5 ms·

Some good points here, but doesn't help the frustration as a potential customer. The old adage when the price listed says '$ call us', it's a big number. For a

by gregmac 10y ago

Some good points here, but doesn't help the frustration as a potential customer. The old adage when the price listed says '$ call us', it's a big number. For a certain class of application (ERPs, CMS, etc), sure does make sense, because pricing is very complex. At the opposite end of the spectrum, I would be baffled by a company that tells me the cost is tens or hundreds of dollars, but this doesn't exist. The middle ground is products that are in the low hundreds to several thousands of dollars. There's a number of times where I have come across something that appears to fulfill a need I have, but that I could also do myself (whether by spending a week or because there's an open-source version that does 80% to base on). Keep in mind there's always extra friction and admin overhead to dealing with commercial software, which has to be considered as part of purchasing: does it need a license to run on my build server? Does it have any kind of per-user charge, requiring extra system work to track? Are there redistribution licensing problems? Is there some stupid DRM that's going to cause me grief? Are you capable of dealing with a separate technical user (me) and paying user (my accounting department)? Am I going to have to deal with annual renewals? etc.. So if it turns out the direct cost is less than building it myself, it's a much easier decision. If it's significantly higher, now I have to really weigh the above against the opportunity cost and risk. When I can't even see where in the spectrum the software lies, but I'm going to have to spend at least 30 minutes on the phone with some sales person to figure that out (plus probably deal with them periodically harassing me for the next year), the whole thing is that much less appealing. I tend to move on to the next one, and only come back if there are no remotely similar options. It makes me sad a bit because there's no way this company can know they lost me as a customer merely by putting '$ call us' (even if the price would have been acceptable).

mrbbk 10y ago
Some great points here! In terms of it making you a bit said that companies don't know they're losing your money, I would say that they actually probably do know. They may or may not care about that missed opportunity, but in most cases, I bet it hurts them to know that they can't serve you. The ideal case for a company is to be able to serve the customers who want their product. In reality, every company has to make a number of tradeoffs, many of which are directly related to the stage and size of the company, and in some cases that means they'll never be able to serve everyone. I think it's also interesting to think about why some companies won't just put a pricepoint on their pricing page. In most cases, this is seen as a strategic decision, for one reason or another. I think putting something like "starting at $10,000/year" or something like that is a good place to start, though. What do you think?
_red 10y ago
>When I can't even see where in the spectrum the software lies, but I'm going to have to spend at least 30 minutes on the phone with some sales person to figure that out (plus probably deal with them periodically harassing me for the next year), the whole thing is that much less appealing. Just went through this exact process with Bomgar. Our company was debating between TeamViewer and Bomgar. TV = All pricing on page. BG = Can't see anything, must call in and 'speak to salesman'. The sales process with BG was so long and drawn out - multiple emails to setup calls, wouldn't provide basic info in writing, etc. In the end we just went with TeamViewer highest end edition. Came to find out about a month later that Bomgar pricing may've been the cheaper option for our use case. Oh well...
- mrbbk 10y ago
  This sounds like a particularly bad implementation. Not much you can do there.
- prawn 10y ago
  I did something like this when choosing a builder to build a new house. $200k+ decision. The ones with their pricing for fixed plans listed publicly on their site got our business.
- jrs235 10y ago
  Sometimes I wonder is this is by design and using a dark pattern relying on the sunk cost fallacy and loss aversion... "I've already spent hours on obtaining this thing if I turn back now I've wasted all my time." It's what I truly believe some car dealerships utilize. They drag things out so that you don't actually "walk away" from the "deal" when they start pulling BS. Anyone who does this ought not be trusted. Why would/should I do business with someone that acts so shady?
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
trjordan 10y ago
There's no way to win with ballpark pricing. Even if you have a consistent unit you sell by (servers, users, etc.), the feature set, volume, and contract term can move that price by a huge amount. "Starting at $9 / month / server" starts all your pricing conversations at $9 / month / server, even if the solution they called to ask about is listed at $150 / month / server. That wastes a ton of sales time following up with people who can't afford what they think they can afford. "Typically priced around $10,000" scares off people who might be able to buy a smaller package.
- mrbbk 10y ago
  Very good points here too.
- tetromino_ 10y ago
  But nothing is limiting you to putting down just one number. It would seem to me that the solution might be along the lines of a table with 4-5 rows: starving-student use case (with obvious keywords showing it's starving-student) = $9 typical low-end use case = $150 typical high-end use case A = $5k typical high-end use case B = $10k anything else = "call us"
- mixedCase 10y ago
  What's stopping you from listing the prices for each service provided? And/or providing a price calculator? It's not going to be more involved than a call, I don't have to deal with your sales people and I get, at worst, an approximate figure. If your pricing cannot fit within this model, I would assume you do price discrimination or have serious pricing issues.

