Easy to buy
I recently spoke with a colleague who was building a web-based software service company. When I asked him about how he planned to price and sell his product, he replied, “We’re going to use a sales team.” It was obvious that he felt this strategy would suffice to return the most sales at the highest price, but it was vastly different than my views on how to sell web-based services.
My “making things easy to buy” philosophy revolves around these six points:
1. Less is more
People who wish to market a new web-based service often try to make their initial offer sound so enticing that they end up with a confusing mishmash. For example, offering a special introductory price, a discount, AND a promotional code could be too much right out of the gate. The simpler approach would be to choose a reasonable price and stick with it for a set period of time. A simple, easy-to-understand offer is always best.
2. Easy to understand
The concepts of product matrices, à la carte menus, number of seats/licenses, feature sets, or storage space have become too confusing for most people. The question that often arises is: I have never used your product before, so how do I know what I will need? À la carte menus are not conducive to building strong, long-term relationships with your clients, because you require them to spend more money or upgrade the software when they need just a little more of something. I feel it’s best to approach this type of business like an all-you-can-eat buffet: All features for ONE LOW PRICE!
3. Simple Pricing
At New Leaders, we try to make our service easy to understand by offering clear pricing that is both fair and affordable; so we publish our prices online. We deliver on time and within budget. We care about the little things because our goal is to deliver superior quality and outstanding customer service. Transparency that borders on absurdity can be successful.
4. Lower barrier to entry
I believe it should be easy for a customer to buy something. We encourage an open and free exchange of ideas with new clients, so we’re all on the same page before work begins. Rather than a huge, initial outlay of money, we require small, frequent payments, with a lower deposit than other outfits. We’re generally available to start immediately, and results are revealed quickly. Removing barriers between you and your customers makes it easier for them to say “yes” much sooner than expected.
5. No obligation
Free trials allow clients to taste before they buy. If it’s not feasible to offer freebies, the wise company will institute a no-obligation policy that allows the customer to walk away easily. Limiting their risk to only paying for completed work makes it much easier for them to get started. Anyone can walk away at any time and only pay for work previously completed. This is smart business for everyone. So be upfront about it, and make the practical method your universal policy. If you do a great job, your customers will continue to support you.
6. Consider Ad Supported
With their AdSense program, Google boosts your revenue via people offering complementary products and services to your audience. Yahoo and MSN have similar programs. Consider giving customers a free version of your product and earning the majority of your revenue from advertising. This lowers the entry barrier for your new customers, while providing you the opportunity to sell them a premium version of your product without ads.
Bring easy-to-understand, yet unconventional pricing to a product or industry that appears to be happy with the status quo, and see what happens.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
Posted on Apr 08, 2008 by Kevin Milden
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