needed money to fund development so i ran a lifetime deal promotion. $149 for lifetime access to a product i was charging $39/month for
sold 340 of them in 2 weeks. $50k in revenue. felt amazing
18 months later i sat down and did the math that should have been obvious from the start
if those 340 customers had just paid monthly at 50% of the normal price, with average retention of 14 months, that's like $93k in revenue. i left $42k on the table. and that's just revenue. that's not counting the fact that lifetime means forever, so every month they don't pay is a month i'm losing money
buttt lifetime deal customers are the worst customers you'll ever have
they submit 3x more support tickets than paying subscribers. they request features constantly. they leave 1-star reviews when you don't build what they want. they have zero incentive to churn so instead of quietly canceling they just stick around complaining
my NPS with lifetime customers was 12. with monthly customers it was 54. that's a massive gap
and you can never raise prices on them. they're grandfathered at zero forever. it creates this weird resent where you see them in your customer list and immediately feel tired
what i should have done was to offered annual plans at a discount instead. you get the cash upfront and customers still have to renew. if i for sure had to do lifetime deals, i should have capped them at 50 max. scarcity actually works
the real issue is that lifetime deals feel like winning the lottery when they're actually a really efficient way to convert future revenue into present cash at a terrible rate
and the AppSumo crowd just isn't the right customer base anyway. they're deal hunters first, customers second
if you need cash, there are better ways to get it than selling your revenue stream to the wrong people