I just got a renewal quote from a marketing automation vendor that included a very unusual pilot offer for a new module. Alongside the standard renewal terms, they proposed a 90-day pilot for their new predictive lead scoring engine with a "pay what you want" model at the end.
The pilot itself is free, but if we decide to keep it, we set our own price for the first annual contract. The sales rep said they're testing this with a small group of customers to "establish value perception."
My immediate thoughts:
* This feels like a bold move to combat the "black box" feeling around AI/ML feature pricing.
* It puts significant pressure on their product team to deliver undeniable, measurable value during the pilot.
* I'm curious how they'll handle it if a customer sets a price far below their internal targets.
Has anyone else seen a "pay what you want" model for B2B SaaS, especially for a new, advanced feature? I'm trying to think through the implications:
* Could this become a negotiation tactic, or is it genuinely customer-centric?
* What stops a company from naming a token price?
* From a vendor perspective, how would you even forecast revenue with this approach?
I'm leaning into the pilot because the data science lift would be significant for us to build in-house. But I'm very curious if this is an emerging trend or a one-off experiment.