The only reason you should be giving customers a free trial is because you believe that after experiencing its value they’ll decide your product is the right one. The common approach to 30-day free trials obsesses over days 28, 29, and 30 where the customer is seemingly making their decision. In practice if a customer has made it this far they’re almost certainly going to convert; the real “will we or won’t we” decisions are made much, much earlier. Remember, people are happy to pay for great products. Every customer who signs up for your product and starts a trial wants to become a customer. What you need to do during their trial is convince them your product is the right one. The way to do that isn’t automated mails one day before the trial ends, it’s to ensure they experience your solution early and often.
The way technology is sold to businesses has changed fundamentally in the last decade. As a result, so has the role of customer support teams in helping to close sales. In the old world, potential customers rang a vendor to arrange a trial, a demo at their offices would be scheduled with a sales rep, and assuming that went well, negotiations about the price would get started. SaaS has turned all that on its head. Potential customers want to sign up for free trials, explore product documentation and talk to existing customers – preferably without having even talked to anyone at the vendor company.
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