Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: “Contact Us” Pricing

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 173 posts

Re: Ask HN: “Contact Us” Pricing

#131

Post by jedberg »

chasd00 wrote: post #94
jedberg wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> always at least 2 weeks late, as a rule of thumb Oh man! As consultant I hated that. They would pay 90 days late and just say "sorry, we always pay 90 days after we get the invoice". They know I don't have the resources to sue them, nor would I. And they really had no reason to hold it other than making sure they get the interest instead of me. Sure maybe it takes a few days to validate the invoice, but 90 days was…

if the contract your client signed said net-30 then wouldn't a 90 day payment incur 60 days of late fees and another invoice? i feel like you could rinse/repeat that forever. It would be like a subscription to late fees.

They usually just reject the invoice with late fees and quote their stated 90 day policy. Also usually they will redline it if you try to put net-30 and just change it to net-90 anyway.

Re: Ask HN: “Contact Us” Pricing

#132

Post by yellowapple »

gunapologist99 wrote: post #10

As you already know, this is typical for "enterprise" software due to the idea that potential customers will immediately click away if the price seems too high, so you need to let your customer know what value is in your software before they immediately walk away. One take-away from this is the old "if you have to ask, you can't afford it", and another is that they're automatically filtering out lower-value or price-…

I mentioned this in a different HN thread today, but I'm gonna say it again anyway: if I can get a publicly-available "standard" price for launching something into outer fucking space¹, it's absolutely ridiculous that I can't get the same for something multiple orders of magnitude cheaper. Will that "standard" price be negotiated? Sure. Whatever. Just throw out some number instead of forcing the buyer and seller to mutually waste each other's time on basic information gathering.

----

¹: https://www.spacex.com/media/Capabilities&Services.pdf

Re: Ask HN: “Contact Us” Pricing

#133

Post by chasd00 »

kube-system wrote: post #104
chasd00 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if the contract your client signed said net-30 then wouldn't a 90 day payment incur 60 days of late fees and another invoice? i feel like you could rinse/repeat that forever. It would be like a subscription to late fees.

If a customer is paying you late because they think you won't/can't do anything about it, it seems the same disregard could apply to their payment of late fees.

If it’s low effort just keep sending in invoices. You could even write a script to help. The data entry person puts them on an A/R which gets larger and larger as each payment is not made and the past due rolls to the next invoice. Eventually the over 90 A/R will get attention.

It’s a lot of effort to keep going so it may just be more hassle than it’s worth. On the other hand, nothing wrong with that process if you’re within the terms of the contract. When the number gets large enough it will get escalated and, when you show your work, get paid and the payment clerk will get their hand slapped.

Re: Ask HN: “Contact Us” Pricing

#134

Post by site-packages1 »

yellowapple wrote: post #132
gunapologist99 wrote: post #10

As you already know, this is typical for "enterprise" software due to the idea that potential customers will immediately click away if the price seems too high, so you need to let your customer know what value is in your software before they immediately walk away. One take-away from this is the old "if you have to ask, you can't afford it", and another is that they're automatically filtering out lower-value or price-…

I mentioned this in a different HN thread today, but I'm gonna say it again anyway: if I can get a publicly-available "standard" price for launching something into outer fucking space ¹, it's absolutely ridiculous that I can't get the same for something multiple orders of magnitude cheaper. Will that "standard" price be negotiated? Sure. Whatever. Just throw out some number instead of forcing the buyer and seller to…

I think the comment you’re responding to answers your response. Pricing isn’t opaque because they cannot determine a standard price, but because they don’t want to scare people away.

I’m expecting spacex is different because we already know intuitively that launching something is expensive and we know there are only a small number of vendors with which to do so. So space launch companies probably don’t have the same issue…

Re: Ask HN: “Contact Us” Pricing

#135

Post by rchowe »

indymike wrote: post #106

Contact Us Pricing has different meanings based on company size: Newish Companies: they haven't been able to figure out how to price their product yet. Growth Companies: We're revenue optimizing every deal. "Sales Driven" (as opposed to "product driven): We have to justify the existence of our sales team. Hyper competitive companies: I'm not publishing a price because someone will scrape it and beat us by $1. Large C…

Don't underestimate the ability of small companies to have 4D matrix pricing that nobody can comprehend!

