The time I realized my PoC needed less feature flash and more political finesse.
At Vectorflow, we were helping LendingTree streamline both their visitor management and employee onboarding processes. Visitor stuff? Easy, we had done it for Atrium Health. But onboarding? That is where things got interesting.
The goal: show in our PoC how we could activate a new hire with minimal HR handholding. Background checks, photo uploads, badge provisioning, progress alerts via WhatsApp, basically a full concierge onboarding pipeline.
But Here Is Where the Champion Saved Me
Our champion, the Director of HR, did not hold the budget. But he did hold sway. I asked him after every planning session:
"Should we include this in the demo? Would this help or distract?"
He always had an answer. And it was always dead-on.
- ❌We skipped features that would confuse HR leadership
- ✅We highlighted real-time progress alerts (their favorite part)
- 🤝We aligned the demo to their process, not ours
The result? The demo did not feel like a tech sprint. It felt like we already worked there.
MEDDPICC in Action
This PoC taught me more about pre-sales strategy than a dozen trainings:
- 🏆Champion: He helped shape the story internally
- 📋Decision Criteria: We asked and prioritized what mattered
- 📊Metrics: We pointed to activation time and HR escalation drops
PoCs are not won by showing what is possible. They are won by showing you understand what matters.
The best demos do not just land, they speak the client's language. And sometimes, the translator is your champion.
More from the SE Blog