Pricing Strategies: #6 Common Mistakes while Configuring Pricing

"Why does this month's billing feel messy again?"

That was the exact line Priya muttered while staring at the spreadsheet full of edited pricing, one-off discounts and mismatched subscription details. 

Her business was growing, but the pricing machine wasn't going anywhere. Instead, it looked like a complex cockpit.

Customers asked for new currencies.

Some needed recurring services, while others requested one-time work.

A few wanted add-ons.

Many asked for discounts.

All she did was manually adjust everything.

Priya wasn't making mistakes; she was doing what most growing businesses do: making pricing decisions relatively instead of structurally.

In this final post on pricing, let's understand the most common mistakes that businesses make, along with the solution that could give you more control and consistency.

Using One Pricing Method for Every Offering 

"Let's just put everything under one flat price..... for now." 

Priya priced products, one-time work, and recurring services all the same way, which made billing inconsistent and unpredictable. It was easy when offerings were limited, but as offerings diversify, so does the pricing approach.

Zoho Billing lets you price each offering using the correct billing method.

• Items for physical goods.

• One-time charges for standalone services.

• Subscription plans for recurring services.

• Project/Time logs for services tracked by hours or expenses.

 This ensures pricing reflects how value is delivered, not how convenient it is to invoice.

Using Recurring Invoice Instead of Proper Plans 

"We'll send the same invoice every month. Easy." 

Recurring invoices work well when customers' needs rarely change. But in reality, customers request more hours, fewer hours, temporary pause, mid-cycle upgrades or downgrades, etc. Each request will lead to a manual edit.

Zoho Billing handles recurring value through subscription plans, not repeated or recurring invoices. It is built to handle,

• Offering a trial.

• Auto-renewals.

• Proration for mid-cycle changes.

• Usage/quantity changes.

• Plan upgrades & downgrades.

The system updates billing dynamically, eliminating the need for manual adjustments.

Cramming Everything into a Plan Instead of Using Addons 

"Let's just modify the plan for this customer, as we always do." 

Every time a customer needs an extra hour or seasonal enhancement, businesses edit the plan. This quickly led to a bloated catalog full of slightly different plans no one could track.

Zoho Billing offers add-ons that can blend with plans to provide flexibility in providing it as a service

• Standalone addon for optional extras.

• Recurring addons for permanent upgrades.

• One-time addons for temporary boots.

• Quantity-based addons for "I need more" scenarios.

• Usage-based addons for metered services.

• Addon groups for organised selection.

Plans stay simple. Addons handle customisation.

Offering Discount Without Structure 

"Sure, we can discount this once... and maybe next time too..." 

Manual case-by-case discounts seem harmless at first, but quickly become inconsistent and financially risky. Customers expect them, and margins erode silently.

Zoho Billing turns discounts into controlled, trackable Coupons. You can define coupons with

• Percentage or fixed amount.

• Applies to plans, add-ons, or the entire invoice.

• Expiry dates.

• Maximum redemption limits

• Per customer redemption limit.

• Eligibility based on customer or item.

• Multiple coupon codes under one rule.

 Discounts become strategic and not spontaneous.

Using the Same Price for Every Market or Customer 

"Let's just convert the price manually for all overseas customers." 

Selling globally means dealing with different currencies, purchasing power, and expectations. Manually converting them causes confusion, errors and loss of trust.

Zoho Billing allows localised and segment-based pricing through Pricelist. It can be configured to,

• Markup/Markdown for broad adjustments.

• Individual item pricelist for multi-currency control.

• Pricelist for subscription plans & addons.

• Bulk import for an extensive catalog.

• Customer-specific price list assignment.

• Pricelist selection during checkout.

 Your pricing remains consistent, competitive and accurate worldwide.

Assuming Pricing Doesn't Need to Evolve 

"Our plans have worked for 3 years. No need to change it." 

As customers grow, their needs change, but most businesses forget to adapt their pricing. This leads to mismatched expectations, reduced revenue, and churn.

With Zoho Billing, pricing evolves effortlessly.

• Plans can be upgraded or downgraded.

• Addons allow scalable customisation.

• Coupons support retention campaigns.

