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independence4 unconnected · 3 more authors in those circles
standing

contested · 8 claims against 1

applies to

b2b, no audience needed

mixed results

confidence

high

evidence

9 claims · 7 articles · 4 receipts

window

2016-05-12 → 2024-03-03

4 builders who never spoke to each other · contested

Give them more before you charge them more

Nobody pays noticeably more for exactly what they already have, so a bare increase with a start date reads as a penalty and sends the client shopping. Attach the new number to something that changed: a repositioning, the feature they kept asking for, a service upgraded from executing tasks to working on the business problem, or a named framework that stops you being a commodity anyone can quote against. Close the complaints your customers already have first, because a rise landing on an unresolved grievance is what triggers defections.

Where this splits

Zue pairs every price rise with the repositioning that justifies it, while Restagno did exactly that and watched sales stop dead for days until a discounted bundle restarted them.

8 claims against 1

Brennan Dunn · Cory Zue · Jakob Greenfeld · Nathan Barry · Preetam Nath · Rand Fishkin

Pair every price rise with a better offer

  1. 01Attach the price rise to a better offer rather than to the same work, since clients will not pay noticeably more for what they are already getting.
  2. 02Deliver the upgraded service free for two months at the price they already pay, so they trial the new level before the new number applies and you look generous rather than opportunistic.
the objection · 1 claimLuca Restagno

Even a justified rise can stop sales dead

A price increase combined with a narrower positioning line can stop sales outright, and a bundle with a discount code was what restarted them.

  1. 03Upgrade the offer by becoming more solutions-oriented rather than more skilled: work on the business problem behind the project, order the work by likely return, and report on the numbers the client cares about such as conversion rate and lifetime value.
  2. 04Fix the weaknesses your customers already complain about before raising prices: grandfathering and better messaging matter less than closing the value gap.
  3. 05Pair a price rise with the repositioning that justifies it rather than raising the number on its own.

What it returned

  • $5

    Zue lifted most template prices from $5 to $8, the largest increase in the site's history, at the same moment he rolled out the tier structure.

  • 2020

    SparkToro's largest growth month was September 2020, when it shipped email contact information and launched the $50 a month plan at the same time; it hit cashflow breakeven that month and stayed profitable every month after.

  • $15

    The average SuperLemon customer paid $15 a month; DelightChat was expected to reach roughly $150 a month per customer once mature, on a far more involved product.

  • Drip's price rise triggered defections from customers who already felt short-changed on deliverability and support

Sources

the second source

Three plays a week, for the phase you are in

No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.

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More in pricing

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the second source

Three plays a week, for the phase you are in

No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.

963 corroborated plays to draw from · 3 a week

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