What is the best way to display your Prices: Interactive vs. traditional
The way you display SaaS pricing should not be a last-minute thought. It's an ongoing method that's engaging and straightforward for potential customers.
Pricing is an essential method of building trust with your prospects, and when executed correctly will help to build momentum into your marketing funnel. It could be among the most personalized, interactive and measurable portions of your process.
The first step to developing this kind of experience is to examine the methods you use to create, display and distribute your price.
You will meet the most powerful villain in this story the standard Office Suite software.
If you're currently using the Office Suite software to display SaaS pricing, it's time to provide your pricing with a refresh. Read on for expert advice on how to make changes.
Things NOT to Do: Traditional Ways to Display Pricing
1. Using Sheets for Displaying SaaS Pricing
The things you need to change: Using sheets does make it look professional. They are dull and extremely manually-based, and the pricing shouldn't be any different. There is nothing personalized when using a sheet which is why personalization is essential to building relationships with prospects. It's easy to become lost in the numbers, and they're time-consuming to build.
Advice from a Seller Who Switched: Mike Wright, Co-Founder and CEO at MESH/diversity, moved from using spreadsheets to an online pricing tool. He says:
"Leveraging an instrument for pricing is an important step as it lets you stay consistent. It lets you have the past of your progress in your hands, and it allows you to make choices as you move forward based on that historical data and in a more efficient approach than the old plans or re-reading old versions of your sheets."
Things to think about: Try incorporating personalized choices that let your customers to choose the appropriate solution for them, when showing SaaS pricing models. For a better experience than using spreadsheets, consider using a software that saves all prior quotes, so you are able to easily import pricing and automatically populate calculations for prospects. That way, you no longer need to spend the time to create spreadsheets and making calculations manually each time you make a new purchase.
2. Use Slide Decks to display SaaS Pricing
Slide Next slide...next slides... Next pricing strategy, please.
What you should change: Sending decks to clients seems like a great method of displaying your prices with a beautiful layout. Although they seem engaging however, they're a single-dimensional. When you use slide decks, you are throwing away opportunities to gather information and make informed follow-ups. The pricing you offer will give you an upper hand and share with you how often your customer views your pricing, and also ensure that they are aware of the price presented.
A Seller's Advice That ChangedStefan Kollenberg, co-founder of Crescendo changed from slide decks and instead used an online pricing tool that gives insight and analytics in real-time. Kollenberg states:
"I could have my price at the bottom of a sales deck just with one page. I never knew if [the clients] would enter the deck in order to change it up, choose several options, or go through the various levels of service we had to offer. You need to collect as much information as you can on what pricing was effective, as well as what did not ."
What you should consider: Without data from prior deals, you'll never be able adjust for prospects and know the best way to serve your prospective customers. Think about using a software that allows you to gain insight in real time and track everything related to related to pricing.
3. Use of Email for Displaying SaaS Pricing
How many emails can you get in a day? Everyone has one answer, too many.
What should you change: Scrolling through endless emails trying to find the right information can be time-consuming, and frankly annoying. The act of expressing your price via email extends the length of time required to complete the deal, as it's among the worst methods to convey pricing.
A Seller's Advice Who Switched: Jack Hannah, Sales Team Leader at LinkSquares, switched from using email for communicating pricing, to using an interactive pricing tool. He says:
"A lot of the conversations took place in a conversational manner and then followed with an email summation in an effort to make sure both parties understood what we were actually speaking about. [Now] we're able to be able to share our screen and have a much more formal and structured discussion around price, which I think [helps create] more clear conversations that require far less exchanges ."
Things to think about: Avoid the headache and establish a seamless relationship with prospects by making use of a software designed for rapid and simple communications. This tool will let your customers find what they are looking for swiftly, but it will provide all of the custom pricing as well as pertinent information in a clear manner.
4. Utilizing Collaborative Software to Display SaaS Pricing
Software and tools that collaborate have an undisputed benefit in the selling process. However, when you're using the software to display your primary pricing tool, you're in for an out.
What should you make changes to: Collaborative tools such as those used for internal communications and brainstorming are not functional to display SaaS pricing. Misusing tools in an attempt to present your price is sure to result in producing a disorganized presentation, and confusing your prospect. There are many amazing tools designed to assist however, if you use a tool for a pricing purpose that wasn't created to be used for pricing, you're running into a variety of issues that could possibly end up destroying the sale.
A Seller's Advice who switched: Mike Pinkus, Partner at ConnectCPA, once used the collaborative software for creating an interactive pricing experience before he switched to a pricing system that has interactivity as its core. He says:
"We used an application that wasn't specifically created to be a sales platform. It definitely lacked professionalism due to the fact that we were using it for the wrong purpose. Now [after switching] and re-installing it, there's that cleanness and professionalism. Everything is tidy and designed to be a good fit for the goal of selling ."
Things to consider: Misusing software may appear to be a time and cost saving option but, in the end in the end, it could cause more issues than it resolves. Moving your pricing processes into software created to cater to its specific needs will support your business while providing an improved buying experience for your customers.
5. Utilizing PDFs for Displaying SaaS Pricing
There are many who have used the old-fashioned PDF. You may have could have had your graphic designer create the entire thing beautiful and brand-named however, the truth is that it's really just a slow and ineffective way to display SaaS pricing.
What should you change: Prospects can't engage through the PDFs you offer them - much like using a slide deck. After your prospective customer downloads the PDF, there's no way of determining how the file has been accepted or the amount of instances it's been used. Editing or changing the content is an arduous process that eats up unnecessary time.
A Word from a Salesperson Who Changed:Ross Simmonds, Founder of Foundation Marketing Foundation Marketing, brought his pricing into the 21st century by changing from stagnant PDFs and moving to an interactive price.
"We had a PDF showcasing three different pricing tiers around how we would be able to service our clients. The PDF was editedeach time a potential client showed up. It was always our goal to design both our spreadsheets and us pretty, but in doing so you can't give more information. There is no need to ruffle between all of the different instruments in order to create a complete package, we can just use Interactive Quotes ."
Consider these: The only interactive benefit PDFs offer is the option to sign the dotted line -- but a truly interactive experience has the potential to provide more than simply signing to close. Make use of pricing software that can provide your customer with an experience that is personalized and interactive from first pricing conversations to final signatures.
How should I display my SaaS Pricing?
Pricing shouldn't be complicated, confusing or dull to your customers.
The future of display of SaaS pricing is an active, personalized experience that is easy for prospects to engage with and grasp. It means that the relationship you have with your office software for displaying SaaS pricing needs to be ended for a complete overhaul of the way you present your SaaS pricing strategy.
In order to refresh how you display SaaS pricing, concentrate on finding a pricing tool that fits your needs. Three areas that we recommend to prioritize when searching to find the best tool are:
1. Making use of a tool to simplify your job by reducing time and increasing your productivity and your team's efficiency in presenting your pricing to your prospects
2. Creating an interactive and engaging buying experience for your prospects
3. Gaining insight into your pricing's performance using real-time analytics.
More than ever before now, it's important to save time and work efficiently. Don't be a slave to outdated and confusing pricing. It is possible and easy to transition into a modern pricing method that lets you to be more efficient, and rather than harder, and increase the likelihood of closing transactions faster.
