Your software has paying customers, but revenue hasn't grown in a while. You could work on SEO, improve the website, or revisit pricing. You only have the time and budget for one or two of those.
If you're considering pricing, first separate two jobs: changing the price of the existing plan, and designing a plan for teams. Those projects don't necessarily deserve the same priority.
A survey about the existing plan's price can inform the first decision. It doesn't answer whether teams need a different plan.
Revenue at Tom's Planner, a Gantt chart tool, had been flat for a few years. Growth consultancy DemandMaven worked with founder Tom to send a price sensitivity survey to more than 100 active users.
Tom said his pricing seemed to be in the right range. That gave him one less thing to consider.
Yet developing a team plan was still one of his priorities for the coming year. That work included both features and pricing.
A customer can be happy with what they pay to use a product on their own, then struggle to find a suitable plan when they want to bring in colleagues. Changing the price they pay today and designing a plan that works for their team are different pieces of work.
When reviewing a business that's stalled, I separate those decisions. Then I look at how customers use the product, what came up during purchase discussions, and why they didn't buy or renew. Those records help show which job deserves attention first.
Suppose individual users are renewing, but teams aren't buying. Some teams have tried the collaboration features and need them, but the minimum seat purchase is larger than they need.
If usage records, purchase discussions, and reasons for walking away repeatedly point to that issue, the team plan is worth investigating first. The question is how to offer those teams a suitable plan. It doesn't necessarily call for changing everyone's price.
But if teams aren't buying because the product doesn't support the way they need to work together, there's a feature gap to address. A lower price won't let them do work the product can't support. "Too expensive" alone doesn't tell you which problem you're dealing with.
The existing plan may be able to wait. Suppose your next round of work is still aimed mainly at the customers covered by the survey. Their purchase, renewal, and usage records don't suggest that price is preventing purchases or renewals. Another problem you've already identified is causing customers to leave. In that situation, a broad price change may not deserve to go first.
That doesn't make the current price optimal or rule out room to charge more. It means you don't yet have a strong enough reason to spend your limited capacity on a broad price change ahead of the other work.
You still need records from customers who left, people who never bought, and customers with a new use for the product. Without those, you can defer a broad price change. You haven't ruled out a pricing problem.
You might leave the current price alone while making the team plan a priority. Before deciding what comes next, be clear about the job: changing the price of an existing plan, or designing a suitable plan for teams?
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