out, and nothing in their old system has been touched.
The fundraising manager at a small charity is trying a new supporter database. On a Thursday afternoon she loads the list from last winter's appeal. Two things do not carry over, and the import report lists both. No thank-you emails go out, because sending is switched off and marked as off. By Friday she knows more than any demo could have told her, and no supporter knows it happened.
Therefore:
Let people try the product on a real piece of their own work, and make that easy to bring in. Keep the trial harmless: nothing is sent, charged or filed unless they choose.
In practice. Run your own trial with a real customer's exported data, with their permission, in place of the demo set. Note every place it stumbles. Those are the places where trials are being lost.
Goes with. The trial is the strongest form of VALUE BEFORE THE ASK (31). What they bring in is the first step of A SWITCH THAT CAN BE FINISHED (37), and the clean exit is EASY TO LEAVE (15) on a small scale.