How can you monetize subscriber relationships? Learn how to align market demands, organizational goals, and customer experience requirements to drive your pricing and packaging strategy. Check out Zuora Academy for more actionable advice for finance, marketing, tech, operations, product, and more. All the info you need to build and run an amazing subscription business: https://www.zuora.com/academy/

1. Monetizing Subscription
Services

2. welcome
meet today’s panel
page
02
Mac Kern
VP Commercial
Planning
SurfAir
@mackenziekern
Kyle Christensen
VP Marketing
Invoca
@kylechristensen
Monika Saha
VP Marketing
Zuora
@monikasaha
Madhavan Ramanujam
Partner & Board
Member
Simon-Kucher Partners

3. 3 principles to follow when designing pricing (5
mins)
Challenges, Observations and Suggestions (30
mins)
o Monika Saha (10 mins)
o Kyle Christensen (10 mins)
o Mac Kern (10 mins)
Advice, Commentary, Questions (15 mins)
o Madhavan Ramanujam

4. 3 principles
to follow when designing your
pricing
page
04
01Keep things simple and
intuitive
03Create a “growth journey”
02Single vs multiple
pricing levers

5. Challenges, Observations,
Suggestions

6. 3 principles
to follow when designing your
pricing
page
06
01Keep things simple and
intuitive
03Create a “growth journey”
02Single vs multiple
pricing variables

7. challenge: keeping up with a continuous innovation
cycle
page
07
The new release debate
Pricing/Packaging decisions have to be made at a faster, more
frequent pace

8. observation: the pitfalls
of not managing pricing against this cycle
page
08
Overloaded add-ons
Eroded price-value differentiation
✕
✕

9. suggestion: create a new release alignment framework
page
09
PRIMARY PRICING GOAL
Capability
name
Competitive
play
Reduce sales
friction
Generate new
ACV
Generate
upsell ACV
Edition
differentiation
Capability name 1 + + + +
Capability name 2 + + + +
Capability name 3 - + + +
Capability name 4 - - + +

10. 3 principles
to follow when designing your
pricing
page
010
01Keep things simple and
intuitive
03Create a “growth journey”
02Single vs multiple
pricing variables

11. challenge: breadth of footprint and diversity of
buyers
page
011
Over time, your product will evolve
You will grow your product footprint and you might serve a new set
of different buyers and markets

12. observation: a single pricing lever is ideal
but not every product innovation will map to
this lever
page
012
Leave money on the table
Buyers will have a hard time aligning price to value
delivered
✕
✕

13. suggestion: one lever/variable per persona
page
013
# Of Sales Quote Users$100M $10M $1M
CFO : Transactions processed VP Sales : Users Creating Sales
Quotes

14. 3 principles
to follow when designing your
pricing
page
014
01Keep things simple and
intuitive
03Create a “growth journey”
02Single vs multiple
pricing variables

15. challenge: too much emphasis on maximizing the first
transaction
page
015
Your goal should be to maximize lifetime value
Packaging should take into account what a customers needs are at the beginning
of their journey, and how those needs might grow and change as they adopt and
use more of your product

16. observation: the lack of logical “tipping points”
will hampers upsell growth
page
016
High adoption, but zero/no upsell revenue
New innovation, but zero/no add-on revenue
✕
✕

17. suggestion: design a growth journey that feels natural
and logical
page
017
Base
Product
Capability
driven
add-on
Adoption
driven
upsell
A higher
level
package
Pay for
increasing
level of
value
delivered
Base
Product
Capability
driven
add-on
Adoption
driven
upsell
OR

18. Kyle Christensen
VP Marketing
Invoca
@kylechristensen

19. 3 principles
to follow when designing your
pricing
page
019
01Keep things simple and
intuitive
03Create a “growth journey”
02Single vs multiple
pricing variables

20. challenge:
page
020

21. observation:
Your company is naturally inclined towards increasing pricing
complexity.
page
021
Product/Engineering:
“We spent 6 months on
this, how are we going to
make money on it?”
Sales:
“We need more stuff to sell!”

