Offering Critique

[Mike McCall]

As I work through Palachuk's book I find that the residential side is coming together first. That's alright as I'll gain valuable insight for the business side through the process. I don't know if I'll use Silver, Gold, & Platinum but they'll work here. Just looking for feedback.

Silver: $20mo.

24/7 Monitoring
Automated Maintenance (Temp Files, Cookies, Etc.)
Virus Removal - $99 (reg. $120)
10% discount on Remote Support Labor
10% discount on In-Shop Labor

Gold: $30mo.

24/7 Monitoring
Automated Maintenance
System & 3rd-party updates
Managed Antivirus
Free virus removal (Limited to 2x a year)
1-Hour free Remote Support each month (No rollover)
Discounted Onsite support - $60hr. (reg. $75)

Platinum: $40mo.

24/7 Monitoring
Automated Maintenance
System & 3rd-party updates
Managed Antivirus
Free virus removal (limited to 2x a year)
2-Hours free Remote Support each month (No rollover)
Discounted Onsite Support - $50hr. (reg. $75)

Optional:

MDM $5mo.
Web Protection $5mo.

Thoughts?

 

[cypress]

I like the 3 Tiered plan because that is something I have been using as well. The one thing I can say that or probably just offer the suggestion is that Maybe for the Gold plan offer Unlimited Virus Removal? Depending on how prices go for your area, I think that to be high. $40 a month over the year is $480 and not including unlimited virus removal?

If anything remove some time from the Remote Support and replace it with Unlimited Virus Removals. Unless they are the type that goes looking for garbage, you will make that back easily.

Maybe also offer a discount if they purchase 1 year in advance.

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

These are your residential prices? Seems high, but if your area supports it, that's great.

 

[Mike McCall]

Yeah, struggled with that a bit penciling it out. Two of my clients are direct opposites of each other. One uses the net for menial web surfing, email, and is therefore relatively low risk. The other likes to hang-out in the seedier parts of the net and is therefore much higher risk. The first isn't likely to get an infection being on managed AV, but if they do I might cut them some slack. The second might get several over the course of a year and eat up a lot of free time if I offered it. He did pay for a year in advance which included a free month. Still, I'm open to change, which is why I ask. So, $40 seems high even with 2-hours free onsite support?

 

[Mike McCall]

These are your residential prices? Seems high, but if your area supports it, that's great.

Do they all seem high?

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

I missed the support being included. But for my area, Iowa, selling labor doesn't go over well for residential clients. They just want a basic package like this: http://www.itproiowa.com/complete-internet-security-iowa/ Zero support included, but again in my area our residential clients are not interested in buying support monthly, they are break/fix only. The package we have put together works well for us though.

 

[Mike McCall]

I missed the support being included. But for my area, Iowa, selling labor doesn't go over well for residential clients. They just want a basic package like this: http://www.itproiowa.com/complete-internet-security-iowa/ Zero support included, but again in my area our residential clients are not interested in buying support monthly, they are break/fix only. The package we have put together works well for us though.

Interesting. It looks like you offer a lot of services for $7.95. I wonder if some of them (HDD space monitoring/bandwidth monitoring) is understood by the residential consumer. I dunno. Your IT Pro Care offerings look more inline with what I'm thinking in terms of services offered, though you include Managed AV where I offer discounted AV removal as well as discounted Remote/Onsite labor for the same $20mo. Palachuk cautions against being too cheap, and I don't really want cheap clients, nor do I want those likely to abuse the offering. I do want to give the one's I have good value for their money. My thinking is that by limiting the lowest tier offerings it will be easier to move them into the higher tiers where they get more for their money. Most residential clients essentially just want their systems to work (much like any business) and I want the clients who are willing to pay a little (within reason) to get that. $7.95 seems way cheap to me, but that's why I asked the question. I want/need the feedback.

How about if I included Managed AV and changed the virus removal to 2x free each year, but removed the discounted labor in Silver, added Web filtering in Gold and Platinum, and added unlimited remote support while removing the discounted onsite support in Platinum?

 

[Mike McCall]

Actually, in looking at this closer I could eliminate the Platinum altogether and have just two offerings at $20 & $30 each. So, it would look like this:

Silver: $20mo.
24/7 Monitoring
Daily Health & Safety Checks
Automated Maintenance (Temp Files, Cookies, Etc.)
Managed AV
Free Virus Removal (Up to 2x per year.)

Gold: $30mo.
24/7 Monitoring
Daily Health & Safety Checks
Automated Maintenance
System & 3rd-party updates
Managed Antivirus
Free virus removal (Limited to 2x a year)
Unlimited Remote Support

Would that make more sense?

 

[cypress]

I think your pricing for a business would make more sense, but we have different demographics here. Managed A/V would be something to include in the Middle plan at least.

Most people, and this is just going by studies are going to go for the middle package. Price that well enough that you make a nice margin, but add a perk or two to Gold for those that could really use it. Sometimes you may have to tweak a plan and add options for certain clients out there. $7.95 would seem too cheap for you so look for some middle ground maybe $14.95? I do think you should offer Web filtering in each package but tweak the virus removal. Maybe do 2x a year for Silver and Unlimited with Gold. As long as you patch up the systems good when you initially set it up and have good monitoring tools, then profits should stay high.

 

[Mike McCall]

I think your pricing for a business would make more sense, but we have different demographics here. Managed A/V would be something to include in the Middle plan at least.