It's pretty common in custom manufacturing (which makes sense) but also companies that purchase product/services from others and re-sell them as part of a larger whole. Some folks also don't understand that pricing doesn't have to exactly match your product.

I think there is also value for certain lines of business for having a customer meet the sales team and possibly an account manager before using the product, usually if the product has some kind of learning curve or domain specific knowledge where insiders can unlock value.

Re: Ask HN: “Contact Us” Pricing

#136

Post by seanp2k2 »

shrubble wrote: post #114
cj wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whether or not your company has a procurement department should always be part of the equation when pricing enterprise deals. (Funding is an indicator of whether your company has one) Smaller companies without procurement departments are quicker and faster to contract with and they pay on time. Bigger companies with procurement departments request last minute contract redlines and never pay on time (always at least 2…

Most companies pay very quickly if you offer 1% Net 10 or 2% Net 10 terms. Paying within 10 days to get a 2% discount is pretty money-efficient from their standpoint.

Then just price in a 10% overhead for your service of dealing with this game.

Re: Ask HN: “Contact Us” Pricing

#137

Post by pevey »

jedberg wrote: post #131
chasd00 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if the contract your client signed said net-30 then wouldn't a 90 day payment incur 60 days of late fees and another invoice? i feel like you could rinse/repeat that forever. It would be like a subscription to late fees.

They usually just reject the invoice with late fees and quote their stated 90 day policy. Also usually they will redline it if you try to put net-30 and just change it to net-90 anyway.

It's up to you if you accept 90 days in a contract or not. And if you accept 90, then it's absolutely within their right to wait until day 90. Why would they not? It was agreed up front.

Re: Ask HN: “Contact Us” Pricing

#138

Post by stubish »

wwkeyboard wrote: post #19
gunapologist99 wrote: post #10

As you already know, this is typical for "enterprise" software due to the idea that potential customers will immediately click away if the price seems too high, so you need to let your customer know what value is in your software before they immediately walk away. One take-away from this is the old "if you have to ask, you can't afford it", and another is that they're automatically filtering out lower-value or price-…

That's a much more generous take than I had. I always assumed "contact us" pricing meant "tell us who you work for so we can google their funding level before suggesting a price to you".

Oh, it doesn't always mean personalized price gouging. My take was always simply that the product is overpriced to the point the vendor needs to employ a full time salesperson to make you want it. I think that was why I've always avoided making those calls. Not only did I know I was going to be annoyed, I was going to have to pay to be annoyed. "contact us" pricing was always the last option to try, especially from the well known brands.

Re: Ask HN: “Contact Us” Pricing

#139

Post by jedberg »

pevey wrote: post #137
jedberg wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They usually just reject the invoice with late fees and quote their stated 90 day policy. Also usually they will redline it if you try to put net-30 and just change it to net-90 anyway.

It's up to you if you accept 90 days in a contract or not. And if you accept 90, then it's absolutely within their right to wait until day 90. Why would they not? It was agreed up front.

Sure, and I had to accept it because they would bully me into it. "Here is a contract for $200,000 and you'll bill us $30,000 each month, but we'll pay you 90 days later".

They know I don't have a choice to turn down that work just because I don't like the 90 day rule, and they only have that rule so they can keep money in their bank account longer.

And when I was on the corporate side, the vendor specifically would not do the work for me because they didn't agree to the 90 day terms, so I had to fight with my own people to get them paid faster so I could work with them.

It's just a pain all around.

Re: Ask HN: “Contact Us” Pricing

#140

Post by hodgesrm »

gunapologist99 wrote: post #10

As you already know, this is typical for "enterprise" software due to the idea that potential customers will immediately click away if the price seems too high, so you need to let your customer know what value is in your software before they immediately walk away. One take-away from this is the old "if you have to ask, you can't afford it", and another is that they're automatically filtering out lower-value or price-…

Sometimes 'contact us' for pricing is just a way to get potential customers to talk.

My company has standard pricing for all offerings (including cloud operation and support services) but we have said 'Contact Us' for years. The reason: we have a better chance of closing if we actually interact with prospects. We don't charge more for the privilege.

Just $0.02 from my personal experience.

Post reply on HN