22. suggestion:
page
022
Customer’s Value
Customer Usage
HIGH
LOW
HIGHLOW
Include in EditionPackage as Option
Table Stakes
Don’t Build this
Stuff

23. 3 principles
to follow when designing your
pricing
page
023
01Keep things simple and
intuitive
03Create a “growth journey”
02Single vs multiple
pricing variables

24. challenge: How do you decide?
page
024
Calls vs. Minutes vs. Numbers

25. observation: it’s easy to fall back on “cost plus”
pricing
page
025
“Anonymous Competitor”

26. suggestion: always align to value.
page
026
Example: Phone Numbers

27. suggestion: always align to value.
page
027
Example: Minutes
90% < 10 min

28. suggestion: always align to value.
page
028
Minutes
Numbers
Calls

29. suggestion: consider different buyer types
page
029
Seats
Minutes
Numbers
Calls

30. 3 principles
to follow when designing your
pricing
page
030
01Keep things simple and
intuitive
03Create a “growth journey”
02Single vs multiple
pricing variables

31. challenge:
page
031
How do we drive 1/3rd of bookings from existing customers?

32. observation:
not every customer cohort grows in the same
way.
page
032
COHORT A: Call Volume COHORT B: Call Volume

33. suggestion: Identify multiple paths to growth
page
033
CALL VOLUME
EDITION UPGRADES
ADD-ON OPTIONS

34. Mac Kern
VP Commercial
Planning
SurfAir
@mackenziekern

35. 3 principles
to follow when designing your
pricing
page
035
01Keep things simple and
intuitive
03Create a “growth journey”
02Single vs multiple
pricing variables

36. challenge: appeal to a wider target audience
page
036
The pressure to diversify
We all want to keep products simple and easy to convey to
consumers. But what if your original product offering doesn’t fit the
growing and increasingly varied target market your company is trying
to address?

37. observation: product diversification can lead to a loss of
focus and abandonment of core principles
page
037
Too many products confuse the value proposition
Loss of understanding of core target market
Core product and pricing principles are neglected
✕
✕
✕

38. suggestion: understand the new target audience and
address them while keeping core principles intact
page
038
Know what makes you great, then expand
Before introducing new products or uprooting an existing pricing
model, understand what is working well and identify ways to address
a new audience by iterating off that solid foundation.

39. 3 principles
to follow when designing your pricing
page
039
01Keep things simple and
intuitive
03Create a “growth journey”
02Single vs multiple
pricing variables

40. challenge: defining value for the consumer
page
040
Pricing that doesn’t confuse the value proposition
Products and services often offer multiple benefits, but creating
pricing pathways for each can be overwhelming for the consumer
and difficult for a sales team to explain.

41. observation: primary mistakes in pricing
variable selection
page
041
Too many pricing variables
Focus on the wrong pricing variable
✕
✕

42. suggestion: identify the primary relationship
between value and price
page
042
Directly relate consumer experience and pricing variables
Place a high level of importance on understanding how consumers
understand and utilize product. When pricing variables are directly
related to the consumer experience, portraying value becomes much
simpler and more effective.

43. 3 principles
to follow when designing your
pricing
page
043
01Keep things simple and
intuitive
03Create a “growth journey”
02Single vs multiple
pricing variables

44. challenge: creating a pathway to long-term membership
page
044
Interested lead to loyal subscriber
Subscriptions, more than one-time transactions, require a greater
level of initial commitment from the consumer. How can product and
pricing tactics encourage a prospective customer to become a life-
long subscriber?

45. observation: weak product and pricing focused on
subscriber acquisition and retention have consequences
page
045
Slow subscriber growth
Increased dissatisfaction and subscriber churn
Limited continued engagement and upsell interest
✕
✕
✕

46. suggestion: offer unique introductory experiences
with options for future growth
page
046
Product and pricing builds a lasting subscriber relationship
Create opportunities to introduce brand and service value, then
provide enhancements once a subscriber is stablished.

47. Madhavan Ramanujam
Partner & Board
Member
Simon-Kucher Partners

48. madhavan ramanujam
Partner and board member @ simon-kucher
partners
Advice, Commentary,
Suggestions

49. Check out Zuora Academy for more great info and actionable
advice.
All the info you need to build and run
an amazing subscription business.
https://www.zuora.com/academy/