Always charge for POCs to force customer commitment and start vendor onboarding—free puts you bottom of priority list
Giving POCs for free signals to enterprise buyers that your solution isn't valuable and puts you at the bottom of their priority list. Charging even a small amount ($3,000-$5,000) accomplishes two critical things: (1) Forces the customer to have skin in the game—they take you seriously because money is being invested, and (2) Starts the vendor onboarding process—you become an actual vendor in their system, opening up procurement, going through legal, getting into their system. Free POCs never get prioritized because the customer has no commitment or consequence for ignoring you. The price doesn't have to be large—it just has to be non-zero to trigger these dynamics.
When to use
Enterprise sales when customers request POCs or pilots before committing to full contracts. Any B2B sale where the customer wants to 'test' the product before buying. When you're getting lots of interest but POCs drag on indefinitely without converting. Particularly important for complex products where implementation effort is significant.
Don't do this
Offering free POCs thinking it removes friction and makes it easier for customers to try. Waiving fees for 'strategic' customers hoping they'll convert faster. Competing on price by offering free trials when enterprise competitors charge for POCs. Accepting customers' arguments that they 'need to validate before spending.'
2 Founders Who Did This
Yosef learned through experience: 'If you give anything for free, you're bottom of the food chain. No one's going to really take you seriously. You need everyone to have a little bit of skin in the game. If it's $3,000-$5,000 just to show they're serious. That does two things. One, they're going to take you seriously because there is some money being invested. And two, you're actually starting the onboarding process. You're going to be an actual vendor. They're going to open that up for you, go through procurement, legal. Always make sure you charge something.'
Always charged for POCs with 10-20% of total contract value as minimum commitment, set firm time limits of 2-6 months