Imstillonmute

Account Executive

Buy Now vs Buy Later

Some SaaS sales orgs focus on presenting pricing with a buy now vs buy later incentive.

what are your opinions?

does your company do that?

will they actually pull discounts back as a tactic?

just trying to gauge peoples thoughts on this topic.

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21 comment

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CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Can you provide a little more detail please?

Imstillonmute

Contributor

Account Executive

Sure. Where I work tries to do the if you buy this month it’s 30% off and only 25% next month. Not a fan of that approach

adrienmc

Good Citizen

Founder @LaGrowthMachine

5% difference won’t move the needle… at least, do 10% if not more

Plus, psychology-wise, the approach is wrong. You’re not playing on loss aversion by providing 30% now and 25% later, because your lead is still getting a discount - so he is not under the approach of losing anything! Which is the whole (psychologically proven!) point of a buy now discount.

You should try a 10% now or nothing later :
- the gap is much higher and may move help move the needle especially if your ACV is quite high
- you’re really playing on loss aversion by not providing anything the next month

I believe you could do the math with 20% now or nothing, and still make much more (and accelerated revenue) in doing so.

Last but not least, I don’t know what you’re selling, but your buy now discounts are way too high if you’re in a SaaS business. To me, this will send the wrong signals to the buyer that
- you’re intentionally overpricing to provide systemic discounts. This is not the right approach to building trust with your lead (be it in SaaS or any other business)
- you’ll have problem providing additional discount for committing annually if you’re already doing 30% for a buy now decision

Then again, if you’re selling carpets or cars (one-off sales), such cheesy tactics can work…

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

Doesn't sit well with me, either way you slice it.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

I think a better approach is to tackle this from what the cost to them is if they wait. What's that cost to the customer (in benefit, whatever that is) if they don't decide to use your product right away? What do they lose if they don't get started now? It's a much better "fear" tactic than pricing, and you can tie it back to value, which is an overall better discussion.

Imstillonmute

Contributor

Account Executive

Yeah we have an ROI tool that shows cost of delay. It’s a little less sleezy than the typical way of buy now vs buy later

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

Do you mean a buy now and PAY later?
Or do you mean if you buy now here is the price and if you buy later here is what the price will be?

If its the second, im not a fan.

if your only way to motivate your buyer to make a decision is to threaten a higher price you will most likely lose.

i feel its a sign that you dont understand their problems well enough.

nomdeguerre

Executive

Account executive

High pressure sales tactics are dead as disco

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

glad someone else gets it too!

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

Sales Rep

I 100% disagree....I really like disco music.

nomdeguerre

Executive

Account executive

Prove it. Upload a video of yourself kicking ass on the dance floor to ABBA in your platform shoes 😂😂😂

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Yeah, what's up with the hating on disco?

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Bee Gees on my playlist and I rock out in my car (with the windows up but the bass thumping) when it comes on.

Plus there's also Joc Petersen's walk up music going on...Dancing Queen by Abba.

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

these comments took a turn i did not expect 😂😂🕺🕺🕺

antiASKHOLE

Tycoon

Bravado's Resident Asshole

I don't like it.

DungeonsNDemos

Big Shot

Rolling 20's all day

I'd focus on why buy now? Is there pain? Is that pain big enough to make change worth it?
Gap selling baby!

GDO

Politicker

BDM

If you can’t back it up, I would not do it

adrienmc

Good Citizen

Founder @LaGrowthMachine

I’m often on the receiving end of the “buy now discount”, I’ve always hated it
- it feels a cheap approach
- 100% of the time, the sales reps attempting the buy now had no other leverage. Either their product is undifferentiated to competition (and you can’t blame them), or they just didn’t spend enough time trying to build need with me (bad approach…).
- It never moved the needle for me to buy sooner than anticipated. I’d even go as far as say that a buy now discount on a undifferentiated product can easily be forced the next month. Wait until end of month when your rep is closed to not hitting quota, you’ll mysteriously get the same discount

To me, the buy now discount is a looser/lazy strategy. Part of the reason I don’t allow it in my org

Imstillonmute

Contributor

Account Executive

This is a great comment. I’m not a fan of it either, but my VP is. I have a sales cycle that is dragging out but it honestly just comes down to management wanting them to buy in our timeline and not theirs. So, I’m not optimistic that their cheesy sales tactic will do anything other than alienate the buyer

adrienmc

Good Citizen

Founder @LaGrowthMachine

“To buy in our timeline and not theirs”

You’ve got your problem right here. I’m curious to what you’re selling exactly but I’m a big believer that the only way to accelerate a sale is to build around the need, and cost of opportunity of waiting, business wise not discount wise.

But that is something out of a VP’s control, which is also tough to teach to AEs… thus cheap tactics

hunnybunny

Opinionated

SaaS Sales

Nah, if you're pricing a product or service, you should be pricing it based on value. Constant discounts and "incentives" cheapen it in my eyes.

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Imstillonmute

Buy Now vs Buy Later

21 comment

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