Excellent article, but I think it's important to point out that in both his examples (his own sales and the theater) the products/shows are being compared to products/shows that are vastly more expensive. Even after raising his price, qlab sounds pretty cheap next to other similar programs prices at $1000+. Even if the theater tripled their prices, they'd be pretty cheap compared to broadway.
If the standard price for an audio suite like his was $50, I bet the increase in price to $249 would not have been as warmly received (to put it mildly). I don't think this works if your product isn't comparable to some other product that costs an awful lot more than what your charging.
I think the brain switch into anti-deceive mode and customers become suspicious if your price is too low compared to other products. It would feel just like someone selling you a brand new car for $200, you would seek where is the issue, and probably won't buy it even if you couldn't find any issues.
It's very impressive to see the increase in number of licences for v2, but I suppose some of them are v1 user that upgrade. It would be nice to see the number of licences sold to new customers only. That looks like a very good financial move anyway.
FWIW, that other product has since lowered their price to be more comparable to QLab, and all those recent figures hold in a world of more price parity.
There are limits, of course, depending on the competition. But most software that has proved popular is probably justified in some type of price increase, especially if more features are added.
I'm about to increase the price by 30%. Hopefully it won't make much difference to the purchasers, but an extra 30% revenue will make make a big difference.
Comments
Excellent article, but I think it's important to point out that in both his examples (his own sales and the theater) the products/shows are being compared to products/shows that are vastly more expensive. Even after raising his price, qlab sounds pretty cheap next to other similar programs prices at $1000+. Even if the theater tripled their prices, they'd be pretty cheap compared to broadway.
If the standard price for an audio suite like his was $50, I bet the increase in price to $249 would not have been as warmly received (to put it mildly). I don't think this works if your product isn't comparable to some other product that costs an awful lot more than what your charging.
I think that is part of the point. Your customers know your market (them) better than you do and they will point out if you're way off.
This article assumes someone is coming from the position of pricing cheap because they are afraid they won't get enough sales.
I think the brain switch into anti-deceive mode and customers become suspicious if your price is too low compared to other products. It would feel just like someone selling you a brand new car for $200, you would seek where is the issue, and probably won't buy it even if you couldn't find any issues.
It's very impressive to see the increase in number of licences for v2, but I suppose some of them are v1 user that upgrade. It would be nice to see the number of licences sold to new customers only. That looks like a very good financial move anyway.
I learned a few days ago that there is only two types of customers : - the one who would pay any price - the one that won't pay anything while selling way cheaper software : http://grownsoftware.com/blog/on-the-difficulty-of-not-givin...
FWIW, that other product has since lowered their price to be more comparable to QLab, and all those recent figures hold in a world of more price parity.
There are limits, of course, depending on the competition. But most software that has proved popular is probably justified in some type of price increase, especially if more features are added.
I'm about to increase the price by 30%. Hopefully it won't make much difference to the purchasers, but an extra 30% revenue will make make a big difference.