4 ms·

Great points. I've also seen another pattern with per user or consumption-based systems... When something is low enough to experiment with and still fall into

Great points. I've also seen another pattern with per user or consumption-based systems... When something is low enough to experiment with and still fall into the "petty cash" area, an employee can buy a little (or for a month) and test it out. If they're somewhat successful, they can expand it out to their immediate team, still with a tiny budget. As they prove out usefulness/value and expand their users/usage, obviously the cost goes up. But by the time they have to "Get Approval" from someone really high up - like a VP or procurement group - they have X users or Y months of success. Selling it to the higher ups then becomes easier and a more likely sale.

douche 11y ago
That was pretty much the Yammer sales strategy, as I observed it. Infiltrate the customer by making it free and easy to sign up an organization, build a user base organically, without having to involve those controlling the purse-strings. Eventually, there's enough people using it that compliance and security becomes an issue, and the business sort of has to pay for the enterprise support to CYA.
- troels 11y ago
  Credit where credit due - I think Basecamp were one of the early ones to perfect this strategy.
  - DenisM 11y ago
    It's an old hat trick. VP of MS SQL Server was telling the same story about MSSQL around 1999 at a division meeting. For on-premises products it's even more sticky.