@Max Unger, pinged you on Linkedin

@Max Unger, you should read this post from Ulrik on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ulriklehrskovschmidt_predatory-customers-in-saas-my-list-of-activity-7267054610631028736-puwY?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios

Hi Steven, let me share some assorted thoughts. - Limiting discounts to year 1 (or at least make them time-limited) is the right way! - While I can relate to your thinking of providing your commercial org with "wiggle room", it also risks creating an expectation with clients to get the same discounts when they purchase another product of yours. I observed many times that this led to sales teams questioning the value of the product and resulted in them easily giving away margin. - To counter the above, #1 incentives for the commercial org need to be structured in a way that non-discounted deals produce a significantly higher quota retirement/bonus. #2 continues education/training/coaching of the sales teams helped getting sales reps out of the rabbit hole of prematurely discussing discounts with a prospect. - Obviously, the discount level need be closely linked to the margin management of the firm. I have met many delivery teams having to discuss their operational margins because services had been sold below the design margin. Considering this early on avoids many operational escalations. Hope that gives some perspectives. kr, Carsten

Two thoughts: 1. I suggest you validate the value of your pre-made content against other sources. Especially (online) courses tend to be more expensive than 200 USD. Doing the math of "average price per course in the market * expected # of courses per subscriber & year" will give you an indication of the value you deliver and hence a realistic pricing. 2. If you think about a discount for the beginning, you may give the discount for the 50 first subscribers or the initial 3 months of existence. I strongly suggest that you contract subscribers on your final list price and make the discount explicit. By that you have the renewal on your list price and can better avoid the grandfathering. good luck with launching your community!

Hi Nicole, welcome to the community! I think your problem is not a pricing but a product management problem. If you sell your product, you are no longer in a SaaS business model but in the SW business model. This will impact your operating model significantly and will create significant cost. Examples for such cost drivers are different support and maintenance flows, upgrades need to be coordinated and agreed,, ... Two brief reflections - Based on experience, the price difference between a SaaS offer and the same tech stack being deployed to a client ranges between a factor of 3 and 5. - My view: Even if you use the same tech stack, make sure to put both operating models into two separate units. Will also help to manage cognitive load for your delivery (professional services, support, ops) staff. All in all, it is doable to accommodate such deviating requirements, but be mindful of the challenges it comes with!

Hi Maxim, as I understand, you are essentially offering a self-service helpdesk platform that your clients can use provide their user with information better than just manuals, e.g. videos of how to use, photos, etc. with the aim of reducing the # of support request getting through to their 2nd line. Value drivers for your clients: - # of products on the platform - # of knowledge calls (as an approximation for reduction in 2nd level calls at your client) Some considerations on services: The service element (onboarding and content maintenance) is a crucial part of your value prop => if the content is outdated, more end users will (have to) call the 2nd line of your client => reducing the value your platform delivers. Hence, needs to be mandatory. Thinking of monetizing service components (assuming your teams have the appropriate capabilities): - provide QA for the content your clients deliver - provide knowledge mgmt consultancy => helping your client in creating better content With this in mind I could see the following structure (note: take the numbers as examples - I am not close enough to your specific business!) Recurring per month/year: - Base Fee (including Access to Platform, onboarding and regular maintenance of content for 50 products, 10k knowledge calls) => 3000 - Additional 50 Products => 1000 - Additional 10000 monthly Knowledge calls => 400 If you can measure the change in # of 2nd line calls at your clients before and after they've onboarded to your solution, you might want to trade the additional products/knowledge calls for a percentage of the saved costs.