How does your company approach proofs of concept (PoCs)? This is a tough question for many businesses. If you’re like most, you may offer specialized demos. But sometimes these demos fall short. After all, a customer will seek out a software solution for a variety of reasons, but they don’t always reveal all of those reasons to you.
Whether this is intentional secrecy or not, one way around this is to introduce cloud-based PoC solutions. This allows your clients to test your software in an environment that matches the kind of environment they’re used to. They can then test anything they like, and will have the chance to see how your solution can overcome all of their pain points.
Cloud PoC environments are a reliable way to validate an idea and determine whether your goals are viable in the market itself. Traditionally, validating a PoC required time and resources, a suitable customer base to test the concept, and the ability to analyze the data you collect.
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Cloud PoCs have changed this entirely.
Now, a business can quickly test a PoC and invite quality leads from anywhere in the world. Thanks to the cloud, businesses can quickly build real-world test environments that directly match the experiences a customer will face in reality. Businesses that want to stay competitive in the digital age need to realize the many benefits that a cloud proof of concept offers.
Let’s take a look at the PoC benefits of cloud-based testing software, and the reasons you need to invest in them:
1. Test Real-World Scenarios
Software is designed to solve problems and PoCs are a necessary step that exists in the development and sale of new software. Most sales PoCs involve staging a demo that a company believes will appeal to the lead. These demos may solve many of the pain points a potential customer is experiencing with your software. However, a traditional PoC doesn’t always do a great job of replicating real-world scenarios.
If the entire premise of a PoC is to validate a concept that solves a major pain point in the marketplace, then a PoC must replicate those scenarios. Cloud-based PoCs make this possible by allowing companies to create hyper-realistic scenarios for their clients to test and familiarize themselves with the true capabilities of the software they are demoing.
Your leads are used to receiving standard demos that do little to inspire them. Perhaps a video walkthrough or a structured presentation. But providing them with something they can really get their hands on will stand out. It can also help you to further develop your PoC based on how you see clients using it.
With cloud PoCs, you can easily meet and exceed clients’ needs by creating demos that let them experiment with your software in a familiar environment. This sandbox environment can be tweaked depending on the different scenarios that your client faces. So, if you want to demonstrate how your PoC solutions can be applied to a certain process in their company, you can create an environment that perfectly replicates the environment it exists in for greater realism.
All of this should leave your clients satisfied that all of their queries have been answered, and with a stronger visualization of the PoCs benefits.
2. Validate Your Hypothesis/Goals with Analytics + CRM Integrations
It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in. You need to collect meaningful data and have the ability to act on it. Cloud-based PoC demonstrations are more than just tests for potential clients. They provide you with a variety of data that you can use to improve your PoCs, your sales teams, and improve the precision of your marketing campaigns.
A cloud-based PoC solution like CloudShare lets you collect critical data such as:
- Total engagement (clicks and usage)
- How committed a prospect is to your PoC
- Whether the PoC was completed or the prospect dropped off
- The quality of the engagement
- If a prospect is worth pursuing based on the data collected
For companies with a large number of leads, a cloud proof of concept offers you a reliable way to qualify leads, score them, and determine whether they are worth following up with in the future.
CloudShare also has built-in integration with SalesForce, providing you with an additional layer of insight and opportunity analysis. Invites can even be sent directly through SalesForce if you wish.
You cannot put a price on valuable data. Understanding your prospects, their needs, and how they interact with your PoC provides you with a new level of control. It provides your teams with the information they need to make improvements, reduce wastage, and to find qualified prospects that have a high likelihood of becoming customers.
3. Customers Can Learn on Their Terms
Your customers are more likely to provide you with meaningful data if they can test your software without restrictions. That doesn’t mean you have to provide them with unparalleled access, but there are several important advantages to the remote sales PoC environment.
Even if you create the perfect environment, some customers prefer to experiment with your software on their terms. And you shouldn’t be afraid of letting them test your platform. You can learn a lot of valuable information based on how they engage with it.
Here are just a few benefits:
- Your development teams can use that data to improve the quality of your software and update or implement new features based on what you identify as key areas that your prospects care about.
- Your sales teams can develop a better understanding of what features your customers prioritize and market to them based on those findings.
- Your marketing teams will discover additional pain points that they never knew existed.
Cloud-based PoCs not only make it easier for you to validate your PoCs, but they also reduce the barrier to entry and let your customers experiment with your software on their own terms.
4. Stay in Control of Costs
Scale is something that many companies struggle with. Building and maintaining your own infrastructure for remote sales PoCs is expensive. You have to purchase a lot of hardware, pay a team to maintain them, and ensure that your network is running at peak efficiency.
A cloud-based PoC environment is infinitely scalable and allows you to stay in control of your costs. Regardless of the size of your company, you can create new virtual machines, outfit them with the appropriate resources (ram, storage, and operating systems) and install your PoC builds in seconds.
You only pay for what you use and can even set a time limit on lab environments so they automatically shut down. This PoC as a service model means lower running costs, when compared with single purchase software.
As you engage prospects, you can monitor their usage and determine whether your sales team should continue to pursue them. You can further control your costs by limiting the length of an invite, reducing the uptime of your virtual machines and helping you eliminate low-quality leads.
Close More Deals with Cloud-Based PoC Demonstrations
If you are looking for a reliable virtual environment from which to showcase your cloud proof of concept, look no further than CloudShare.
CloudShare provides cloud-based PoC solutions that are designed for competitive companies looking to improve their proof of concept processes. The platform allows you to scale your sales efforts through dedicated demos, PoCs, and self-service trials that are designed to boost your conversion rates.
In today’s subscription economy, experiences are crucial in winning over prospects. CloudShare will make sure the experiences you provide during PoC demonstrations are engaging, interactive, and ensure greater sales outcomes.
Request a demo to learn more about how you can use CloudShare to build and prove PoCs to close more deals.
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