From Proof of Concept to Proof of Value
A Proof of Concept (PoC) tests whether the product works in the customer’s environment. A Proof of Value (PoV) tests whether it delivers the business outcomes the economic buyer has agreed to. I train Sales Engineers to agree, run and hand over the second kind.
What is agreed before a Proof of Value starts
- 01
The outcomes
Two to four business outcomes, in the customer’s own words, agreed by the economic buyer. Without that agreement the proof has no business case to serve.
- 02
The capabilities
The minimum capabilities the customer needs to reach those outcomes, defined together with the customer.
- 03
The use cases
Small pieces of the customer’s own work that show those capabilities, chosen in business-critical areas where the product differs from the alternatives.
- 04
The success criteria
Written down and agreed with the people who will judge the result, with test cases collected early and the customer’s application inspected before the start.
- 05
The go or no-go
The account executive and the Sales Engineer confirm with the economic buyer that the outcomes, the timeline and the step after a successful proof are agreed before technical validation begins.
Three people read the result.
The economic buyer reads a Proof of Value for the business case. The deal champion reads it for whether the right tool is being put in place. The technical champion reads it for how the product works in detail.
The Sales Engineer leads the stage and prepares the result for all three, while the account executive runs the commercial path around it. When the proof is done, the team decides internally whether to go to a proposal.
Bugs and missing features found during a proof reach Product through an agreed route, so a blocking issue gets an answer while the proof is still running.
Business Value Assessment
Some customers need a business case before they commit to a proof. A Business Value Assessment is a set of stakeholder interviews over two to three days about current tools, current problems, the state the customer wants to reach, the capabilities that requires and the measures that define success.
The interviews become a business case tied to the customer’s own goals, a roadmap and a narrower set of test criteria for the Proof of Value. The customer’s people help shape it, which widens support for the investment inside the company.
At Fuze I led assessments with 15 to 20 stakeholder interviews.
From technical win to success plan
When the customer decides, the value presentation and the Proof of Value success criteria become the customer’s success plan. Customer Success and the Sales Engineer prepare the handover together, and later business reviews follow adoption and the outcomes the customer set out to reach.
How teams train on it
Teams work on their own current or upcoming proofs. Senior Sales Engineers can take it as Value and proof for senior Sales Engineers, and for a whole team it becomes part of Team training on your own deals.
The team keeps a success-criteria template, an interview guide for Business Value Assessments and a handover outline for Customer Success.
A value case in one deal draws on the company’s shared account of why customers buy. Where that account is missing, it is built with the leadership team in the GTM Excellence and the Value Framework work.
I was Global Head of Sales Engineering at Leapwork from 2020 to 2023. I work in Danish and English, in Copenhagen or online.
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