Use 13-month contracts with first-month exit clauses to skip separate POC negotiations
Separating POC agreements from commercial agreements doubles your sales cycle—you negotiate POC terms for months, run the POC, then negotiate commercial terms for months again. This wastes enormous time in enterprise sales. Instead, structure contracts as 13-month agreements with a first-month exit clause: either party can exit after the first month if not happy with results or for any reason, otherwise you automatically continue into the full commercial agreement. This collapses two separate negotiation cycles into one, saves months in sales cycle, and creates clear commitment: they're either in or out after month one. The first month effectively serves as the POC without separate paperwork.
When to use
Enterprise sales with long sales cycles. When customers request POCs or pilots before committing. After you've wasted months negotiating POC agreements only to negotiate again for commercial deals. For products that require implementation or integration time where customers want to validate before full commitment. When selling to risk-averse enterprise buyers who want an 'out' before full commitment.
Don't do this
Agreeing to separate POC and commercial agreements thinking it's 'standard' or 'what customers expect.' Negotiating POC terms in detail as if they're the final agreement. Not building exit clauses into contracts to give customers an out. Letting customers dictate contract structure without proposing alternatives that save time. Accepting that enterprise sales 'just takes this long' without questioning the process.
1 Founder Who Did This
Took 8-9 months to close McDonald's POC agreement, then had to negotiate commercial agreement again—adding months to sales cycle. Yosef says: 'It was a POC agreement. We didn't really understand that afterwards we would have to sign another commercial agreement. That was really problematic because you negotiate terms... then after those eight months you have to negotiate again. We made that mistake a few times.' Solution: 'Instead of having a 12 month agreement for an annual contract, we had a 13 month agreement where at the end of that first month there was an exit clause. Either party if they weren't happy could exit. Otherwise you go directly into commercial agreement. That saved a lot of time within the sales cycle.'