4 ms·

Mm... If $5/month/user makes any difference to your bottom line in comparison to salaries and the benefits you are getting from the service, I suspect that you

Mm... If $5/month/user makes any difference to your bottom line in comparison to salaries and the benefits you are getting from the service, I suspect that you have a problem -- and one that has nothing to do with Slack. (As in, you've a serious sales or management problem in your organization, or you're not a qualified lead, e.g. you're a student or a non-profit.)

Q6T46nT668w6i3m 12y ago
It’s this attitude that enables businesses to accumulate an unwieldy number of services! My company subscribes to Google Apps, HipChat, Slack, Yammer, Zoom, … The costs accumulate.
- saturdayplace 12y ago
  Well, sure they accumulate. So do salaries. If it's not worth the money to your company, don't spend it. Same goes for salaries.
  - Q6T46nT668w6i3m 12y ago
    I don’t understand your analogy.
    - GuiA 12y ago
      Imagine that an employee is costing you $X a year (that includes pay, but also things like health insurance, taxes, their computer/desk chair/etc etc etc). If you use Slack, your employee now costs you $X + $60 a year. Usually in tech, X is a 6 digit number (or very high 5 digit number). If $60 makes such a difference in that balance, there are probably big things you should worry about.
      - logicuce 12y ago
        Those numbers are not true for even half of the world. Also, I would want everybody in my org to be part of the same communication channel including every non tech folk. You will definitely find folks for whom the $100/mo/user is not a big deal and Slack does have that plan with needed features. However if I am bootstrapping with a business with majority of non tech part time employees, its not a quick decision to commit to $8/mo/user. For comparison, Google Apps provide their complete suite at $5/mo/user. Desk.com provides interfacing with customer starting at $3/mo/agent. With the value they provide I don't think twice before committing to it. (btw, I could only see their cheapest plan at $8/mo/user paid monthly, where is $5/mo coming from?)
        ddebernardy 12y ago
        > (btw, I could only see their cheapest plan at $8/mo/user paid monthly, where is $5/mo coming from?) I'm currently seeing $6.67/mo on an annualized basis, with no obvious means to get it monthly. Perhaps they just got caught red handed running an A/B test. ;-) Whatever their price is, though, it matters little if an employee saves as little as an hour per month using the service.
- jtwebman 12y ago
  And all of them save employee time which is your businesses biggest asset.
  - Q6T46nT668w6i3m 12y ago
    Unless everyone is using a separate application.
calinet6 12y ago
This is the ticket. Slack is operating on three principles. One, that their product actually has value commensurate with its price. That's a remarkable tenet for any product, and it keeps them honest. Two, demanding a high value for a product influences customers' perception of that product. By not discounting or downplaying the value at all, Slack builds on the psychological worm that you're getting what you pay for. This has been proven in (consumer) studies to make people like purchases more compared to items of the same price or free. Finally, they assert that the market exists and their customers have the ability and desire to pay for a better product (ddebernardy's point). All correct.
codefylabs 12y ago
You seem to be presuming an enterprise-class user (indicated by language like "in comparison to salaries and the benefits", "you're not a qualified lead", etc). On the consumer side, I would say that the jump from $5/mo per customer to $5/mo per user per customer would be pretty significant. The number of users in the organization enters the calculus directly in the latter case, whereas it did not before. But in another sense, yes, the person who posted the comment you are responding to is probably not a good "qualified lead" for you, whatever it is that you do.

Q6T46nT668w6i3m 12y ago

It’s this attitude that enables businesses to accumulate an unwieldy number of services! My company subscribes to Google Apps, HipChat, Slack, Yammer, Zoom, … The costs accumulate.

saturdayplace 12y ago
Well, sure they accumulate. So do salaries. If it's not worth the money to your company, don't spend it. Same goes for salaries.
- Q6T46nT668w6i3m 12y ago
  I don’t understand your analogy.
  - GuiA 12y ago
    Imagine that an employee is costing you $X a year (that includes pay, but also things like health insurance, taxes, their computer/desk chair/etc etc etc). If you use Slack, your employee now costs you $X + $60 a year. Usually in tech, X is a 6 digit number (or very high 5 digit number). If $60 makes such a difference in that balance, there are probably big things you should worry about.
    - logicuce 12y ago
      Those numbers are not true for even half of the world. Also, I would want everybody in my org to be part of the same communication channel including every non tech folk. You will definitely find folks for whom the $100/mo/user is not a big deal and Slack does have that plan with needed features. However if I am bootstrapping with a business with majority of non tech part time employees, its not a quick decision to commit to $8/mo/user. For comparison, Google Apps provide their complete suite at $5/mo/user. Desk.com provides interfacing with customer starting at $3/mo/agent. With the value they provide I don't think twice before committing to it. (btw, I could only see their cheapest plan at $8/mo/user paid monthly, where is $5/mo coming from?)
      - ddebernardy 12y ago
        > (btw, I could only see their cheapest plan at $8/mo/user paid monthly, where is $5/mo coming from?) I'm currently seeing $6.67/mo on an annualized basis, with no obvious means to get it monthly. Perhaps they just got caught red handed running an A/B test. ;-) Whatever their price is, though, it matters little if an employee saves as little as an hour per month using the service.
jtwebman 12y ago
And all of them save employee time which is your businesses biggest asset.
- Q6T46nT668w6i3m 12y ago
  Unless everyone is using a separate application.

calinet6 12y ago

This is the ticket. Slack is operating on three principles. One, that their product actually has value commensurate with its price. That's a remarkable tenet for any product, and it keeps them honest. Two, demanding a high value for a product influences customers' perception of that product. By not discounting or downplaying the value at all, Slack builds on the psychological worm that you're getting what you pay for. This has been proven in (consumer) studies to make people like purchases more compared to items of the same price or free. Finally, they assert that the market exists and their customers have the ability and desire to pay for a better product (ddebernardy's point). All correct.

codefylabs 12y ago

You seem to be presuming an enterprise-class user (indicated by language like "in comparison to salaries and the benefits", "you're not a qualified lead", etc). On the consumer side, I would say that the jump from $5/mo per customer to $5/mo per user per customer would be pretty significant. The number of users in the organization enters the calculus directly in the latter case, whereas it did not before. But in another sense, yes, the person who posted the comment you are responding to is probably not a good "qualified lead" for you, whatever it is that you do.