Asking customer to name a price, vs asking them "would you pay X"?
I'm struggling with how to approach pricing my Slack app, AllyBot.io.
Some customers have expressed it is too expensive (and I agree; for big orgs, $1/user/month isn't reasonable for a "vitamin"-like product).
But, do I ask them "well, what would you be willing to pay?", or do I instead ask "would you be willing to pay X/month?".
What's the best way of going about these conversations?
Anchor point! Just like in Star Wars, Han Shot First, you have to shoot first too. The moment you shoot your price first, you set the anchor point. Now the conversation will revolve around what you set in the first place.
Good question...
How are you delivering the pricing information? Do you just drop it in your pitch and wait for the reaction? Or are you arguing based on the value your product provides (e.g. you'll save X amount of time which translated into Y dollars)?
Are you acquiring your first customers or do you have existing customers who pay the "expensive" price?
What I learnt is that it's almost never about the actual price. Most of the time it's something else which bothers the customer / which isn't clear for her / him.
https://allybot.io/#pricing
Customer revealed in a conversation that it was too expensive for a team of their size (which, in retrospect, make a lot of sense).
This is my first customer :D. So honestly, if I can get them on an annual subscription, I feel that is a success. They are passionate about giving feedback as well, so I feel lucky to have found this customer. I took a stab in the dark with the pricing, and this was my first bit of feedback on it.
I can definitely see this. I think https://AllyBot.io's problem at the moment is lack of features (I know it's common advice to not focus on feature count). I feel I need to develop a little more value into the product, potentially pivot a little bit, before customers get serious value out of it.
Makes sense.
What you could do here is trying to convince this customer to join the journey and help in uncovering those features / values.
Basically onboarding them to a private beta where they get a discount (or lifetime deal) and then working closely together with them to make their lives easier. Not sure about the customer but this might be something they can get excited about.
Yep, this is exactly what I hope will happen. Thanks!
If a big org is interested but hesitating on price then just ask them to make you an offer. If it's a hypothetical problem can introduce tiered pricing with "Enterprise" package that has "get in touch".
I've added the enterprise option. It was a real problem until about 5 minutes ago when I invoiced them! :D
I'll try the "make me an offer" approach for my next sale though. I ended up proposing a price and they agreed.
Congrats. Keep going. You're doing a great job!
Hey @tomquirk, congrats on your product. Looks amazing.
Couple of thoughts:
You got this!