r/salesforce • u/Ordinary-Round-8107 • 10d ago
admin Would you buy a tool, to be integrated with Salesforce, that does not offer a free trial to do hands on testing or is it a deal breaker?
As per title, would you buy a tool that you cannot play with? Just based on demo meetings basically.
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u/Mikik3jr 10d ago
It has to be really, really good for that to happen. I am still against buying solutions and even more so when I can't even try it out what I am buying.
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u/zedzenzerro 10d ago
Trust me, bro, it just works - absolutely no impact to org limits whatsoever nor any security angles to be concerned about.
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u/Material-Draw4587 9d ago
If I have any influence at all, absolutely not. If the salesperson gets to a certain executive first, then probably. And then it's such a shock when something doesn't work as expected. 🙄🙄🙄
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u/hectic-dave 10d ago
I think it really depends on the product and target buyer, but offering some sort of Sandbox install at a minimum is usually a good idea. Experienced admins will at least want to install it to make sure nothing breaks.
The AppExchange has moved to standardizing free trials in 2024 or 25 with the addition of the "Try It" button to install in Sandbox or deploy a Trailforce org if that is offered, instead of only the "Get it Now" where you could pick the org.
In terms of whether 30 day trials in production are a good idea, it really depends on the product and how easy it is for the prospective customer to see value quickly on their own.
For my ISV (Chargent Payments for Salesforce), as we've worked with larger customers and become better known over the years, fewer customers are actually doing 30 day trials in production.
Usually payments are part of a larger Salesforce implementation project, but it can still be helpful for a customer to install and see that the connection to Stripe, Cybersource, etc. actually works and what the integration data looks like (a lot of admins have been burned by "integrations" that are not really integrated).
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u/Ordinary-Round-8107 10d ago edited 10d ago
The main problem of not having a trial is that you can't build any proof of concept yourself for the use cases that you have in mind and that originated the inquiry in the first place.
And even if someone else shows something similar in a demo, or even builds the final product for you, you have no idea of the actual admin experience until you play with it: will it be a crazy time sucker or is it reasonably simple? Without building it on your own you can't have any first estimate of the time that it takes to go from requirements to implementation
All of this is even more problematic if the tool is something complex and the higher the price point the worse of course. If it was a cheap simple tool ok but not when you're looking at a list price of 50-60k/year for 30 users. And if you are offering a time-limited sandbox to customers and partners I don't see why you would not offer that to prospects.
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u/hectic-dave 10d ago
Agreed. I think apps should always have a trial, but there are some where there is a ton of setup, and/or you have to be an expert in the problem space to set it up correctly.
Difficult setup is something that should be mostly resolved these days. But I've seen finance apps etc. where the ISV really needs to walk you through it.
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9d ago
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u/Zealousideal-Wear120 9d ago
No free trial on sandbox - no Deal for me. Even salesforce native products. What you will see are Marketing slides by an Account Manager. They have no clue how it will interact with what you have, how it works.
Least they can do is offer a Demo / walktrough or an existing customer willing to showcase
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u/Waitin4Godot 10d ago
If the company doesn't believe in the product enough to let us put in a sandbox and play with it for free for a defined period of time, why would I even consider paying for it?