Andy Black
Help people. Get paid. Help more people.
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It's Saturday morning and I'm sat in the car dealership while they track down a knocking noise in my trusty Corolla. I've recently deleted the Facebook and LinkedIn apps from my phone so brought a book to read:
Before I even open the book I look up and see a big banner in the customer waiting area for their "Service Plan":
This has me thinking about subscriptions and how they're more than just a way to stabilise cashflow (for businesses and clients alike.)
In this case the subscription would appear to be "just" annual car servicing paid for in small monthly instalments.
Here's the copy from the ad:
ServicePlan from Toyota
From just €14 per month.
BUDGET for the cost of servicing
...
Offering the 10% discount on additional work not covered in the plan is clever.
If you did this for your own business, then the subscriber now wants to use YOU to get other work done to avail of the 10% discount. ("I'm paying for this already, so I might as well get my money's worth.")
You're now become their go-to destination for all repair and maintenance work for their car.
...
How can that be applied to other businesses?
Accountant offering quarterly VAT / PAYE returns:
Instead of a quarterly bill that has to be sent and chased up, what about a monthly automated bill? It can be a the usual quarterly cost spread across three months and the benefit is that the payments are spread evenly, OR there can be a financial incentive to pay monthly (10% off if you pay monthly?).
If the hours worked that quarter are higher than normal then hours are billed at 10% less than normal hourly rate.
*** Additional services are 10% cheaper. *** (You might offer this anyway to your loyal customers but have never explicitly said it, or made it a selling point.)
Free vehicle health check. (Not sure what this means, but presumably it's something simple and people only take it up when they are worried about something they are likely to pay to get fixed anyway. You'd probably offer this free anyway and it's your "foot in the door" to help explore a piece of paid work.)
Free puncture repairs. (Something that won't happen often, is cheap to perform anyway, but the offer gives people peace of mind.)
...
Other thoughts:
Don't call it a "retainer". ("So I'm paying you each month just so I can pay you even more when I need you?")
Call it an "XYZ Plan" - a way of spreading payments for something they would *already* pay for each quarter or year or irregularly. ("BUDGET the cost of servicing.")
Before I even open the book I look up and see a big banner in the customer waiting area for their "Service Plan":
This has me thinking about subscriptions and how they're more than just a way to stabilise cashflow (for businesses and clients alike.)
In this case the subscription would appear to be "just" annual car servicing paid for in small monthly instalments.
Here's the copy from the ad:
ServicePlan from Toyota
From just €14 per month.
BUDGET for the cost of servicing
- Guaranteed against price increases
- Affordable monthly payments
- 10% discount on additional work not covered by the plan **
- Free vehicle health check
- Free puncture Repairs
- And a lot more...
...
Offering the 10% discount on additional work not covered in the plan is clever.
If you did this for your own business, then the subscriber now wants to use YOU to get other work done to avail of the 10% discount. ("I'm paying for this already, so I might as well get my money's worth.")
You're now become their go-to destination for all repair and maintenance work for their car.
...
How can that be applied to other businesses?
Accountant offering quarterly VAT / PAYE returns:
Instead of a quarterly bill that has to be sent and chased up, what about a monthly automated bill? It can be a the usual quarterly cost spread across three months and the benefit is that the payments are spread evenly, OR there can be a financial incentive to pay monthly (10% off if you pay monthly?).
If the hours worked that quarter are higher than normal then hours are billed at 10% less than normal hourly rate.
*** Additional services are 10% cheaper. *** (You might offer this anyway to your loyal customers but have never explicitly said it, or made it a selling point.)
Free vehicle health check. (Not sure what this means, but presumably it's something simple and people only take it up when they are worried about something they are likely to pay to get fixed anyway. You'd probably offer this free anyway and it's your "foot in the door" to help explore a piece of paid work.)
Free puncture repairs. (Something that won't happen often, is cheap to perform anyway, but the offer gives people peace of mind.)
...
Other thoughts:
Don't call it a "retainer". ("So I'm paying you each month just so I can pay you even more when I need you?")
Call it an "XYZ Plan" - a way of spreading payments for something they would *already* pay for each quarter or year or irregularly. ("BUDGET the cost of servicing.")
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