Unlimited x Specific number of deliverables in Productized Services
I recently launched my new productized service Landing Page for video editing. Today, while watching a Starter Story video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqN-gjnpns8), I was struck by something Hunter, the founder of several productized service businesses, said:
"One of the biggest things for us is setting clear expectations with our customers about how much volume you can expect from us. We're really not big fans of the idea of like 'unlimited'.".
Given my inexperience in the market, I tried to use only concepts that I saw as validated, and one of those was unlimited video editing in which the client would be able to add as many requests as he wanted and I would deliver them one by one. But the way Hunter put it made me rethink this model.
Is presenting our products as 'unlimited' actually being less transparent with our customers?
What do you guys make of the two options and why?
This is a great question and one I can share some first hand experience on.
Last year, I jumped on the unlimited design service bandwagon, and very quickly realised that prospective clients were confused by it.
We got lots of enquiries and demo calls set up, and the recurring theme in their questions was: "I just don't understand how you can do this? It sounds too good to be true".
We heard that constantly. They were baffled as to how we could make 'unlimited' work, sceptical, fascinated, intrigued - you name it.
And of course, we'd have to explain the 'catches' of 1 request at a time, we only work Monday to Friday, so there's naturally only going to be so much work we can complete in any given month. You could see the penny drop and in many cases they looked like they'd been duped.
Ultimately, only one client came on board with us.
We couldn't secure anymore clients beyond that one, who only had a temporary need, and so we decided to rethink things.
You'll see it come up quite a lot on here, too - founders and solopreneurs questioning the legitimacy of 'unlimited' and what it actually means, because nothing is truly unlimited, is it? It can't be.
So I am all for pivoting to limited - and celebrating that fact - but the question then becomes: "What is capped? Deliverables? Or hours?" Do you offer X-number of hours per month, or do you offer X-number of projects? What is a client more likely to know? What is easier for your business to plan for in terms of capacity?
I suppose the answer is: learn from your target audience.
But fundamentally, I fully agree that the 'unlimited' gimmick (and it is a gimmick) is going to run out of steam when the influx of enthusiastic freelancers who peddle it ultimately disappoint their end user by not giving them unlimited design, as advertised.
Man, I am so happy you shared your experience. I'm sure it will avoid me a lot of headaches in the future. I will try both and see what sticks with my target audience, but from my research after this post, if your product is good enough, limited works best.
The difference between "unlimited" average-quality videos and limited high-quality is shown in the pricing, sometimes the latter being able to charge 4x to 6x what the former is charging a month.
If I jump to limited I'm going for deliverables, it allows the client to know exactly what they are getting.
Given that I am just starting I am trying to put as few restrictions as possible and I am working on weekends too, but still, videos that are good take a lot of time to edit, there is no getting around it.
Thanks again for sharing your experience and good luck with Launcher, your landing page looks incredible!
I think, the word "unlimited" gives out a vague feeling to the customers. They will come to you with questions on what this unlimited really means.
On the other hand, specific number of outputs gives your customers a better idea on what to expect and what not to.