Price lists are never quite current enough, sufficiently detailed, or cover enough of the awkward special situations that customers raise. So, there’s a tendency for HQ product and pricing folks to do a lot of tinkering on the margins with their price lists. We may be forgetting the “consumers” of price lists, though: sales reps who pay our salaries and customers wondering what to buy. Complicated pricing models may be self-defeating. Continue reading
Sometimes we take a fresh look at a product, with the thought of turning it into a service. This is especially attractive if sales of our product-as-a-product are less than planned. Here’s a short exploration of the opportunities and pitfalls in moving from a product model to a service model.
First, we’ll step through some successful service models including application hosting, transaction-based, and subscriptions. Then, sketch an example to highlight some of the advantages and challenges of services versus classic product sales. Continue reading
In our enthusiasm to get started on software projects, we often jump right into the coding and UI design that make software fun. I’ve done it. A few weeks before final shipment, though, someone identifies a missing item or service that costs the team some sleepless nights — or a month’s schedule slip. Perhaps it sounds like this…
“We’re going to beta on Tuesday and just realized that we need a license agreement for the software installer. Does anyone know who our lawyers are?” Continue reading