Don't gamble (Don ' t Just roll the Dice four)

Fourth Chapter pricing Advanced

So far, we have considered the sale of a product. But what happens when you sell several products, or several versions of a product at the same time?

Version control

Each potential user has a psychological price to buy the product. To see our previous example, Belinda (bargain Buyer) and Stewart (student) will only use time Tracker 3000 for free. Willhelm pay a maximum of$, and Pat can accept a maximum price of$. Then we assume that Ernest can pay a maximum of$.

Below is a table of income at different prices:

Price	Purchase Person	Income
0$	All of them	0$
$	Willhelm, Pat, Ernest	$(three for a price of$ )
$	Pat, Ernest	$(two people purchased with a$ $ price)
$	Ernest	$(only Ernest Purchase)
$ $	No one	0$

Assuming you are facing only 5 people in the market, you need to price time Tracker 3000 to$ $to maximize your earnings. This is the optimal unit price, but you lost the opportunity to sell to Willhelm, and also lost the
Ernest the income that the premises can earn.

If there is a way for each user to buy your product at the maximum price that they can afford, you can sell 1150$ products. This is what version control means. It is a mechanism that can be divided according to the user's wishes. You can organize your customers in different ways, and then see if the group of customers is willing to pay a different price for your product.

Here are some ways to implement this mechanism:

• Based on attributes. For example, give your tool a "standard" and an "advanced" version. This is very common in the software industry. Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 has 5 versions: Trial (free), Standard (299$), Pro (799$), Team System (5,469$), Team Suite Edition (10 , 939$). This offers a different price to developers from underfunded enthusiasts to wealthy blue-chip companies. In the case of Time Tracker 3000, you might want to create a professional edition that allows people to compare to different products and discover the convenience of using the Professional edition to do the same thing.
• Based on availability. Some users may be willing to pay more money to get your product earlier. Hardback's books are a good example. Their content is the same as the peace-loading book, but it has different packaging and is specifically targeted at those who are anxious to see the content. For TIME Tracker 3000, you can sell additional subscription services so that users can get to know your software earlier.
• Based on statistics. Users in the United States have more money to pay than users in India and China. Microsoft is competing with open source to provide a streamlined ' entry-level ' Vista operating system that is only available in some poor countries like India and Mexico. The price of Time Tracker 3000 in India may only be 10% of its price in the United States, but because it is localized into Hindi, it makes no sense to Westerners.
• Based on industry. Architects, software engineers, or aircraft designers may have special needs, and perhaps your software can be customized for them. Time Tracker 3000 can have some special versions, specifically for law firms, which can not only track the use of the software, but also disable the specified software.
• Platform-based. Mac users may be more willing to pay for your software than Windows users, or on the contrary. You should price the time Tracker 3000 on your Mac higher than the version on Windows.

Of course, you also need to be aware of the risks associated with version control. Be sure to ensure that the features you provide for each version are of interest to the target users of this interval. For example, if you provide a "lite" version of the software, you need to ensure that professional users do not want to downgrade to this version.

If you want to use one of these standards to do versioning, and the goal is to satisfy the user, then you'd better remember that the user's sense of fairness is very keen. Adobe has tried to release versions based on geographic location, and their Acrobat 9 Pro is priced 449$in the United States, but is priced at 445￡ ($) in the UK. Economically, it makes sense, but it's still making me angry to hit the keyboard. Is this really good for adobe in the long run?

Version control has some subtleties. Let's take a look at a fast food restaurant that offers different sizes of Diet Coke:

Product	Price
Trumpet	1$
Medium	1.50$
Large	2$

Don't gamble (Don ' t Just roll the Dice four)