How do you decide if your product needs a lifetime deal?

Question

I’m curious about when it makes sense to offer a lifetime deal for a product. It seems like a good way to get early users, but I’m wondering if it’s a smart long-term move. For those of you who’ve done it, how did you decide it was the right time? Did it help with growth or just bring in quick cash?

Menelaos Kotsollaris · Accepted Answer

@ciciyu_momen I had the same experience, but read a horror story with them, and didn’t proceed. But if you were to autopilot your project it could make sense

Menelaos Kotsollaris · Answer

lifetime-deals are a great tool of validating blue-water products during MVP. It's also a great way to inflate your MAUs, as well as suitable for side projects. I don't believe it's sustainable as a long term play however

Yaokai Jiang · Answer

Life-time deals sound like a reversion to how software used to be sold. It does provide quite a bit of perverse incentive to the seller. (little incentive to maintain)

Cici Yu · Answer

@mkotsollaris I share the same view. The AppSumo team has reached out to me, and I’m thinking about whether to collaborate with them.

Janak Patel · Answer

A lifetime deal works if you want rapid growth, early feedback, and initial revenue.

Evelyn Chan · Answer

Me as a user: lifetime deal let me always go back to these products to see if they are growing, and recommend to people around me, even though I don't use them often now.

Deanna Joy · Answer

For us, it was all about getting users on board quickly. A lifetime deal helped us build that initial base, but now we’re figuring out how to move people to more sustainable pricing.

Answer

Use a lifetime deal at launch or shortly thereafter at the 2x price at which you offer the annual, that way you make a good initial cash-flow that helps future developments. Remove the possibility the moment you start to have good monthly income. If the product works it won't be a burden to have some customers who are not recurring + those customers will be your first supporters (because they already paid) and they will share valuable feedbacks

Answer

A lifetime deal makes sense if you're looking to build a loyal customer base quickly, gather feedback for improvement, or boost initial sales with a compelling offer.

How do you decide if your product needs a lifetime deal?

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