Proof of concept
pee-oh-SEE
A limited trial where the prospect tests your product in their environment to prove it works for their specific use case.
A POC is a structured trial. The prospect installs your product, connects it to their systems, and tests whether it works for their specific requirements. It is more rigorous than a demo and less commitment than a purchase.
POCs are common in enterprise sales, especially for infrastructure and developer tools. The buyer wants to verify claims. They want to see your product handle their data volume, integrate with their stack, and perform under their load patterns. A demo can be scripted. A POC cannot.
The risk with POCs is scope creep. What starts as a two-week test balloons into a two-month free consulting engagement. Set clear success criteria before the POC begins. Define what 'pass' looks like. Agree on a timeline. And make sure the economic buyer has committed that a successful POC leads to a purchase decision, not another round of evaluation.
Examples
A structured two-week POC.
The prospect agrees to a 14-day POC. Success criteria: process 100k events per second with sub-50ms latency. The SE sets up the environment in the first two days. The prospect runs production-like traffic for a week. Results: 120k events/sec at 38ms latency. POC passes.
A POC reveals an integration gap.
During the POC, the prospect discovers that the product does not support their custom authentication scheme. The SE escalates to engineering. The team builds a workaround in 48 hours. The POC passes but the AE notes this as a feature request for the product team.
A POC without clear success criteria drags on.
The prospect keeps adding requirements: 'Can it also do X? What about Y?' After six weeks, there is no clear pass/fail. The AE calls a meeting to reset: define three specific criteria, set a one-week deadline, and get the economic buyer to commit to a decision timeline.
In practice
Read more on the blog
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a POC and a pilot?
A POC proves the product can work. A pilot proves the product works at production scale with real users. POCs are typically shorter (1-4 weeks) and smaller in scope. Pilots are longer (1-3 months) and involve broader deployment. Some companies skip the POC and go straight to a paid pilot.
Should POCs be free?
It depends on the deal size and your leverage. For large enterprise deals, free POCs are standard. For mid-market deals, some companies charge a nominal fee to ensure commitment. The key is that a successful POC should have a clear path to a paid contract.
Related terms
A structured evaluation that proves not just that the product works, but that it delivers measurable business value.
The point in the sales process where the prospect's technical team confirms your product meets their requirements.
The technical counterpart to the account executive. Runs demos, answers technical questions, and proves the product works.
A live product demonstration tailored to the prospect's use case. Not a feature walkthrough. A story about their problem and your solution.
The average time from first contact with a prospect to closed-won deal. Longer for enterprise, shorter for self-serve.
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