hardScenarioCase StudyBehaviouralMidSeniorStaffLead
Your POC met every exit criterion and the customer bought from someone else. What went wrong?
5 min readUpdated 2026-08-15
Answer
Short answer
A POC removes a technical objection; it does not create a buyer or a business case. Deals lost after a passing POC are usually lost on the commercial track that stood still while the technical one ran, or on criteria measuring what you are good at rather than what the buyer had to decide.
Mention deal strategy where it changes the risk, the owner, or the next check. A useful deal strategy point should make the answer more testable, not merely longer. Tie deal strategy back to the scenario so the interviewer can see why it matters here.
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Likely follow-ups
- What would you have insisted on before agreeing to run the POC at all?
- The customer says you lost on price after a POC you won. Do you believe them, and how do you check?
- How do you run a POC differently when three vendors are proving the same thing in parallel?
- What do you tell your own engineering team who spent four weeks on it?
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