SaaS Trial Strategy - Time as a Currency (Part 2)

Free. Although a motivator for a variety of different types of sales, for the purpose of this article, we will focus on the low-cost, consumer, digital service space (apps, Software as a Service {SaaS}, website service offerings, etc).

When any business offers anything for "free", it consciously makes a choice to forego immediate revenue in exchange for two things: 

1)     A higher conversion rate on acceptance/adoption

2)     A plan to monetize long-term that requires a certain adoption and/or engagement level for success

Consumer decision making is easily understood at a high level with a simple equation:

Conversion = What they get – (Cost + Time to understand + Time to satisfy)

Notice that removing cost has either a neutral or beneficial effect, which makes it such an excellent motivator.

However, a caveat to remember as a company: the motivator does not eliminate the thought process associated with cost, just delays it. The advantage of the delay is time. Now, how to use that time to tip the scale in your favor? – Create dependency!

For example, let's look at a SaaS solution offering. For a successful company, this business model requires a monthly subscription.  "Free" gives a free trial, but is not necessarily what motivates a client to pay for the subscription. Dependency does. If the free trial client has used the free trial subscription for a whole month, and has imputed all of their data, trained their employees on how to use the solution, in essence, they have paid with their time. This time payment, changes the equation in their decision making to:

Conversion = What they get + Time to pick something else + Time to train staff – (Cost)

This equation shifts the influence of time in favor of conversion instead of opposing it. Here lies the power of free IF dependency is properly established.

How to create dependency? Engagement.

How to generate engagement using free as a motivator. Now here is the real question!