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Flexible Pricing: The Benefits
Implementing a flexible pricing structure for web-related products empowers a prospective client to choose the best fit for their individual needs. This will not only stretch your market share but also increase your chances of making the sale. Surely such a model would benefit both the buyer and seller.
Benefit to the Buyer
As a consumer, I am looking for a product/service that will accommodate my current financial situation, enabling me to minimize my financial strain. With a flexible pricing structure I have the ability to choose how much I am willing to invest in a specific function for my website, thus giving me the power to promote my own growth. Allowing me to adapt the product/service to my specific needs will add great value to the negotiating phase, in turn saving me time and money.
Benefit to the Seller
As a business, I am in need of more customers to sustain and grow my business and by offering a flexible pricing model I am allowing for a far greater reach in a financially stressed market. I am also securing more sales, by giving my clients what they need; at the same time making it more affordable for them. I can now either adapt my product/service to the client's budget or allow the client to determine the degree of expense he or she is willing to incur.
In Conclusion
By utilising this method and adapting our pricing model to the current financial climate we can offer our clients a powerful differentiator - that of cost-saving. This financial winter, that we find ourselves in, will pass and will leave us with customers that are satisfied by our customised product and our willingness to accommodate their requirements in a time of need.
We all want solutions that can help us improve our finances so that we can live the lives we have always wanted to. We do not have to give up on our goals during a downturn - we just need to work smartly.
Author: Ricky van der Walt
Ricky started his entrepreneurial career selling sweets to other 9-year olds and is now Shapeshift's main account handler. Ricky is a shrewd businessman and is Shapeshift's main point of contact with clients. In his efforts to help clients understand their needs better and help them build their company's online reputation, Ricky finds inspiration from Shakespeare: "Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit and lost without deserving." You can chat with Ricky on Twitter under his handle @supam.
Werner
I guess it depends on what you are trying to achieve... Meeting everybody's needs will obviously go a long way keeping your business going and getting your brand out there, but like you said this financial winter won't last forever. What happens when it's over?
Shapeshift delivers a very good product and you have always targeted the top end of the market. When things go "back to normal" do you carry on with your flexible pricing or do you again become more selective with your clients?
Reply
Flexible pricing has always been our approach to business, before the market was placed under this immense strain and will long after the recovery still be our focus.
Regarding our selective process, I would have to say that would never change. Doing business with smart people is the only way to progressively move forward at a steady pace.
Ricky van der Walt