How to sell professional applications and why they are so expensive

Prices Mac-applications, especially professional, have always been the subject of heated debate. Pay for the iOS-application, we are used to, this process is almost painless, but with applications for OS X, things are a little different - sometimes very difficult for the program to give 10, 20, $ 50 or even more. We blame the developers of greed, but the reasons for the steep price tag is not always there. Rob Ryan of Martiancraft He shares his experiences, explaining how to set the price for professional applications, and opens their eyes to the developers. Next to his story.

Throughout the year, I spoke at various conferences with his lecture Make Them Care, which aims to help developers learn how to present and sell their products, creating a stable business, giving the funds for further software development. The entry always been a debate about the size of the potential audience for the software, which is actually much smaller than most developers it currently is. This can be considered a call to action for all independent developers mistakenly believe that their products are interested in the millions.

The same opinion is shared by Allen Pike, in its development plan MicDrop future applications, a full-featured podcasting studio for professionals. He says that the installing application's price, you need to take into account the size of the market and what kind of support he is able to give you. The bottom line is that:

Professionals use your software, earning money from it. If you can make them work process easier and faster, they will pay for your program almost any price.

Pike is going to successfully sell your application and swung as much, and the price at $ 200. You can find him insane, but actually it is not.

Option 1: Triple the price

Calculations Allen is not too far from the circuit of a successful business:

In the best scenario, I might get, say, from 500 to 1,000 podcasters who are ready to support me... it turns out that to capitalize on this market can be of the order of $ 20000-50000.

In fact, it is a bit wrong. If he could sell MicDrop 400 or $ 600, it can easily be able to remain afloat for a long time. Raising the price to $ 1,000 he would have received a good support for development and growth.

"Well, crazy" - you might say. "Sell the app even $ 200 is very difficult, as it is possible to sell it for $ 600?" If your audience consists of these professionals - who earn a living at it - you will not have any problems in order to sell the program for $ 600, or even $ 1,000. Photoshop, Autocad, Google's SketchUp - example applications that cost thousands.

Professionals earn using your software money. They change money on productivity. Create tool, saving them time and increasing productivity - and you can call the price. It is also necessary to consider the interest semi-professional audience, who also wants to use professional tools. The market is very complicated and always tie the price to quality.

Note. Sale of large number of copies of your program will create spin-offs for you, users will become more involved, as invested in your product. This means more bug reports and feedback. Do not be afraid, on the contrary - rejoice.

Of course, you will get a negative portion, but at the same time, thanks to the feedback you will learn how to make your app better and, importantly, users will appreciate your concern, seeing the fulfillment of their requests and make you a better advertising, which can not buy money.

Option 2: Subscribe

Allen also said sales using a subscription model. Not knowing the details, I suggest that he considered the monthly subscription fee in the range $ 10-20. For the year it is about $ 200, just the amount of which he spoke when choosing a fixed price. In the case of subscriptions, development strategy seems to have not so stable. But we're talking about professionals, which costs per month amount to much more than $ 10-20.

Subscribe Creative Cloud, which provides access to more than 20 applications worth $ 50, while AutoCad (one application) will cost you $ 3,000 per year. It should be borne in mind that the prices are per seat, so if your podcast two or more participants - the cost will be more. For large podcast show can provide bundles and discounts which will benefit both you and the client.

Either way, the goal is to monetize a license fee for each release of the podcast. Great show to pay more to get more. This integration of the sales chart is very important for sustainable business. But then again, podcasters make money using your product, so even $ 100 per month will not be a high price to pay for podcasts mediocre.

Option 2.1: Percentage of sales

Model use professional software to the deduction of the profit as its payment seems unreal, but such examples exist. The game engine Unreal engine by Epic - is the primary development tool for all professional game studios. Starting this year, anyone can gain access to it for just $ 20 a month, plus 5% of the sales of your games, although he had the license cost the developers $ 100,000. For people who know about the development of software is not by hearsay, it seems madness.

However, Epic is not crazy, they're just well remember the main rule of professional tools developers' customers use your products for making money. "So instead of taking with them a lot of money for not yet started the game, they encourage customers to use their tools and the creation of what they necessary. If you manage to create a potential hit - Epic will get their money. This approach is very effective, especially in the next-gen consoles, which have very little chance to hit the market in the indie developers.

It's like a freemium-distribution model, where you make a profit is not a sale of apps and games, but with the success sought by users in them. This approach allows you to use two things: firstly, you can offer a lower price to encourage enthusiasts, and secondly - it just gets better and get sponsors, but you get the money for the development and improvement of their products.

Supplement to Embodiment 1

This option is suitable not for all customers, but it can be used in addition to the models with a subscription or a percentage of sales. Major projects, the scale of which involve the simultaneous involvement of many employees are unlikely to want to pay a monthly subscription for one employee or to share with you a percentage of their income. For such large customers it makes sense to conduct separate negotiations on the annual subscription for the use of your software. One such contract will allow you to establish a stable business and not think about the means for further development of the product.

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As you can see, the developers have to balance between the maximum price - which will ensure them a profit and further development of the product - and the availability of a wide range of users. Once the application is running, it continues to work on and develop a product - it is only part of the hard work. Followed by customer support, product development and improvement. In any case, developers should work to encourage, inspiring them to create even more cool tools. In the end of it all will benefit, especially when it comes to professional applications.

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