Zendesk - Guy Marion, Sr. Director, Customer Acquisition
Okta - Jake Randall, Director of Business Operations
There are many pricing levers available for subscription models and the challenge is
knowing where to start and how to iterate over time. Come learn lessons from pricing experts at Zendesk and Okta, where we’ll discuss the pros and cons of different models and how to use different promotional strategies and test plans to achieve your business strategies.
1. Pricing
&
Packaging
Flexibility
Drives
Subscrip8on
Growth
Guy
Marion
Senior
Director,
Online
&
Customer
Acquisi9on
Jake
Randall
Director
of
Business
Opera9ons
2. The Nine Keys to Subscription Success
$
PRICE
ACQUIRE
BILL
COLLECT
NURTURE
ACCOUNT
MEASURE
ITERATE
SCALE
3. Pricing & Packaging:
Your New Strategic Weapon
Guy Marion
Senior Director,
Online & Customer Acquisition
4. Agenda
• About Zendesk
• How Zendesk Uses Zuora
• Our Pricing Journey
• Secret Pricing Weapons
• Summary
6. How Zendesk Uses Zuora
Background
P L A T F O R M O V E R V I E W
Business Model
The Challenge
Zendesk: Cloud-based Customer
Service and Engagement platform
B2B SaaS (multi-tenant)
Direct: Self-serve and sales assisted
Channels: Marketplace, Service Partners
Easily add new products/services
Self-service payments, flexible billing terms
Enable easy upsell/cross of the base
Support for multi currency
Native Salesforce integration
7. Zendesk Pricing Journey
Plan Consolidation
Zendesk Launch (2008)
Free Trial + Bundles
August 2009
Price Change
May 2010
Enterprise
Plan
Aug 2011
“Causeware”
Feb 2012
Re-launch of
Advanced Plans
September 2013
8. Five Pricing & Packaging
Secrets
Secret #1:
Start simple with a low friction offering
Causeware Freemium
9. Secret #2:
De-risk your pricing launch by testing the waters first
Five Pricing & Packaging
Secrets
10. Secret #3:
Evolve multiple editions to drive revenue while
keeping competitive
Customer Support App Development
Five Pricing & Packaging
Secrets
Priced per user per month
Priced per 5 users per month
11. Secret #4:
Build a repeatable low touch sales model to reduce
CAC and focus your upstream sales efforts
Five Pricing & Packaging
Secrets
12. Secret #5:
In SaaS, 90%+ of your MRR comes from existing
customers, so price and package to upsell
Five Pricing & Packaging
Secrets
13. Summary
• Start simple with a low friction offering
• Test the waters before releasing new pricing
• Multiple editions drives revenue while keeping you competitive
• Build a repeatable low-touch sales model to scale
• Price and package to upsell your customer base
18. OKTA
M a r k e t l e a d e r i n I d e n t i t y a s a S e r v i c e ( I D a a S )
19. Okta Pricing & Packaging Journey
Okta initially used “standard” per user per month pricing
Multi-Edition:
Per User per
Month
Customers
needed a scalable
UoM licensing
modelExperiment with
term lengths /
billing
Maximize ARR
while ensuring
customers’
success
21. Use UoM to Expand Market
Scale
Predictability
ROI
Create a license model/UoM that expands your market and
increases value to existing Customers
22. Term Length and Billing Frequency
VolumeBasedPricing
Term Length / Billing Based Discounts
1. Created negotiation/pricing that tied to
improved LTV of Customer
2. Focus on how you position each
“package” to Customer
3. Understand your churn, WACC, etc. to
know how much discount makes
sense for your business
23. Bundled Services
M a x i m i z e A R R – M a x i m i z e C u s t o m e r S u c c e s s
Non-‐Recurring
Fees
Subscrip9ons
Per
User
Per
Login
Professional
Services
Problem:
− Customer has a limited budget for project
− Okta wanted to maximize recurring revenue
Non-‐Recurring
Fees
Subscrip9ons
Per
User
Per
Login
“Bundled”
PS
Result:
− Increased avg. ARR per deal (10% - 20%)
− Ensured customer received appropriate on-
boarding
24. Lessons Learned
Flexibility
Bundle
Listen to your customers
− Create units of measurement that tie to
your customers business model
Experiment with term length/pricing
− Understand your churn and consider
appropriate discounts for multi-year
Maximize value of every dollar
− Consider packaging your one-time fees as “included” to
maximize ARR/MRR.
Extend
25. Lessons Learned
Flexibility
Bundle
Native ability to manage UoMs
Automate renewals, billings, etc. for
different term lengths and billing cycles
Control packaging of products with “Charges” and “Rate Plans”
Extend