Billing for Demos/Proof of Concepts

**jmo21** · 6 January 2015, 10:17

I wouldn't work 2 weeks for free that's for sure.

**sal** · 6 January 2015, 10:24

Originally posted by jmo21 View Post

I wouldn't work 2 weeks for free that's for sure.

^This, but YMMV

**tractor** · 6 January 2015, 10:56

...

Originally posted by BillHicksRIP View Post

Just wondering what the consensus is regarding billing potential customers for demos and proof of concepts? Is it the done thing to bill a potential customer for either? I'm happy to cover expenses and time for a demo of a couple of hours but what would you do for a week or 2-week long PoC/PoT? Bill your daily rate as normal?

What the others have said but it would also depend upon the value of what you are demoing/proving. If it was a product that you would bill £100k for, then perhaps day rate with a discount upon purchase would be viable? It would be up to you to negotiate what that discount should be. That has the potential for a win/win.

**Antman** · 6 January 2015, 11:00

Well you said potential customers, so you want to sell to them at some point so I'd go low thinking that I'd recoup it on the sale.

Is it 5 -10 days per customer or just for a demo you can show to any customer?

**BillHicksRIP** · 6 January 2015, 11:23

Thanks for the replies. It would be 5-10 days per customer as the solution I'd be demo'ing would be tailored to fit their particular site.

**tomtomagain** · 6 January 2015, 11:35

I wouldn't spend 5 - 10 days on a speculative demo for a customer without being very sure that I would win the business.

I do about 3 demo's a week to customers and it takes no more than an hour to set up and one hour to do. They are very useful way of getting feedback, gathering future product ideas and to get to "know your customers".

I find that an over-detailed and customised demo can be very undermining.

The potential customer thinks "He's done all the work already" ( and therefore it's cheap! ) OR they begin to look for reasons why it wont work. Far better to show them the potential and then quote for work to implement their vision rather than to mock the work up and then hope it's what they really want!

I am also very wary of demo'ing to consultancies ( whom I deal a lot with ) often they are just fact finding and preparing themselves for a bid with the end client. They haven't won the work, they just want to look good. Consultancies will often ask a whole-load of IT questions that a business person who is just looking for a solution to her problem wont. For example "What's your SLA?" , "Are you an ITIL based organisation" blah blah blah.

I certainly won't make any code changes for a demo. That is going too far.

Billing for Demos/Proof of Concepts