Tell HN: Selling a SaaS (experience)

6 points by SaaS_throwme 10 years ago | 3 comments

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Company1: See, we have given you 1000 dollars, this is a very big amount for startup.

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Company2 ($1B+): You guys increased the price from $250 to $1000. Now its out of our budget. But we liked your product very much.

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Me: We increased our price from $200 to $250 per month.

Company3 CTO ($300M+): No, no. You earlier agreed on $200. Please don't increase the price.

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Me: We have an annual plan which is $11k, in case you want to try for 1 month, its $1000.

Company4 CTO: Do you have a shorter plan like 2 weeks?

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Company5: We are ready to subscribe but we will cut a TDS on the payment.

Me: What?! Its a product not a service (although its a SaaS)

Company5: No, we do it for AWS too. They cry while dealing with us.

danieltillett 10 years ago |

The TDS reference makes it sound like you are India. Is this right?

My advice is never negotiate on price. Spend your time negotiating other factors, but hold your price if it is public. Cutting special deals for some customers will only bring heartache.

SaaS_throwme 10 years ago | |

India - yes!

Some customer offering advice/connection/guidance for a discount of 50%.

We have already declined 2 annual subscriptions because of price.

danieltillett 10 years ago | | |

Trust me that any customer that wants a 50% discount will be such a pain you will wish you never accepted them. If you are going to give discounts them give them across the board and when you want to not when a customer asks.