• Pricelist adapts pricing for new markets.

• Billing models can be mixed and matched.

 Your pricing system becomes future-ready, even if you are offering changes tomorrow.

Letting Billing Drive Pricing Instead of Strategy Driving Pricing 

"We price based on what's easy to bill; taking customer expectations into account will put us into a lot of complexity." 

Many businesses set pricing based on operational convenience rather than value, market demand, or growth strategy.

Zoho Billing becomes the infrastructure that supports strategic pricing:

• Flexible pricing models.

• Structured plans.

• Scalable add-ons.

• Rule-based discounts.

• Localised pricelist.

You no longer price based on what the billing tool can handle; instead, the billing tool adapts to your pricing strategy.

Stop Being Reactive to Pricing Changes, Stay Proactive 

Businesses evolve every day, and it has become hard to manage them with spreadsheets or a tool that is too rigid to adapt to these changes.

​
One can grow by stopping reacting to pricing problems and building a pricing system with ample room to customise.

​
Zoho Billing provides that system. It helps you deliver value cleanly, price confidently, sell globally, retain customers intelligently and scale without breaking your billing process.

​
Now and in the years to come, Pricing isn't just about maths. It's more strategic, and Zoho Billing helps you execute it flawlessly. 

• Topic Participants

• Hari Hara Sudhan. S

  

• Sticky Posts

• Community Learning Series | Digest #5 — September 2020

  Dear customers, We're happy to bring you the September edition of our #CommunityDigest! Keep track of your subscription KPIs right from your smartphone: Last month, we enhanced our Android mobile app to help our customers get daily updates on their business health. We got to know from a lot of customers that this has made their job much more easier because they no longer have to keep a reminder to manually check on the previous day's revenue or activations. If you have not downloaded it yet, here's

• Community Learning Series | Digest #4 - August 2020

  Dear customers, We hope you're staying safe and healthy. I'm happy to bring you the fourth edition of our #CommunityDigest with some brand-new updates from us. 1. Daily Business Updates (for Android users) The Zoho Subscriptions Android app has got a cool new update: You can now get a push notification to your smartphone that lets you know how many activations and cancellations have taken place, and what's the net revenue for the previous day. The best part is, you can tell the app when exactly you

• Community Learning Series | Digest #3 - July 2020

  Dear customers, We hope you're staying safe and healthy. We're glad to bring you the July edition of our #CommunityDigest. New community members can view our previous newsletters here. This time, we have two major updates and three interesting topics for you: 1. Zoho Subscriptions Developer Community Since the inception of Zoho Subscriptions, our team believed that the recurring billing platform we provide should be able to offer an extensive API library that empowers businesses to automate most

• Introducing: Community Learning Series | Digest #1 - May 2020

  Dear customers, We hope you are staying safe and healthy. Helping businesses manage their customer subscriptions more efficiently has always been, and always will be, our goal at Zoho Subscriptions. We strongly believe this is possible if we grow together as a community and share what we know with each other. To nurture this shared learning experience, here is our brand-new Community Learning Series! ​ Welcome to the first edition of our digest! Each edition of our community digest includes guides

• Recent Topics

• Ability for admin to access or make changes in zoho form without asking for ownership

  Currently in zoho form only form owner can make the changes in the form and if someone else has to make changes then we have to transfer the ownership to them and even admin also cant access it . So i think admin must have the ability or option to access

• Issue with WhatsApp Template Approval and Marketing Message Limit in Zoho Bigin

  We are facing issues while creating and using WhatsApp message templates through Zoho Bigin, and we request your clarification and support regarding the same. 1. Utility Template Approval Issue Until December, we were able to create WhatsApp templates

• Zoho CRM Calendar View

  Hello Zoho team, We need desperately a calendar view next to list, kandan and other views. I think it should be easy to implement as you already have the logic from Projects and also from Kanban View in CRM. In calendar view when we set it up - we choose

• Camera

  I can sign on to a meeting and see the other participants, but my screen is dark. The instructions for Zoho "Camera Settings" say "click on lock icon in address bar," but I don't see that icon! Suggestions?

• What is Workqueue and how to hide it?

