As B2B marketers continue to pinch pennies, a post last summer by Adam Blitzer at the B2B Marketing ROI blog deserves a second look. The question Blitzer addresses is this: For B2B prospecting, are free trials better than paid pilot programs?

While Blitzer acknowledges that offering free trials to prospects may be cost-effective for companies providing "simpler, less-expensive solutions," he also lists some problems that they can pose. Among them:

• The prospect "has little skin in the game and may not be in a hurry to implement the trial solution during the assigned period," he writes.
• The product is likely to be too vast for the client to "wander through without significant guidance from the vendor."
• "To be most effective in terms of converting the prospect, the vendor must fully implement, train, and support the free trial as though [the prospect] were a full-paying client," he notes.

He then lists the advantages of offering a paid pilot program. Among his points:

• The prospect company has a sense of urgency when implementing the product because it is paying for it.
• It may increase the likelihood of the prospect's getting buy-in from other stakeholders because some money has already been committed.
• Internally, you can pay your sales rep something when the prospect converts, making it feel more like a tangible "win."

"If you are only using the free-trial method currently, I encourage you to also take a look at paid pilots," Blitzer concludes. "You may find that it works out better for both you and your prospects."

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