# Willingness-to-Pay Evidence Ladder

Canonical: https://signalcraftinsights.tech/free-tools/willingness-to-pay-evidence-ladder

Classify the strongest commercial commitment you have observed:

0. Compliment or hypothetical interest
1. Signup or waitlist
2. Time, data or stakeholder commitment
3. Budget and approval path
4. Deposit or paid pilot
5. Purchase
6. Repeat purchase, renewal or expansion

Each level supports a narrower claim. A paid pilot shows that at least one buyer accepted a defined exchange under specific conditions. It does not prove retention, scalable acquisition or broad demand.

The ladder identifies a next stronger test. It does not produce a startup viability score.

Read [What Counts as Evidence of Startup Demand?](https://signalcraftinsights.tech/blog/what-counts-as-evidence-of-startup-demand) or [How to Design a Paid B2B SaaS Pilot](https://signalcraftinsights.tech/blog/how-to-design-a-paid-pilot-for-b2b-saas).