Our Goal: $100

To confirm if you have an early adopter on your hands, you have to prove their willingness and ability to pay. Our goal is to make $100 in this step to hold ourselves accountable. To be clear, a willingness and ability to pay means that the customer:

• Pulls out their wallet
• Gives you their credit card info
• Uses their budget
• Signs an LOI

Strategy

If you were able to get your customer to pay for your pilot test solution (concierge, tool, prototype), awesome! You're on the right track. If you haven't been able to get your early adopters to pay, don't give up just yet. In addition to analyzing what is missing from your product, try the following:

• Letter of Intent (LOI) for B2B: when you aren't ready to deliver the solution yet to a business customer, your sales pitch and any follow-up pitches need to lead you to an LOI. An LOI outlines the terms of a deal and serves as an 'agreement to agree' between two parties. The customer uses it to make a soft commitment to using your product in the future. You'll want to negotiate pricing, what constitutes a successful delivery of the solution, timeframe, etc.
• Return to doing pitch tests to validate your solution through other types of commitment. Return to Pitch Test.
• Similar to the above bullet, see if your customer is willing to compensate you for your pilot in other valuable currencies besides money:
  • Time: their time can be incredibly valuable, so if you can get them to spend a lot of time doing something to access your product, including participating in your very inefficient concierge test, you may be looking at a potential early adopter
  • Data/Information: this can be anything from their email and phone number to more personal information
  • Introductions: you're looking for warm introductions to key decision-makers in their organization, other potential customers, or experts. A willingness to share their professional contacts, in particular, is a sign of confidence in you and your idea.
  • Review/Testimonials: If they are willing to provide reviews, these can help lend you credibility with future customers.

Collecting Money

At this point, you're experimenting (with minimal amounts of money), so we recommend starting with a PayPal (link) account. If you start collecting more money consistently, you should switch to a Stripe account (link). You will need a bank account and to register as an LLC or corporation. We recommend Stripe Atlas (link) or Clerky (link) for help with this. Both Paypal and Stripe can connect to Squarespace if you have a website.

✅ Do It: Plan for Payment

Look through the Pilot Tests that you're interested in running from the last activity link. Are you able to charge for them? If so, how much would you charge? If not, what alternative type of commitment can you ask for? Also, consider adding another pilot test that can give you some affirmation around willingness to pay.

Workbook Link