# Reducing the buyer's risk > Proof each person on the buying side can use, and a pilot that ends in a clear yes or no. - Course: [B2B Marketing and Sales: Win Your First Company Customers](https://productovi.com/courses/b2b-marketing-and-sales.md) - Module: Who buys, and why it takes seven people - Lesson 3/32, ~25 min - Source: https://productovi.com/courses/b2b-marketing-and-sales/reducing-the-buyers-risk ## What the finance director is really asking **Alex Tutor:** You're still Klasna for Teams' first marketing-and-sales hire, and you know who sits around Veloria's table. Today: the question that stalls most deals. **Pavlo:** Our finance director read the proposal. Her question wasn't the price: what if our people stop attending after two weeks? **Alex Tutor:** Note what she didn't ask: "what do we get?" A feature list won't help. A company buyer mostly avoids a loss: a rollout nobody uses, a wasted budget, looking foolish in front of the CEO. **Marta:** She's right to ask. At 800 UAH a lesson, a lesson nobody shows up for is money paid for nothing, and her signature is on the invoice. **Alex Tutor:** So your job is to lower the **buyer's risk** with proof she can use: something she can check, call, test or hold you to. Not louder claims. > **Exercise:** **True or false:** a company buyer decides mainly by the size of the possible gain, so the best answer to a worried finance director is a longer list of benefits. ## Proof for each person at the table **Alex Tutor:** Each person at the table guards against a different risk, so each needs different proof. **Pavlo:** I proposed English for the dispatchers. If it flops, it's on me. **Alex Tutor:** Then you need a reference you can call: an HR manager at a current Teams client who'll say honestly how it went. A phone number, not a quote on a slide. **Marta:** We have a few small Teams clients, none in logistics. I'd rather say that than pretend otherwise. **Alex Tutor:** The finance director needs numbers she can check against her own records: lessons scheduled, attended, billed. Plus a way out if it doesn't work. **Alex Tutor:** IT security and legal will ask about employees' data: what's collected, where it's stored, who sees it, when it's deleted. Have that answer written before they ask. > **Exercise:** Match each person's risk at Veloria with the proof that lowers it. ## Proof that backfires **Sofia:** Our website says "trusted by leading companies". Can I put that in the deck for Veloria? **Alex Tutor:** Which companies? A finance director reads that as "they couldn't name one". A vague claim doesn't lower risk; it adds a question. **Marta:** And no made-up quotes. Someone drafted one "from the HR director of a large logistics company". We have no such client. One phone call, and the whole deck is in doubt. **Alex Tutor:** Same with guarantees: promise only what you can keep. Klasna can replace a tutor within a week; it has many English tutors. It can't promise "fluent in three months". > **Exercise:** A colleague's draft proof pack for Veloria has six items. Which ones actually **lower** the buyer's risk? ## A pilot that decides something **Pavlo:** Could we just try it for free first? A month, and see how people feel? **Alex Tutor:** A trial is a good idea; "see how people feel" isn't. A **pilot** has a group, a length, a measure agreed in advance and a date when someone says yes or no. **Alex Tutor:** Look at Pavlo's wording again: what exactly does his version lack? > **Exercise:** Pavlo suggests: "Could we just try it for a month and see how people feel?" What is missing for this to be a pilot that decides something? **Marta:** And free isn't free. Assume twelve dispatchers, two lessons a week, four weeks: 96 lessons. Tutor plus video is 461 UAH a lesson: 44,256 UAH from our pocket. **Alex Tutor:** With nothing at stake, nobody at Veloria watches the results. Offer it paid at the usual 800 UAH, 76,800 in total, credited to the contract if Veloria signs. **Alex Tutor:** Check Marta's arithmetic yourself before we go on. > **Exercise:** Veloria's assumed pilot: 12 dispatchers, 2 lessons a week, 4 weeks. Each lesson costs Klasna 461 UAH (tutor and video). How much would a **free** pilot cost Klasna? In UAH. **Sofia:** Who goes in? The keenest people, so the numbers look good? **Alex Tutor:** One real team that looks like the rollout: dispatchers on normal shifts, keen or not. Hand-picked enthusiasts tell you nothing about everyone else. > **Exercise:** Who should take part in Veloria's four-week pilot? ## What decides yes **Alex Tutor:** Now the measure. She asked about attendance, so that's line one: the share of scheduled lessons people actually attend. **Marta:** What number, though? I won't quote an industry average I can't source. **Alex Tutor:** Don't. Agree the bar with Veloria before the start, say three in four scheduled lessons attended. Their target, written down, not a benchmark. **Alex Tutor:** Line two is progress: the same short level check in week one and week four. Line three is the decision: who decides, on which date, and what happens on a no. **Pavlo:** So if attendance is under the bar, we stop and owe nothing more? Then she can say yes. > **Exercise:** Which of these belong in the written pilot agreement with Veloria? **Alex Tutor:** Attendance is settled. Now line two, progress: how would you measure it? > **Exercise:** Line two of the pilot criteria is progress. Which measure fits best? ## Your turn: three lines for Thursday **Marta:** Pavlo sees the finance director on Thursday. He needs the pilot's success criteria in three lines. **Alex Tutor:** Use our assumptions: twelve dispatchers, two lessons a week, four weeks, 96 lessons. Attendance, progress, decision. **Pavlo:** Keep it short, please. She reads the last line first. **Alex Tutor:** Then make the last line the decision: who, when, and what a no means. > **Exercise:** Write the success criteria for Veloria's 4-week pilot in **three lines** Pavlo can read to the finance director: attendance, progress, decision. Use the assumptions from the lesson (one dispatch team of 12, two lessons a week, 96 lessons). > **Key ideas** > > - A company buyer is mostly **avoiding a loss**: a failed rollout, a wasted budget, looking foolish. Answer the risk, not with more features. > - Give each role proof it can use: a reference to call (HR), checkable numbers and an exit (finance), a written data answer (IT security and legal), a schedule around shifts (team leads), a replacement tutor within a week (learners). > - Never use invented testimonials or vague "trusted by" lines; promise only guarantees you can keep. > - A **pilot** has one real team, a fixed length, success criteria agreed before the start, a decision date and an exit. Assumed example: 12 people × 2 lessons × 4 weeks = 96 lessons, 76,800 UAH at 800, credited against the contract; free, it would cost Klasna 44,256 UAH in tutor and video costs alone. **Alex Tutor:** Next comes the case: you'll map Veloria's whole committee before the first meeting. - Previous lesson: [Three buying situations: first-time, renewal, switch](https://productovi.com/courses/b2b-marketing-and-sales/three-buying-situations.md) - Next lesson: [Case: map Veloria's buying committee](https://productovi.com/courses/b2b-marketing-and-sales/map-the-committee-case.md) --- Productovi Learning. Free, no sign-up needed to read.