About this time last year I tried an impromptu business promotion that was not successful as planned. Intuit, the publisher of QuickBooks accounting software, offered me a promotion of 5 subscriptions with a discounted price of QuickBooks accounts. At that time, the price was an unprecedented low amount ($5 vs. the usual $20+). I offered five subscriptions at my cost as part of a quickly considered business promotion. My vague plan was that it could lead to other business.
Now, a year later, I see that several of the accounts were purchased at the discounted price but not used at all over the year. That means that it didn’t work out for anyone.
I sent this message today:
“This is just a reminder that we are soon coming up to the end of the calendar year where we made an arrangement for a QuickBooks account. You reimbursed me for the discounted price of the service but we made no other arrangements for training or services. The offer included a rate life for the life of the account.
It looks like our options for 2018 are:
- You can take the account on your own and Intuit will then contact you for billing (this is what I expected)
- We can continue the same arrangement. I am happy to provide any additional support needed to make the service work for you.
- You can “wipe” the account and transfer it to someone else.
- You can cancel your subscription.
Please let me know within the next three weeks since I must make the arrangements by December 15.”
What I learned in this experiment is that a QuickBooks subscription without an active agreement for service is worthless. I should focus on offering a valuable service and position software as just a part of an included bundle.
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