Validate Your Idea Using a Letter of Intent (LOI)

Either you can get an actual contractual commitment with a check or you still have not closed the deal...

Don't waste time crafting LOI language and focus on the actual sales process of getting the customer to commit to buying your solution.

Nobody is going to be impressed by LOI that does not bind customer to anything. Don't break out a champagne unless they actually put skin in the game.

Sounds like good advice. In Ries's recent book on Lean Startup, there's a story of one of Votizen's unsuccessful pivots which were based on letters of intent.