Importance of Free Software Product Trials

As a followup to the earlier post on the Best Sales Model for Enterprise 2.0 and 3.0 software companies; Tien Tzuo goes into a bit more detail on the importance of offering a free software product trial.

Free Software trials are equally important for both Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 companies.

1. William Janus , January 1, 2008:

   One aspect of the software trial that was not talked about in the video(unless I missed it) is what % of trial customers turn into paying customers at the end of the trial period.

   This is where a larger company would have advantage over a startup in that the startup has to convert as many of the trials into paying customers as quickly as possible where a large company can get by with a much smaller % of conversion but make up for it with volume.

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2. Ameed Taylor , January 7, 2008:

   William,

   You are right in that larger companies with a larger number of sales staff devoted to “nurturing” (touching base with trial customers during 30 day trial) will have an advantage over startups or smaller emerging companies.

   But there are lots of tools available in modern CRM and contact tools for example that can automate at least some of the effort required in followup and should help even the field for smaller On Demand Software Companies

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