Tech Sales Hunter

Studies show that free is a magic word in marketing, advertising, & sales. It’s more effective than a great buy of 75% off or a cost of $1 or even a penny. 

In general, the purpose of a free product or service is to get trial & prove value.  While getting trial may not be a money-maker, neither do you want to lose money or perceived value.   

Offering something for free is powerful if applied strategically, but it can be bankrupting if used too freely.  Certainly, there’s the tangible income loss.  There’s also the opportunity cost of not using those resources to earn income from other sources.  And there’s the real possibility of having the value of our products/services demeaned, then having to reconstruct that value. 

How do we employ the advantages of free without incurring its potential disadvantages?  Here are some ideas:

1. An example of completely free that’s probably worthwhile is sharing your expertise in a 20-30 minute speech in a properly targeted business or community organization. 
2. You could charge a reasonable price for a trial offer that may be a limited version of your product/services.  Or, better yet, offer your trial for free but at a reduced size or length or amount, just enough to give you credibility & whet the prospect’s appetite. 
3. Assuming you’ve charged for the limited version of your product/service, or even for a full-fledged version, add something to it for free in order to make your revenue-producing offer more enticing & valuable. 

Here’s an example of what I consider a good use of free:  I belong to NCASP, a North Carolina professional recruiting association.  We provide an outstanding annual 2-day training conference, which is funded primarily by exhibitors who want access to our members. 

To encourage early registration at the conference, this year we offered an “early-bird-special” for about $200, which is a significantly reduced registration rate that barely covers the cost of meals & printed materials.  For really early registrants, we add a free annual NCASP membership, historically valued at $99-$350, depending upon the size of the member company.  

Our early early-bird-special used to be about $149 for the conference & about 50% off membership.  The dollar in-flow from registrations & new memberships is similar for both types of early-bird-specials, but the free membership version has resulted in earlier & more registrations.  Earlier registrations result in more sponsors/exhibitors, which allows NCASP to provide better training & after-hours events for conference attendees, which leads to better attendance next year & more sponsorships, & so on & so forth. 

This use of free is definitely a revenue-producer that benefits all stakeholders.

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