  Hi， My CRM suddenly have this "Workqueue", may I ask how to set the permission of this tab?

• Batch/lot # and Storage bin location

  Hi I want to ask for a feature on Zoho inventory I own a warehouse and I've gone through different management software solutions with no luck until I found Zoho, it has been a game changer for my business with up to the minute information, I'm extremely happy with it. It's almost perfect. And I say Almost because the only thing missing for me (and I'm sure I'm not alone) is the need of being able to identify the lot number of my inventory and where it is located in the warehouse. Due to the nature

• Adding Sender Address with Basic Plan

  According to the knowledge base, I should be able to add Sender addresses with the Basic Plan. But whenever I try to add an email, it takes me to a search window and I cannot find any emails in the list. Even mine, which is the admin. email.

• Conditional Field Visibility in Bigin CRM

  I would like to request support for conditional field visibility within Bigin CRM. This feature should allow administrators to configure show/hide rules for fields based on predefined criteria (e.g., field values, picklist selections, stage changes,

• Bill automation in Zoho Books

  Hi I am looking for 3rd-party options for bill automation in zoho which are economical and preferably have accurate scanning. What options do I have? Zoho's native scanning is a bit pricey

• Reporting Tags

  We've been using reporting tags for years (before itemizing was available) and now we are finding reporting these tags are impossible to track. Reports have changed in the customization and our columns of reporting tags no longer show up. We do not use

• Consumption based inventory

  I am currently using Zoho Books for my hospitality business, which includes lodging and restaurant services. We purchase many items in bulk for storage and consumption as needed. I'd like these items to be recorded as inventory when purchased and categorized

• Smarter Access Control: Role-Based Access vs. Responsibility-Based Profiles

  Every business has roles, responsibilities, and workflows. While roles help define structure, responsibilities within those roles are rarely the same. As your team grows, some members need access to only a specific set of features. Others require visibility

• Partner with HDFC And Sbi Bank.

  Hdfc and sbi both are very popular bank if zoho books become partner with this banks then many of the zoho books users will benefit premium features of partnered banks.

• API in E-Invoice/GST portal

  Hi, Do I have to change the api in gst/e-invoice portal as I use zoho e books for my e-invoicing. If yes, please confirm the process.

• Member role in zoho meeting

  does a user with member role can see other users in the organization

• How to post more than 4 Images on Instagram?

  Hi I read several articles to the topic od how to post more than 4 images on instagram, but i can't figure out how it works. I can't find the content editor and i installesd the z share extension for google chrome. Could someone please help me? Than

• Clone Recurring Expenses

  Our bookkeeping practices make extensive use of the "clone" feature for bills, expenses, invoices, etc. This cuts down significantly on both the amount of typing that needs to be done manually and, more importantly, the mental overhead of choosing the

• Zoho Books - How to Invoke a Custom Function in Schedulers

  We have multiple schedulers that send emails to customers in batches. Currently, we are maintaining the same code across several schedulers. Is it possible to use a custom function inside a scheduler script? If yes, how can we invoke the custom function

• Special characters (like â, â, æ) breaking when input in a field (encoding issue)

  Hey everyone, We are currently dealing with a probably encoding issue when we populate a field (mostly but not exclusively, 'Last Name' for Leads and Contracts). If the user manually inputs special characters (like ä, â, á etc.) from Scandinavian languages,

• Set Custom Icon for Custom Modules in new Zoho CRM UI

• All new Address Field in Zoho CRM: maintain structured and accurate address inputs

  The address field will be available exclusively for IN DC users. We'll keep you updated on the DC-specific rollout soon. It's currently available for all new sign-ups and for existing Zoho CRM orgs which are in the Professional edition. Latest update

• is there any way to change the "chat with us now" to custom message?

  is there any way to change the "chat with us now" to custom message? I want to change this text

• Notes badge as a quick action in the list view

  Hello all, We are introducing the Notes badge in the list view of all modules as a quick action you can perform for each record, in addition to the existing Activity badge. With this enhancement, users will have quick visibility into the notes associated

• Is Zoho Live Chat compatible with WordPress CMS?