Most people, and this is just going by studies are going to go for the middle package. Price that well enough that you make a nice margin, but add a perk or two to Gold for those that could really use it. Sometimes you may have to tweak a plan and add options for certain clients out there. $7.95 would seem too cheap for you so look for some middle ground maybe $14.95? I do think you should offer Web filtering in each package but tweak the virus removal. Maybe do 2x a year for Silver and Unlimited with Gold. As long as you patch up the systems good when you initially set it up and have good monitoring tools, then profits should stay high.

All good points, thanks! I guess I'm concerned about my offering unlimited virus removals to someone who insists on hanging out in porn sites and picking up all sorts of stuff figuring I'll clean it up for free.

So, things might look something like:

Silver: $14.95mo.
24/7 Monitoring
Daily Health & Safety Checks
Automated Maintenance
Web Filtering
Managed AV
Free Virus Removal (Up to 2x per year.)

Gold: $24.95mo.
24/7 Monitoring
Daily Health & Safety Checks
Automated Maintenance
System & 3rd-party Software Updates
Web Filtering
Managed Antivirus
Free virus removal (Limited to 2x a year)
10% Off Remote Support


Platinum: $34.95mo.
24/7 Monitoring
Automated Maintenance
System & 3rd-party updates
Managed Antivirus
Free virus removal (Unlimited except for abuse)
Unlimited Free Remote Support

Does that make more sense? Also, it's been suggested that I charge an initial setup fee. How do you handle that?

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

I have had very very few return infections with my package. I do however have a clause that I can terminate the plan if I feel the client is abusing it. I have never even been close to enforcing this.

 

[Mike McCall]

Fair enough, Adam. I'm beginning to wonder if my head is just in the wrong place on this thing. I try to read what others are offering for what price, along with applying the principals that Palachuk promotes, and I seem to be missing something. I mean, how can you make any money at $7.95 a month when you seem to include the proverbial kitchen sink? Is it that you make enough on the business side that the margins on the residential can afford to be that skinny? Am I, rather, still thinking that my margins on residential need to be high enough to support the business on their own? If my residential pricing looks more like your business pricing, then I need to get my head squared away (which is why I ask these questions and appreciate the feedback). It seems likely that I'll get more residential clients with lower pricing, but don't I run the risk of getting bogged down in time-consuming low-margin work for cheapskate clients? I don't think my head's right on this.

 

[Mike McCall]

...but add a perk or two to Gold for those that could really use it.

^^^This really means something to me. I know something of what it is to be one who "could really use it" so I want to do that. Still working on this.

 

[cypress]

Honestly I got the idea to add the clause of Unlimited Virus Removals from Adam.

As long as you put it out for the client to know there shouldn't be a problem, Unlimited Virus removals shouldn't be something that should be abused just be sure to educate the customer. If you have that client that wants to continue to visit sites, either give him a 10% or whatever discount on virus removals and let him keep getting infected. You are going to get it anyway.

When you have business clients or those that really use their computers more for business purposes and need it, they try to avoid going to sites and downloading crap. Most removals come to me because they thought they needed an Antivirus or wanted to convert a youtube video and went online and opened up a can of worms.

Having that casual user that goes online, checks their e-mail, streams videos online on Netflix and Youtube and just checks their Facebook needs patch management and Anti-virus more than anything. I offer Monthly because some people seem to want that, personally I like to purchase things months in advance if I can get the better deal. Once you show them how it will benefit them they will love it.

Best time to do this? After a virus removal or a service where they needed such a service. Setup Fee? Honestly I haven't done one, but it makes sense to do so.

 

[Mike McCall]

Ok, I think I've got something that's workable. I've lowered the pricing across the board. What do you think?

 

[HCHTech]

But for my area, Iowa, selling labor doesn't go over well for residential clients.

I've found this to be true in my area as well. I can sell "monitoring only" or "monitoring + AV" ok to my residential folks, but no one wants to buy packages that include service. It does keep it simple, I'll admit. With that package, any work that needs done is billable so I don't have to track and remember folks that have discounts or pre-paid service.

 

[Mike McCall]

I've found this to be true in my area as well. I can sell "monitoring only" or "monitoring + AV" ok to my residential folks, but no one wants to buy packages that include service. It does keep it simple, I'll admit. With that package, any work that needs done is billable so I don't have to track and remember folks that have discounts or pre-paid service.

I was just looking at your Sentinel offerings, and you offer Unlimited Remote Support in your Silver package, and Unlimited Onsite Support as well as Unlimited Remote Support in your Gold package. That seems to run counter to what you're saying above. Am I not understanding something?

 

[cypress]

Ok, I think I've got something that's workable. I've lowered the pricing across the board. What do you think?

Looking a lot better IMO. I would take Free Virus Removals off the first package and make it just for the middle and higher one.

 

[Krilus]

*Unless abused - What quantifies as "abuse" I think you might want to quantify this a little bit.

I charge in 6 month blocks for my plans, you don't want the headache of chasing down invoices from your clients, and as soon as you get last months payment the new months payment will be due and its going to be an ugly cycle imo.

As for the unlimited remote suupport, we offer 1 hr free per device and its really not a "hard" condition, I helped a client yesterday for about 3 hours with no charge but they have had my plan not for a few months and this is the first time they used the option. I just send them an invoice with 3 hours support and then discounted them the exact same amount, I do this for tracking purposes and as a tool to show them and others
how much they could save in a year.

 

[HCHTech]

I was just looking at your Sentinel offerings, and you offer Unlimited Remote Support in your Silver package, and Unlimited Onsite Support as well as Unlimited Remote Support in your Gold package. That seems to run counter to what you're saying above. Am I not understanding something?

Nope. I offer it , but can't seem to sell it, though. Every single residential customer I have on the system is on the Bronze package, wouldn't bite at the higher levels.