Let’s face it—ask any seasoned Solution Engineer about their least favorite part of the job, and they’ll probably say "POC" faster than you can spell it. 

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We all know the drill: you’re already juggling a hundred other tasks, and then—bam!—you’re hit with the dreaded request for a proof of concept and there goes your weekend. It’s like being asked to bake a five-layer cake with ingredients you have to grow yourself. And if we’re being honest, sometimes it feels like those layers just keep stacking up, pushing your time and sanity to the limit.

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But here's the kicker: while POCs might be a pain in the you know what, they’re also the unsung heroes of the sales process. 

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A well-crafted POC isn’t just a demo; it’s the moment your product goes from “interesting” to “irresistible” in the buyer’s eyes. It's the tipping point where deals either slip through your fingers or land squarely in the win column. The trick is figuring out how to deliver a POC that doesn’t monopolize your team.

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Unlocking the Power of POCs: Turning Product Demos into Irresistible Deals

A POC is your chance to show off the goods, and when done right, it’s a game-changer. It’s not just about ticking boxes; it’s about bringing your product to life in a way that resonates deeply with the buyer. Here’s how a top-notch POC can be your secret weapon:

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Creating Immersive Product Experiences

Think of a POC as the ultimate test drive. It’s where buyers can feel the leather, smell the new-car scent, and see how your product fits into their world. This immersive experience isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s what builds trust and confidence, showing buyers exactly how your solution can tackle their specific needs. Simulate real-world scenarios, and you’ll have them imagining how smooth the ride could be.

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Empowering Self-driven Exploration

‍Ever try to steer a ship with a backseat driver? Neither have I, but I imagine it’s a lot like forcing buyers to follow your pitch schedule. The beauty of a POC is that it hands them the keys. 

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Buyers can explore at their own pace, diving into the features and value drivers that matter most to them. It’s like letting them take the wheel and discover the product’s potential impact on their own terms—no hard sell needed.

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Accelerating Sales Cycles

‍When buyers can see, touch, and experience how your solution solves their pain points, the back-and-forth of the sales process disappears. You’re not just telling them it works; you’re showing them, and that speeds things up faster than you can say “closed-won.”

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Overcoming POC Challenges for Presales

As much as we love the results, let’s not sugarcoat the process. POCs are a beast, especially for presales teams. Between the time and resources they gobble up, and the data integration headaches they leave behind, getting a POC off the ground can feel impossible.

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Time and Resource Constraints

‍For presales teams, creating custom sandbox environments for POCs is like trying to build a sandcastle with a teaspoon. It’s labor-intensive, time-consuming, and resource-hungry. 

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Back in my Salesforce days, we’d burn through countless hours crafting these sandboxes, which left us with little bandwidth to tackle new opportunities. It’s no wonder POCs often get the side-eye from the team—they can eat up days, even weeks, of engineering time.

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The Guided Experience Dilemma

Now, here’s where things can get really tricky: providing a guided experience. Handing a customer the keys to a sandbox and saying, "Have at it!" sounds great in theory, but in reality, it’s more like dropping someone in the middle of the woods and expecting them to have fun. 

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Without proper guidance, they’re just going to wander around, maybe stumble upon something interesting, or worse, get completely lost. A POC needs to strike that balance between giving the customer freedom to explore and ensuring they’re not lost in the wilderness. Otherwise, you’re left with a frustrated customer who’s more likely to walk away than convert.

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Lack of Analytics & Integrations

‍And if building the sandbox wasn’t enough of a slog, once you’ve deployed the POC, you’ve got another uphill battle: making sense of the data. It’s tough to capture and integrate sandbox usage data into your CRM, marketing automation, and customer service tools. Without these insights, you’re flying blind, missing out on critical opportunities to engage with prospects and guide them through the buying journey.

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Providing Sandbox Experiences Has Been a Struggle, Until Now

Let’s be real—building and maintaining sandbox environments has been like trying to run a marathon with a piano strapped to your back. The time, cost, and expertise required have been massive roadblocks, making these invaluable tools feel more like a luxury than a standard part of the sales process. But hang on to your hats, because that’s all about to change.

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Consensus’ Strategic Acquisition: ReachSuite

Drumroll, please... We're beyond thrilled to announce that Consensus has just
acquired ReachSuite! These folks are on a mission to create efficient and delightful buying experiences, which fits hand-in-glove with our obsession with simplifying complex B2B sales. This isn’t just another tech acquisition; this is the final piece of the puzzle, the secret sauce that’s going to turbocharge our platform and finally make live automated sandboxes a reality for everyone.

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Why We Chose ReachSuite

Shared Vision & Mission

‍At Consensus, we’re all about making life easier for Solution Engineers and buyers alike. ReachSuite gets that—probably because they’ve been laser-focused on improving the buying experience from day one. 

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By bringing their technology into the Consensus fold, we’re expanding our capabilities to include live automated sandboxes, creating a more complete, seamless experience that’s sure to blow the socks off our customers.

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Expanding Consensus’ Tech Capabilities

With ReachSuite’s tech in our toolkit, we’re not just covering the bases; we’re hitting home runs at every stage of the buyer’s journey, from awareness right through to expansion. This means presales teams can whip up POCs in no time flat—what used to take weeks can now be done in seconds. 

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And that, my friends, is the kind of time-saving magic that lets you focus on the high-impact activities that really move the needle.

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Unified Experience for Buyers & Sellers

This isn’t just a win for us—it’s a win for everyone. Presales teams get to deliver a more complete, data-driven product simulation, and buyers? They get to roll up their sleeves and dive into a hands-on, real-time interaction with the product. It’s like moving from a test drive to a full-on joyride. 

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And for sellers, the integration of sandbox usage data with existing sales and marketing tools opens up a whole new world of insights that’ll drive smarter strategies and more successful campaigns.

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Empowering Presales Teams and Buyers

Time and Resources Saver

‍Here’s the kicker: the biggest win from this acquisition is the massive time-saver it offers presales teams. No more laboring away for days or weeks to build sandbox environments. Now, with a few clicks, you’ve got a relevant, data-rich environment ready to go. 

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That means you can finally focus your expertise where it’s needed most, leading to more wins, happier buyers, and a lot less stress.

Full Coverage Across Buyer Journey

‍By adding ReachSuite’s technology to the Consensus platform, presales teams will now have the power to support buyers at every step of their journey. Whether you’re guiding prospects in the awareness phase or delivering detailed POCs during the purchase phase, our platform has got your back. 

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Driving Buyer Empowerment

‍At the end of the day, it’s all about empowering buyers. When they get real-time, hands-on experience with the product, they’re better equipped to make informed decisions. This leads to more engagement, faster sales cycles, and higher satisfaction all around—a win-win for everyone.

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Watch the Demo

Curious to see how this all works in action? Check out our demo to see firsthand how Consensus and ReachSuite are shaking up the presales process and making life easier for everyone involved.

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Written by: 

Todd Janzen, SVP of Buyer Enablement & Customer Success at Consensus

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