ventox35

Sales Leader

GTM freemium model

I'm introducing a brand new software product to a very outdated industry that is incredibly slow to adopt new technology, but FAST to copy others.

got my first deal done, and we felt that a 60 day freemium beta test model was a good bet to start.

I'm not sure this is the way - myself, I always cash in on the free trial of a product then I peace out. I'll do anything not to pay. why would my customers be any different?

But, I also don't have much leverage until I have a strong case study or two.

Advice on how to effectively navigate selling a freemium model? Is it the right way to bring this product to market?

👑 Sales Strategy

☁️ Software Tech

💾 Product

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unclespacejam

Politicker

ur dad’s brother

Speaking from experience (I too have been in a dinosaur ass industry selling a modern sass product against legacy garbage):

-60 days is WAY too long, assuming if this isn’t a highly technical product (if technical, then only paid pilots, no free trials) I would suggest maximum 10-14 days free trial; think about how trial length will affect your sales cycle, ain’t nobody’s wanna add an extra 60 days+ to a sales cycle that is DEATH. I don’t care how easy your product is to use, no one should have 60 days to try it out, think about how much handholding you’re going to have to do during that period, that is a metric fuck tonne of free CS work.

If you’re openly advertising is any fashion that you offer 2 months free, what kind of customer are you attracting?

Honestly I think 7-10 days is the sweet spot.

Alternatively, if you are going into a wide market, go full PLG and make your free tier free forever, but you have to ensure the free tier is good enough for the folks you’ll likely convert on the first couple months but not SO good that you end up with a bunch of free loaders zapping your AWS usage for free.

how much are you charging? whos your customer? whos your end user?

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

THIS is how you approach Freemium, if you have to do it.

Gotdamn, unc. Dropping knowledge again

unclespacejam

Politicker

ur dad’s brother

I only know cuz I’ve done it all wrong before dog. If I can help folks steer clear of my mistakes, hopefully they get there faster than me

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

And that's what this place is all about+

unclespacejam

Politicker

ur dad’s brother

🫂🫂🫂 y u make me cry tho

ventox35

Politicker

Sales Leader

Interesting. It's essentially an e-commerce API designed to increase in AOV + purchase frequency.
the pricing model is based on API calls. there's an installation and setup fee, then it's a variable pricing model.

unclespacejam

Politicker

ur dad’s brother

Def wouldn’t do 60 days if it’s mostly consumption based. Do you have revenue already? Or still experimenting

ventox35

Politicker

Sales Leader

still in experimental phase. the idea of 60 days is to fully understand the # of API calls while building out the variable pricing model. during the 60 days, we are setting a hard cap on # of free calls. there is an expectation set that it's only free for 60 days to 1) determine how users interact with the tool 2) build out the pricing model.

unclespacejam

Politicker

ur dad’s brother

For pilot phase 60 days makes sense. When you described above, made it sound like you’d offer 60 days free indefinitely

ventox35

Politicker

Sales Leader

perhaps I could have shared that :)

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Not the Legacy GARBAGE 🦐☠️

Gasty

Notable Contributor

War Room Community Manager

Well, freemium can work initially but only if you make sure the product is top notch and free from all bugs!
What I’d do is chase the first 50 customers, then get reviews, testimonials, etc,. Limit the capabilities of the freemium model, ultimately sell it as is, till you get a decent customer base.

How much time did it take for you to get your first customer?

How expensive is it?

Plus, without knowing much about the industry or what exactly are you solving, it’s a little tough to comment

ventox35

Politicker

Sales Leader

great questions.
we have our first 2 customers, got them in a couple months. the pricing model requires an installation fee, then it's variable based on # of API calls per month.
it's for e-commerce sites in the sports & outdoors industry. it's an API widget that's embeddable on a website, utilizing our proprietary AI recommendation engine. basically your own personal AI shopping assistant.
you nailed my objectives: build a core customer base, get tons of reviews and case studies, and we ARE limiting the capabilities.

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

I’d rather sell my first 10 deals at a 50%+ discount to get early adopters with the only ask that they produce a case study with you.

ventox35

Politicker

Sales Leader

that's my goal. I'd prefer to just slash the price instead of offer it free. the foundational customer base is crucial. i've brought new products to market before, just not a SaaS product so i'm figuring this out as I go.

JSalesman

Executive

AE (Account Executive)

Yeah not sure what the product or industry is, but I think 60 days is a bit long I would maybe suggest 14-30 day free trial or like they also mentioned do a 50%-70% off first 2 months that way you can also get some cashflow started.

ventox35

Politicker

Sales Leader

I like it

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

we have a freemium motion as well.

We have made restrictions for the amount of data that can be added to the system. So they use it for a while, if they are large enough and like the product they will have to upgrade to the paid model at some point.

But we do look to get larger orgs on the paid model from the start.

Do you force all customers to start in the free option?

ventox35

Politicker

Sales Leader

heck no. if they're willing to pay for it upfront, that's what we will do. 60 day free trial is basically a push to collect as many customers early on as possible to build credibility.

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

got it. Im not a product guy so i cant give too much expertise on how to create a good freemium experience.

But I do think the freemium experience needs to be really compelling that is long enough for users to get a good picture of what they can do in the system.

would you be in charge of converting freemium users to paid users?

or are you just focused on paid customers from the start?

ventox35

Politicker

Sales Leader

Yes it's all up to me. I own everything.
part of the situation, is we are working on a series A. simply having inked deals - revenue generating or not - inflates the value of the company exponentially for us.
this product fortunately is not our primary source of revenue. we have 2 other primary revenue sources, this is 3rd so we have the luxury of getting it right.