How to test a provider with a pilot
Buy the smallest project the provider sells, insist that it runs on your real data, and judge the result you can read rather than the demo you were shown. At Raze Drops a pilot sits at the bottom of the $300 to $9,000 range and ends with a working piece you keep.
On this page
What should a pilot prove?
Three things: that the provider understood the problem, that the thing works on your data rather than a demo set, and that you can read the result without anyone explaining it to you.
| What the pilot tests | What a pass looks like |
|---|---|
| Did they understand the problem | The proposal describes your business, not a generic one |
| Does it work on real data | It runs on your leads, orders or bookings, with you watching |
| Can you read the result | You can tell it worked without a call to explain it |
| Do you own what was built | It keeps running on your accounts if you walk away |
The fourth row is the one people forget to ask about. A pilot that leaves you with nothing is a demo you paid for.
What are the signs to walk away?
A refusal to start small, a price that arrives before the questions, and a demo running on data that is not yours. Any one of those is enough.
The refusal to start small is the clearest signal. A provider confident in their work will happily sell you the smallest version of it, because they expect the second project. A provider who insists on the full engagement up front is either pricing for a failure rate or has nothing small that works.
The second signal is a proposal that could have been sent to anyone. If the document does not name your tools, your channels and your actual process, nobody has looked at your business yet, and the price in it is a guess.
The third is subtler. Watch what the demo is running on. A polished interface full of invented records tells you about their design, not about whether it works on the mess you actually have.
What happens after a pilot works?
You already own the working piece, so the second project starts from something real rather than from a deck. The scope of the full build is usually smaller than either side guessed at the start.
That is the unglamorous benefit of piloting. Half of what an owner describes in a first message turns out to be two problems wearing one coat, and a pilot separates them before anyone has committed to a number for the wrong build. It is cheaper for you and it is cheaper for us, which is why we sell it.
What does a pilot cost here?
The bottom of the $300 to $9,000 range, and it ends with a working piece that stays yours whether or not you continue [1]. The proposal states the number and the date before anything is signed.
The whole range and what moves the price is on the pricing page, and the cost of an agent specifically is worked through in how much does a custom AI agent cost. The five steps of a project are on how we work.
Tell us what went wrong last time on the contact page, and you get a proposal and a price before any deal is signed.
Sources
- Raze Drops price list, 2026Accessed