Often solutions are sold in packages, or have features without additional charges for usage.  If you are in any part of the Sales process, you want to strike the word “free” from your vocabulary when it comes to pricing.  You are doing you and your company a disservice in three different ways.

First, people view the quality and value based on the perceived price.  By saying it is “free” you are positioning the feature as being a minor item.  Thrown in like the free toaster at the bank.

Secondly, it makes it harder to later charge existing customers for that feature.  You don’t know how your solution will evolve.  You also don’t know what creative ways your customers will create tremendous value from those “free” features.

Finally, it sounds much more professional to drop this from your vernacular.  “Free” is something for late night informercials.

So how to you position these features?  They are “Standard” with the solution.  This increases the perception of value of the entire platform.

And what happens if you decide you want (or need) to charge extra for this feature?  You create packages and this becomes part of a plus or premium package.  When annual renewals come up, it is part of the discussion.  If they are seeing value, they’ll pay.  Provided of course you have done an adequate job in discovering and communicating that value.  And that you haven’t positioned it as free.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay. Cropped by author.