<story><title>SpaceX Falcon Heavy announced: 53 metric tons to low earth orbit</title><url>http://www.spacex.com/falcon_heavy.php</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>modoc</author><text>I started a company that sells to enterprise customers and we thought we could differentiate ourselves by making our pricing public, simple, and affordable.  It was VERY easy for anyone to figure out how much we&apos;d charge them without having to call.  There were no hidden fees, nothing tricky or weird.&lt;p&gt;This has proven to be a mistake for two main reasons:  Firstly, everyone expects huge discounts (since all their other enterprise contracts give them big discounts off of the list price).  Trying to explain that we&apos;re already the cheapest option they&apos;re looking at does help.  They all want more off.  Secondly I think we&apos;re losing opportunities because we aren&apos;t making people call us.  Those phone calls are missed opportunities for us to really pitch our advantages for their specific situation and needs better than our website ever could.</text></item><item><author>bradleyland</author><text>My thoughts exactly. Space X can quote a price on their website, but if I want to know what &quot;Infrastructure Monitoring Tool XYZ&quot; costs, I have to call and talk to some retired used car salesman.&lt;p&gt;I now have hope for our future.</text></item><item><author>garyrichardson</author><text>Wow, I like how candid they are about the pricing. It feels like they are targeting consumers more than governments -- most &apos;expensive,&apos; enterprise targeted products are of the &apos;call us and ask for pricing&apos; variety.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>robryan</author><text>So you just massively increase your price for the same value, put a call for discounts or whatever, offer them the original price and they will be happy to have got such a good deal. Weird how these things work..</text></comment>
<story><title>SpaceX Falcon Heavy announced: 53 metric tons to low earth orbit</title><url>http://www.spacex.com/falcon_heavy.php</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>modoc</author><text>I started a company that sells to enterprise customers and we thought we could differentiate ourselves by making our pricing public, simple, and affordable.  It was VERY easy for anyone to figure out how much we&apos;d charge them without having to call.  There were no hidden fees, nothing tricky or weird.&lt;p&gt;This has proven to be a mistake for two main reasons:  Firstly, everyone expects huge discounts (since all their other enterprise contracts give them big discounts off of the list price).  Trying to explain that we&apos;re already the cheapest option they&apos;re looking at does help.  They all want more off.  Secondly I think we&apos;re losing opportunities because we aren&apos;t making people call us.  Those phone calls are missed opportunities for us to really pitch our advantages for their specific situation and needs better than our website ever could.</text></item><item><author>bradleyland</author><text>My thoughts exactly. Space X can quote a price on their website, but if I want to know what &quot;Infrastructure Monitoring Tool XYZ&quot; costs, I have to call and talk to some retired used car salesman.&lt;p&gt;I now have hope for our future.</text></item><item><author>garyrichardson</author><text>Wow, I like how candid they are about the pricing. It feels like they are targeting consumers more than governments -- most &apos;expensive,&apos; enterprise targeted products are of the &apos;call us and ask for pricing&apos; variety.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>po</author><text>Thirdly, they want free steak dinners and tickets to ball games on company time while a salesman reassures them that they&apos;re buying the best option.</text></comment>