🚀 Should I add a pilot to my sales process?

3 tactics on adding sales pilots

🎯 Ensure pilots clear objections fast

• Directly ask what’s holding the buyer back—get specifics about the objections, concerns, or hesitations (e.g. lack of trust, worried about integration etc)

• Define the goal of the pilot clearly—whether it is technical validation, user adoption, change management, or use case fit etc 

• Design pilots to ensure it eliminates specific objections and meets the goals—if it doesn't, it is a waste of time and resources

• Set concrete success metrics that will enable a full roll out (e.g., 20% reduction in time, 40% increase in sales, etc) 

• Match pilot length to time-to-value—long enough for the buyer to experience impact, but short enough to drive urgency

📋 Set clear prerequisites before starting a pilot

• Require a clear internal champion (e.g., someone committed to using the product X hours weekly, who will advocate for it internally)

• Confirm alignment on pilot scope and success criteria

• Ensure engineering resources are pre-allocated for integration work

• Verify budget is approved for the post-pilot package being tested

• Confirm decision-maker is aware of the pilot and comfortable with the decision timeline

• Make all requirements explicit—don’t start until every box is checked

🗓️ Run a structured pilot with built-in checkpoints

• Pre-schedule calls for kickoff, support, check-in and final decision:

  • Start with a kickoff call to align on pilot structure, success metrics and criteria as well as required prerequisites

  • Schedule a support call to set up real use cases, unblock setup issues, and address questions on specific flows (Eg. Configure a test flow or integration live)

  • Hold a check-in call to measure progress against success metrics, address objections, and discuss scope and pricing

  • End with a decision call that ties pilot results to success criteria, push for a go/no-go, and propose next steps

• Put all meetings on the calendar upfront to avoid going dark or losing momentum after kickoff

2 traps to avoid

🚨Running pilots that create friction instead of removing it

• Pilots should de-risk the deal and accelerate adoption—not add steps or slow it down

• Don’t create hurdles where there were none—if the buyer is ready to say yes, having a pilot turns momentum into delay

🚨Letting pilots drag into endless stalls

• Pilots prove the product works and value can be captured—not that value exists

• If prospects don’t see value existing, skip the pilot and highlight the cost of inaction instead

• Long pilots = resource-wasting stalls, not validation

• Set hard boundaries on pilot scope to force real yes or no decisions

1 tool to leverage

📖 Best practice on running sales pilots

• Keep pilots under 90 days. If longer, make it a paid pilot.

• Leverage tools like Google Analytics to capture user behavior for the pilot

Bonus: 1 trend to spark startup ideas

📈 Mishandled E-commerce returns are killing retail profits

• Returns doubled to $890B/year since 2020, with 17–30% return rates

• 70–80% of returned goods’ value are salvageable—but most are mishandled 

• Legacy solutions are built for returns processing, not inventory value maximization:

  • Returns cost 20-65% of original item value

  • Brand-owned resale sites cannibalize full-price sales.

  • Third-party recommerce (buying and selling previously owned items) is slow and operationally complex.

  • Recycling offers too little per-unit value to be scalable.

• Brands demand:

  • Time-to-restock under 1 month to maximize value for restocking in-season

  • AI-driven, ultra-accurate grading and processing to reduce labor and human error

  • Granular data on returns to forecast inventory and tailor marketing

  • Recommerce that maximize value while protecting brand equity