  Hello, I have a website called www.jjrlab.com and I'm interested in using Zoho Chat on it. Does it support WordPress CMS? Thanks.

• Introducing spam detection for webforms: An additional layer of protection to keep your Zoho CRM clean and secure

  Greetings all, One of the most highly anticipated feature launches—Spam Detection in webforms—has finally arrived! Webforms are a vital tool for record generation, but they're also vulnerable to submissions from unauthenticated or malicious sources, which

• Bring your CRM and Desk app inside SalesIQ with widgets

  Have you ever been confused and frustrated with multiple open tabs and switching back and forth from SalesIQ to other apps to perform your business-specific operations? How effective would it be to have all the required tools and data of the apps you

• Speak Your Customers' Language: SalesIQ's chatbots now support 30 languages 🤖

  We're unveiling some major upgrades to our chatbot that are set to revolutionize your experience! Now SalesIQ support 30 languages for both Zobot and Answer bot. By speaking your customers' language, you can enhance engagement, improve customer satisfaction,

• Repeat Column merge in ZOHO writer columns doesn't allow to set max columns per row

  I'm using ZOHO writer to merge data from a ZOHO CRM subform and I want it to make a table. We're using Insert Table for Column Repeat, because this is what we need. (Name of column (Teamname) and underneath that a list of names of teammembers). It works

• Persisting email signals to contact timeline?

  Hello there. Regarding the email signals that are logged when a contact opens an email, am I correct that these signals are not logged to a contact's timeline? Ideally, I would like to have this context available for future follow-ups, if the contact

• Trouble with using Apostrophe in Name of Customers and Vendors

  We have had an ongoing issue with how the system recognizes an apostrophe in the name of customers and vendors. The search will not return any results for a name that includes the mark; ie one of our vendors names is "L'Heritage" and when entering the

• Really want the field "Company" in the activities module!

  Hi team! Something we are really missing is able to see the field Company when working in the activities module. We have a lot of tasks and need to see what company it's related to. It's really annoying to not be able to see it.🙈 Thx!

• Upcoming update to Google Drive integration in Zoho Creator

  Hello everyone, We're writing to inform you about an upcoming update to how Zoho Creator integrates with Google Drive. In Zoho Creator, during actions like importing files to create an app or attaching files to fields, you can choose files directly from

• Changing Account Type in Chart of Accounts

  Does anyone know how to change/edit the account type for an Account name in Chart of Accounts. Zoho will not let me do this for some reason

• Managing Scheduled Replies

  Communication is most effective when the intended message reaches the right person at the right time. However, this can be challenging when communication occurs across different time zones. By scheduling replies, businesses can ensure that responses reach

• Show price book list price

  When using price books, once you add products to the price book in the Products related list you can display the Unit price which is the default list price; however, there is no option to show the price book list price. To see the price book list price

• Allow Attaching Quartz Recordings to Existing Zoho Support Tickets

  Hi Zoho Team, We would like to request an enhancement to how Zoho Quartz recordings integrate with Zoho Support tickets. Current Behavior: At the moment, each Quartz recording automatically creates a new support ticket. However, in many real-world scenarios:

• Issue with open-rate reporting in Zoho Campaigns

  Hello, Since yesterday I’ve been experiencing an issue with the open-rate reports in Zoho Campaigns. The campaigns I send appear in the reports as if none of the emails have been opened, even though I know they have. To verify this, I replicated the campaign

• Can I hide empty Contact fields from view?

  Some contacts have a lot of empty fields, others are mostly filled. Is there a way I can hide/show empty fields without changing the actual Layout? I would like to de-clutter my view, and also be able to add information later as I am able. I would be

• Manage user roles and profiles from the Bigin app (iOS and macOS)

  Hello everyone! We're happy to announce that you can manage user roles and profiles from the Bigin mobile app. The Users & Controls section has three subsections: Users, Profiles, and Roles. Users Employees who belong to your Bigin organization are called

• Support Bots and Automations in External Channels

  Hello Zoho Cliq Team, How are you? We actively use Zoho Cliq for collaboration, including with our external developers. For this purpose, external channels are a key tool since they work seamlessly within the same interface as all of our other channels

• Next Page