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Free Demo-to-Pilot Check · 6 pages · PDF + template

Should you buy this software?

A practical review for any business considering software, automation or AI. Define the job, check the evidence, and choose the next step. You leave with a score, the gaps still open, and a decision your team can use.

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Cover of the Demo-to-Pilot Check: Should you buy this software? Define the job, check the evidence, choose the next step. For a CRM, booking system, finance tool, operations platform or AI assistant.

What's inside

  1. Score the work. Five checks, each from 0 to 2: business value against today's process, the real workflow end to end, your data and connections, your business rules, and how it handles exceptions and failure. A vendor claim alone is not verification.
  2. Score the implementation. Five more: human control, data use and access, team and operations, the full cost including exit, and an agreed pilot with targets. The total out of 20 shows how much is proven, not whether to go live.
  3. Four gates, no averaging. Required work, permitted data, controlled actions and a bounded pilot. All four must pass. Eighteen out of 20 with a failed gate is still a hold.
  4. Decide what happens next. Hold and retest, reject, or consider a limited pilot, and how to judge that pilot against agreed targets, controls and total cost.
  5. Your decision, in writing. A one-page record: who decides, the task and its acceptance condition, each gap with an owner and a deadline, and the pilot's limits and stop rule. The same review comes as a copyable text template.

A look inside

Page 2: Score the work. 0 unproven or failed, 1 partly shown, 2 verified for your intended use. Business value, real workflow, data and connections, your business rules, exceptions and failure.
Page 2 · Score the work
Page 3, blurred: score the implementation. In the full guide. Page 4, blurred: four gates, no averaging. In the full guide. Page 5, blurred: decide what happens next. In the full guide. Page 6, blurred: your decision, in writing. In the full guide. Get all 6 pages by email

Who it's for

Founders and business owners about to buy a CRM, booking system, finance tool, operations platform or AI assistant, especially after a demo that looked impressive. Use it before you sign, and use the same checks to compare vendors.

A demo shows one task going well. Your business runs on your records, your rules and the cases that go wrong. Let the demo earn your attention; make the evidence earn your investment. For the decisions to make before any AI project, see Before you tell your team to “add AI”.