Should You Charge One Time Or Recurring?
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Summary
- I believe the problem in education is people sell recurring products for things that only provide one-time value.
- Once you learn how to do math, buying more math courses isn't valuable.
- Charge one-time for items with one-time value.
- For ongoing services, like community calls or accountability, charge on a recurring basis.
- The value of recurring services is usually less than one-time products, and that's okay.
- What you want is something people don’t cancel.
- Have people pay a big amount upfront to commit to a new identity, like shifting from a worker to an entrepreneur.
- This identity shift justifies a high initial price.
- The recurring fee should be much smaller to keep people engaged and prevent churn.
Video
How To Take Action
Implementing Educational and Community Services
I would suggest implementing one-time charges for services or products that offer one-time value, like courses teaching specific skills. For example, once someone learns basic math, they don't need to buy more basic math courses. So charge a one-time fee for these types of courses.
For ongoing support, like community calls or accountability services, charge on a recurring basis. These services keep people engaged and provide continuous value. The monthly fee can be smaller because these ongoing services are generally less valuable than one-time, high-impact courses.
To encourage commitment, have people pay a large amount upfront when they join. This fee acts as a buy-in to a new identity, such as switching from being a worker to an entrepreneur. This kind of substantial initial payment helps solidify their commitment to this new identity.
Next, keep the recurring charges low. This strategy keeps people subscribed to your services because the ongoing cost feels minimal compared to the value they believe they already got with that initial big payment.
Remember, the goal is to have a service people don’t want to cancel. The transformation they commit to upfront justifies the high initial cost, and the smaller, recurring fee keeps them engaged without feeling burdened. Keep reinforcing their new identity with regular touchpoints through your recurring services to minimize churn.
