Sales enablement

The Art of the POC: How to Convert More Leads into Customers

team@cloudshare.com

Oct 15, 2022 - 3 min read
The Art of the POC: How to Convert More Leads into Customers

POC (Proof of Concept) is an underrated topic—but it’s not discussed enough. It should be, though, as they act as a blueprint of your product before it’s finalized. 

To shine more light on POCs and its many benefits, we invited Akshat Srivastava, the founder of SENY (Sales Engineer of New York) and the solution architecture leader at AWS Solutions to discuss this as part of our community discussions. 

Akshat has over 15 years of experience in this field, including roles at companies like IBM, AppDynamics, and AWS. 

Despite starting his career as an app developer, everything he learned about sales engineering was through personal experience. 

At SENY, he’s bringing whatever he’s learned in almost two decades—to empower the next generation of sales leaders.

The insights Akshat offered will help your sales engineers and teams:

  • Qualify a deal with a game plan
  • Know what it takes to conduct a successful discovery meetup
  • Create a to-do list before PoC
  • Present the results to executives 

Turning Prospects Into Customers

Discovery is an art—and the only way to get critical answers. 

Before a POC, you must qualify if the person is a valid prospect. 

Once you do, identify their pain points and determine whether your technology or software will solve it. In our discussion, you’ll find examples with tips to go from having absolutely no idea about your prospect’s problems to a deep understanding of their problems on a discovery call. 

Some key takeaways from the session include: 

  • Keep the compliments genuine
  • Ask for a story—to understand what brought them here
  • Ask questions that trigger follow-up questions 

How Does PoV Relate To PoC?

Askhat explained how the PoC environment and communication of the product’s value builds the PoV (Proof Of Value).

While POC emphasizes the concept and feasibility of your solution, PoV shows your prospect how to add tangible value to your prospect’s business.

Every business needs a solution that fits their needs—perfectly—even if that’s not always the case. This is where a POC can demonstrate how your solution is the missing piece of the puzzle. 

Plus, when you offer a POC solution with a solid valuation analysis, it becomes much easier to close the deal. However, it involves a technical deep dive with internal decision-makers, business line managers, and/or data analysts.

AWS PoC uses different methods like SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats), PESTLE (Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Legal, and Environmental) analysis, and more to evaluate if your product has potential. 

Without adequate data, you’ll convert your demos to PoCs, but not into deals. That’s where PoVs help you stand out, given you’ve done intensive technical deep dive with your evaluators.

Find Your Champion And Present The Results

Once the PoV/PoC process is done, in comes the hour of decision. To present the results, arm your reps with all the technical know-how. 

To do this, Askhat explained the executive playback process, which includes:

  • Reiterating the PoV plan
  • 3 Whys (Why by anything, Why by X, and Why now)
  • BVA (Business Value Assessment)

He tells us why taking these steps safeguards you from any hitches in sealing the deal with your customers, and how you can save time by deep-diving into a solution. 

Access The Best PoC Sales Tips For Free

This exclusive CloudShare community virtual meetup helps the SE (Sales Engineer) team create a process that focuses on problem-solving and lets you explore your solution in not one but multiple problem-inducing environments. 

If you’re a sales professional, you need to watch this as it’ll not only help you build your selling skills—but also allow you to keep a tab on industry best practices! 

Access the virtual meetup to get exclusive information originally only available for community members. Now, access it whenever you want and turn your POC offering into a result-driving step. 

Plus, you get to learn from Akshat’s real-life implementation of the process, who is to date considered one of the best in the field. If you want to learn how to make the most out of your POCs, he’s the one you need to learn from. From discovery to executive buy-in, it’s got everything you need to know! 

Here’s what the session includes in detail:

  • Discovery
  • Cloud PoC
  • PoV vs. PoC 
  • The TDD vs. PoV plan
  • How to leverage your champion
  • How to present the results to the executives

Sounds interesting? Watch the session and take your POCs to the next level!