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Time is indeed money. Most companies track customer acquisition cost in dollars and I've often wondered whether both parties - customers and companies - would l
by goatherders 8y ago
Time is indeed money. Most companies track customer acquisition cost in dollars and I've often wondered whether both parties - customers and companies - would like a more direct model.
Let's say an employee earns $50/hour. And a SaaS has identified that employee as being a decision maker on their service. And let's say my current CAC ie $10,000 and the lifetime value of the service is 25k. And let's say that the SaaS closes 1 out of every 5 people that sees the demo.
Wouldnt there be appetite for the SaaS to offer 5 potential decision makers $500 each to participate in a demo? And another $1000 to the DMs company? The CAC decreases by 25% and the spend goes to the people and companies most participating in the process as opposed to tools like Marketo, and spend, etc.
Anyway, I think the guy here has hit on something but not at a high enough price.
- LoSboccacc 8y agothat would be surely against any anti-birbing policy a company has. at least do what doctor do and book them expensive vacation at exclusive venues where you coincidentally are pitching your company product.
- lbotos 8y agoMost serious companies have ethical policies that would require disclosure of such a scheme (as in, if you are targeting me, and giving me a gift, I need to tell my boss) and others will flat out deny or disallow such gifts.
- goatherders 8y agoI think a disclosure would be part of it for sure.
- kesselvon 8y agoPretty sure that would be a conflict of interest
- htormey 8y agoWasnt this the premise of earn.com?
- Nasrudith 8y agoI suspect the better answer is to just lower costs for the same benefit - customers come to you attracted by the lower costs and you don't have the free-rider problem that it becomes profitable to generate time wasting corps to do a bunch of paid demos to make money at the cost of productivity to all involved.
- goatherders 8y agoSurprisingly this doesnt work that well and degrades the product. I've actually had success in RAISING the price to get more demos booked.
- ct520 8y agoAnd that is how the yearly HR ethics video you are required to watch was born. Lol
- harryh 8y ago1 out of 5 people who see the demo without compensation buy the product. The only incentive they had to see the demo is that they were at least somewhat considering purchasing. But if you start paying people, then a lot of people who have zero interest will participate just to pocket the money. Your close rate will go way way down.
- bryanrasmussen 8y agoIf you think you have a really kick ass product that everybody will want when they see it though? well probably you will alter your thinking based on feedback, but maybe not!
- httpsterio 8y agoThis is basically how advertising works. You're using most likely several, free, ad supported websites or apps. Instead of paying for the app you're using, you're compensating the developer with your attention on ads and the developer is then paid based on that. Instead of directly getting money for hearing pitches or being the subject of cold calls, you get to use free services.