Restricting Number of Users in a GBB Model?

In a GBB editions packaging model, one thing that I have come across quite a bit is having the number of users that each edition can support be restrcted, e.g.:

Good: max users allowed 5
Better: max users allowed 10
Best: unlimited users

Note that these are not included users, they still have to be bought at whatever scale metric/tiering you might be using.

The premise is that we thus avoid having a customer that should fall into a higher edition purchase a lower edition.

I have a few issues with htis approach: It is that this is a sort of artificial fence between editions that has nothing to do with the value delivered. We are effectively forcing, rather than shepherding the customer into buying a specific edition, at best resulting in some bad feelings. In reality, sales conversations often end up discussing these limits with customers when they could be spending that time closing the deal.

The better way to address this is obviously to create fences based on features. The value should come from using the product's features, not a tax for being a more efficiently run business that results in you needing less users.

I bring this up here because Sales often like this approach of restricting users, and it's surprisingly difficult to get them off that horse.

Has anyone had the same experience I have, and how have you worked with Sales to enable/coach them to change their way of thinking?

Do you have circumstances where the artifical restrictions of users available per edition is an appropriate ringfence to differentiate between editions?

2 comments