by gregmac 10y ago

mrbbk 10y ago

Some great points here! In terms of it making you a bit said that companies don't know they're losing your money, I would say that they actually probably do know. They may or may not care about that missed opportunity, but in most cases, I bet it hurts them to know that they can't serve you. The ideal case for a company is to be able to serve the customers who want their product. In reality, every company has to make a number of tradeoffs, many of which are directly related to the stage and size of the company, and in some cases that means they'll never be able to serve everyone. I think it's also interesting to think about why some companies won't just put a pricepoint on their pricing page. In most cases, this is seen as a strategic decision, for one reason or another. I think putting something like "starting at $10,000/year" or something like that is a good place to start, though. What do you think?

_red 10y ago

>When I can't even see where in the spectrum the software lies, but I'm going to have to spend at least 30 minutes on the phone with some sales person to figure that out (plus probably deal with them periodically harassing me for the next year), the whole thing is that much less appealing. Just went through this exact process with Bomgar. Our company was debating between TeamViewer and Bomgar. TV = All pricing on page. BG = Can't see anything, must call in and 'speak to salesman'. The sales process with BG was so long and drawn out - multiple emails to setup calls, wouldn't provide basic info in writing, etc. In the end we just went with TeamViewer highest end edition. Came to find out about a month later that Bomgar pricing may've been the cheaper option for our use case. Oh well...

mrbbk 10y ago
This sounds like a particularly bad implementation. Not much you can do there.
prawn 10y ago
I did something like this when choosing a builder to build a new house. $200k+ decision. The ones with their pricing for fixed plans listed publicly on their site got our business.
jrs235 10y ago
Sometimes I wonder is this is by design and using a dark pattern relying on the sunk cost fallacy and loss aversion... "I've already spent hours on obtaining this thing if I turn back now I've wasted all my time." It's what I truly believe some car dealerships utilize. They drag things out so that you don't actually "walk away" from the "deal" when they start pulling BS. Anyone who does this ought not be trusted. Why would/should I do business with someone that acts so shady?
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

trjordan 10y ago

There's no way to win with ballpark pricing. Even if you have a consistent unit you sell by (servers, users, etc.), the feature set, volume, and contract term can move that price by a huge amount. "Starting at $9 / month / server" starts all your pricing conversations at $9 / month / server, even if the solution they called to ask about is listed at $150 / month / server. That wastes a ton of sales time following up with people who can't afford what they think they can afford. "Typically priced around $10,000" scares off people who might be able to buy a smaller package.

mrbbk 10y ago
Very good points here too.
tetromino_ 10y ago
But nothing is limiting you to putting down just one number. It would seem to me that the solution might be along the lines of a table with 4-5 rows: starving-student use case (with obvious keywords showing it's starving-student) = $9 typical low-end use case = $150 typical high-end use case A = $5k typical high-end use case B = $10k anything else = "call us"
mixedCase 10y ago
What's stopping you from listing the prices for each service provided? And/or providing a price calculator? It's not going to be more involved than a call, I don't have to deal with your sales people and I get, at worst, an approximate figure. If your pricing cannot fit within this model, I would assume you do price discrimination or have serious pricing issues.