At a recent internal sales meeting, I was asked to explain the details of selling Growth Suite to existing subscribers vs new ones, so I thought I would share that explanation in a blog so customers can understand it better from the buyer's perspective.
These are the scenarios to consider:
- PRORATED VS FULL TERM GROWTH SUITE CONTRACT
First detail is Act! Marketing Automation (AMA) is no longer available to add by itself anymore. As of May 1st, AMA can only be bundled as part of Act! Growth Suite, and sold to new customers or existing subscribers that way.
In the case of existing subscribers buying Growth Suite, their old subscription contract gets replaced by either a pro-rated Growth Suite contract, or a full term Growth Suite contract. In either case, the old contract gets replaced, meaning any loyalty rates or perpetual license privileges are forfeit, and the remaining portion of that old contract get's credited against the new Growth Suite contract.
For existing subscribers that wish to keep their current renewal date, the new Growth Suite contract will be pro-rated to the end of their existing term, and they will receive a credit for the unused subscription time from their old contract. This can sometimes lead to a very small net upgrade cost, which will be appealing.
In cases where the renewal date doesn't matter, the old contract is replaced by a full year new Growth Suite Contract, and again the unused portion of the old contract is applied as a credit.
The first scenario certainly provides a cheaper means of entry to Growth Suite, but truncates the first year discount they’re entitled to (10% for Professional, 15% for Premier, and 20% for Ultimate). It is for this reason that we recommend scenario #2, because in most cases the full-term option will provide the greatest savings.
- TRANSITIONING FROM A.M.A. TO GROWTH SUITE
The next detail is for those already on AMA who want to renew with Growth Suite to get the free bundled Act! license. This process is easy, since they keep their existing license key, and their AMA account moves forward unaffected with the same renewal date as before.
- NET NEW GROWTH SUITE SUBSCRIBERS VS THOSE UPGRADING FROM AN ACT! SUBSCRIPTION
The last point to consider is the difference between net new Growth Suite business and those upgrading from existing subscription.
Existing subscribers have the following perks over net new customers:
- those that are currently self-hosting, or with an Act! Hosting Provider (HPP), can continue to purchase additional Act! licenses at the old $300 self hosting rate. This does not apply to existing subscribers who are already on Act! Premium Cloud since they're already paying the new rate of $420/user/year. New customers, on the other hand, are not entitled to the self-hosting discounts.
- existing subscribers have the two renewal options spelled out above, namely a prorated first term, or a full-year first term
- the final benefit is getting a credit of their unused Act! subscription against the new Growth Suite contract.
DO THE MATH
When Growth Suite first launched we anticipated it would be most popular with larger Act! subscription accounts looking to upgrade their emarketing, but the opposite seems to be true. While popular with the bigger accounts to be sure, the smaller ones with 1-2 existing seats, hosted or otherwise, are doing the math and figuring out how substantial the savings are with the one free Act! license. In fact, combined with the first year discount, that Growth Suite Professional costs less than $1 more per month compared to Act! Premium Cloud combined with Act! eMarketing with similar monthly sends (see illustration above).
Let me repeat this, because the math can be confusing as it is surprising when you start equalizing the monthly sends for each package.
Consider the following:
- An existing Act! Premium Cloud customer is paying $420/user/year
- Act! Emarketing costs $242 per year for 2500 monthly sends, plus another $180 per year to bring it up to 10K monthly sends, which totals $422/user/year.
- Act! Premium Cloud plus AEM with the 10K monthly upgrade totals $842 user/year
- Growth Suite Professional, on the other hand, which already includes Act! Premium Cloud and Act! Marketing Automation with 10K monthly send limit and all it's other superior features, only costs $853.20 in the first year with the 10% promotional discount. That is a difference of $11 over the course of the whole year.
- And if you're thinking there will be some huge spike upon renewal, think again. ON renewal Growth Suite will cost less than $9/month more than the combined cost of AEM and APC. Again, look at the illustration above.
When you consider that this extra amount buys you AMA's dramatically superior template editor, drip marketing, webforms, advanced outbound workflow, and the new marketing calendar, most would agree that's a small price to pay.
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