Memecast #13: Subscribers Buy Benefits

The reason we even have this meme is because too often, companies think, ‘Oh, I need to go subscription.’  They want to transition from a traditional business model to a subscription business model. And they often think of it as a payment plan. ‘Oh, I used to charge this. Now I'm going to charge this divided by 36 each month. And that gives me a three year payback.’ And even if the math works out, it's not the right way to think about it.  “Subscribers buy benefits, not products, they don't take ownership.” - Mark Stiving What you want to think about is, what's the stream of benefits my customer gets when they buy my product, because what you really want is for them to get that stream of benefits month after month after month.  They're happy paying you month after month after month, because they're getting those benefits. If you can think through clearly what are the benefits that you deliver, then you might be able to restructure your product so that you can deliver those benefits more visibly more easily more readily.  And then you can think through what are the detriments of the way you sell your product today? And is there a way we could overcome some of those because we go for a subscription. We want easy detriment is instead of giving you all that money upfront, I get to pay you a month at a time.    And by the way, if I don't like your product, if you're not delivering value to me, I get to churn out and I get to unsubscribe, so it gives buyers or customers the ability to try our products without committing huge amounts of money.    So in the end, think about the benefits your buyers are getting. It isn't about selling our product because buyers are buying our benefits.  We hope you enjoyed this memecast. If you see any of our memes that you'd like to move to the top of our memecast list, please let me know. If you have any feedback, definitely send it. You can reach me at [email protected]. Now, go make an impact.   Connect with Mark Stiving:  Email: [email protected] LinkedIn