Wayne Schulz’s Cool Stuff

SageCRM users should be aware that there is a free online knowledgebase for researching technical issues and error messages related to the software.

The MAS 90 and MAS 200 Extended Enterprise Edition includes SageCRM as the CRM tool that’s tightly integrated to the accounting and fixed asset portions of the suite.

Unfortunately the three core components (accounting, fixed assets and CRM) all have their own separate knowledgebase. And until now it’s been tough to find the SageCRM knowledgebase unless you know where to look (which you do now!).

http://www.s-consult.com/2009/10/14/sagecrm-knowledgebase-available-free-to-extended-enteprise-users/

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I wish I could say that this was a joke.....just received this from a local competitor

At what level do these people have no shame...

I've had similar inquiries (multiple) from stock brokers wanting "a quick minute" of my time so they could ask me a "quick" question about Sage Software for a report they undoubtedly were paid to prepare for a client.

Morons

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I've received the question  "How do I convert clients to a support plan instead of hourly billing" several times during the Sage Insights 2009 conference. Outside the conference I've also received several email inquiries.

Rather than repeat myself (and run the risk of forgetting something) - here's my mega answer to the question along with actual examples of agreements that I use (feel free to re-use them though I take no responsibility for their content and do not provide any warranty or guarantee that they will do anything for you other than serve as an interesting starting point to form your own agreement. Do not call if you are sued, a client leaves or have your family dis-own you after using any of these forms - everything is provided as-is and I make no claims these are legal in your state or will produce any results whatsoever).

Here's the way that I converted my entire client base to prepaid annual phone support plans (we do NOT accept any new clients not on a prepaid plan). I do not claim that this will work for you or will produce any results whatsoever. In case you've missed the point above - use this information along with your own good judgement to craft a plan that works for you.

I do prepaid annual support (exclusively) for several reasons:

• People paying hourly were constantly negotiating answers that they deemed "quick questions" and arguing that since it only took a few seconds for us to answer their question that they did not expect to get a bill.
• Allows me to reserve more time for paying clients who are seeking a long term relationship.
• There's less of a billing and recordkeeping task with a prepaid annual plan
• It properly assigns a value to the knowledge (and the speed with which we respond to questions)

In my opinion the biggest success factor for implementing a new way of billing for support is ..... you have to start it immediately for all NEW clients (be it new deals or orphans).

These people will join a plan. I guarantee you.

KEY POINT: IF you give a client the option of:

1. Stay as-is (aka - pay in 1/4 hr increments only when they call and then dispute 75% as "quick questions)
   
2. Go on plan with a prepaid annual agreement that covers all questions at a fair price
   

Guess which one they choose?

Offering the plan is a CHANGE in the way you do business. It's not just another option. If you offer "stay as is" (aka - client continues disputing the bulk of the calls as "quick questions" and therefore shouldn't be billed - then you will get nowhere).

And you cannot offer any exceptions. 

You must absolutely be prepared for clients to try to negotiate you to hourly.

I guarantee they will try. And when they do I immediately apologize and tell those new customers/orphans that we don't bill that way and our plan is the only method we offer.

I will (and do) walk away from support opportunities that don't want to go on plan.

YES- WE WALK AWAY FROM CLIENTS WHO DO NOT AGREE TO OUR PLAN TERMS.

I would guesstimate I walk away from 2 in 5 (and those two would have been lousy clients anyhow).

Here's the agreement that I use -- and I think I've had a client ever refer to it exactly zero times in the last five years (in other words I think the plan is pretty clear and fair):



I also re-designed what "pay as you go" means to Schulz Consulting...

You'll hear clients say "we just want to stay pay as you go"...

What the clients WANT pay-as-you-go to mean ---

• 1/10th of hr billing
• at your best rate,
• respond within an hour
• don't bill for quick questions (these are the 90% of their calls that start "hey, quick questions"

YOU CAN RE-DEFINE PAY AS YOU GO. PROVIDE CLIENTS WITH YOUR DEFINITION. THERE'S NO LAW THAT SAY'S PAY AS YOU GO MEANS STAY AS IS. USE A NEW DEFINITION.

My definition (which I provide anyone wanting to go that way -- and we only offer it for clients coming OFF our unlimited plan)  -- basically a $375 per incident pre-paid fee (an incident is 1 hour max) with minimum on-site of $1,000 half day or $2,000 full day. I'm not sure I have that document here but I'll send it to anyone who requests it -- wayne@s-consult.com.

UPDATE: I've uploaded the Pay As You Go plan that I provide to clients wanting to leave my unlimited plan and just pay for what they use. A copy is below. Note that we do NOT provide pay as you go to any client who was not already on our unlimited plan. This pay as you go (aka Bronze) is only for existing clients looking to downgrade their level of service. The plan is NOT offered to new clients or those never on a support plan with us.

You could use the pay as you go as your base level plan.

The current school of thought is to offer three options - usually leaving the middle option as what you want people to pick.

For me the middle is my $2,800 unlimited phone support which I've included above. I think I'm probably low on the number because I don't have people trying to negotiate it or complaining about the $$.....so your number probably could be higher.

Renewal rates are amazingly high. If people drop they usually are companies that found us on the Internet and had a crisis so they joined our plan for the year and then they went on their way (or found someone in their local area).

Do not get hung up on whether people will call too much/little. You can always start invoicing them (assuming the calls are billable  and in a gray area) or telling them you have to go on-site (which we always bill for).

My memory is that for the first two years that I moved clients to support I did not force everyone to do so. Rather I had my plan together. Implemented it for every new clients. Converted some existing clients to the plan (only a couple).

Rule of thumb is given "stay as we are" - the client will chose to stay unless the alternative is obviously cheaper or has a bigger advantage. They will always do the math so expect if you were to go to them and say the support is going to be $2,800 per year that they pull your invoices and check them to see they only paid $150 last year for support.

Some of the things you could do to incent people to move toward plans:

- Not include remote support in any of your present hourly agreements -- make them move to a plan to get this highly valuable service
- Lengthen the guaranteed call back time for those not on plan  so that you get to them slower (I've phrased this as "the level of service they've chosen")
- Make contacting Sage (for support or any reason) on their behalf a part of the plan -- otherwise it is billable (and contacting Sage can be a project in itself)


My advice would be to implement this immediately for all orphans and new clients.

Roll it out gradually to your installed base via soft offers (where clients do not have to select a plan but are made away) --- then as you get more clients on plan you will become more comfortable increasing the demand that clients join a plan or not be able to obtain support from your company.

This is the exact way that I did it -- and I eventually converted most of my clients. The ones that dropped were truthfully dormant people using old 2.x or 3.x versions who we invoiced once every three years. In other words what drops off are typically not active clients.

Wayne Schulz
Schulz Consulting, LLC

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