> Or somebody evaluating the options before deciding. Or somebody just making something the quickest way possible, leaving slow decisions for later... This is

> Or somebody evaluating the options before deciding. Or somebody just making something the quickest way possible, leaving slow decisions for later... This is exactly it. I've been both with and without purchasing authority. WITH purchasing authority, at many organizations, I still need paperwork and approvals. To give an extreme example, try working for an EU government agency.... My patterns definitely fit the ones described. 95% of the time, I create an account, and nothing comes of it: * I try five tools, and pick one. * I try five tools, and pick zero. * I do a weekend hackathon, and there is no business case * I do a weekend hackathon, there is a business case, but yours isn't the right product ... etc. But 5% of the time, there's a conversion, and with big orgs, quite often a big $$$ conversion. Those 95% cost you nearly nothing, or act as discovery (I rarely make a support call, but if I do make one, it's valuable to you). As a footnote, in many industries, you give actual, physical products which cost $$$ for free (e.g. an IC) for this reason. Some of these do put up gateways to make sure I'm from a place which might go from 1 sample to buying 10,000 (or an ed institution). I don't think those are a good fit, but I do think it's possible (and not too difficult) to screen out abuse in most cases.