💰 Pricing
🌐 Website
This playbook requires the following signals:
Monitored Signals
1. Why should I care about usage limit changes?
Here’s why it’s a big deal:
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2. Examples of usage limit changes
This tactic is used to fine-tune a pricing model to either improve profitability or accelerate growth. The strategic intent depends on the direction of the change:
Increasing Limits (The Value Play): A competitor's "Pro" plan, for the same price, now includes 15 users instead of 10. This is a direct attempt to win deals from teams that are slightly larger than your plan allows, making their offer seem more scalable and generous.
Decreasing Limits (The Squeeze Play): A competitor's "Basic" plan now only includes 20GB of storage instead of 50GB. This move is designed to push customers with higher storage needs into their more expensive tiers much faster, optimizing the competitor's unit economics.
3. How to monitor competitors for usage limit changes
A usage limit change is a clear, observable event on a competitor's pricing page. You need a system to detect changes in the numbers and text associated with these limits to understand their strategic shift as it happens.
Zimt is the go-to competitor monitoring tool for B2B SaaS companies. We have over 35 competitor playbooks you can launch on autopilot, including one designed specifically for this scenario. Activating the playbook allows you to:
Monitor Value Metrics: Automatically track the usage limits and inclusions (users, storage, API calls, etc.) on competitor pricing pages for any numerical or textual changes.
Get Intelligent Alerts: Receive real-time notifications with before-and-after comparisons showing exactly which limits have changed, so you can immediately analyze the competitor's strategic intent.
Access This Playbook: Put this playbook, and many more, to work. Automated.
If you're not using Zimt, you must manually check and compare the detailed usage limits on competitor pricing pages to catch these critical changes.
4. Playbook Response Options
4.1 Response to a Limit DECREASE: Highlight Your Generous Limits
ⓘ Best for: When a competitor decreases the usage limits on a tier, making your equivalent tier suddenly more generous and scalable by comparison. | ||
Goal: Capture customers and prospects who are now constrained by the competitor's new, stricter limits. | ||
Strategic Rationale: This leverages the negative sentiment from the competitor's "value degradation" play. You can position your offering as the more scalable, predictable, and fair option, turning their squeeze play into your competitive advantage. |
Create a "value comparison" asset.
Develop a simple datasheet or comparison table that clearly shows how much more value (e.g., users, storage, transactions) your plan offers compared to the competitor's newly restricted plan.
Launch a campaign targeting the "hidden price increase".
Run a marketing campaign with messaging like "Don't get caught by shrinking limits" or "Choose a platform that scales with you," targeting users who may be frustrated by the competitor's change.
Update sales battle cards with questions about scale.
Arm the sales team to ask prospects, "How will your team be impacted by [Competitor]'s new, lower limits on [users/storage]? Our plan offers [X]% more to ensure you don't hit a paywall."
Monitor social media for user complaints.
Use social listening to find complaints about the competitor's new limits. These are high-intent leads that your sales or marketing teams can engage with directly.
4.2 Response to a Limit INCREASE: Match or Differentiate
ⓘ Best for: When a competitor increases the usage limits on their plan, making it appear more generous and a better value for the money than your equivalent plan. | ||
Goal: Neutralize the competitor's new "value-for-money" advantage and protect your top-of-funnel market share. | ||
Strategic Rationale: This is a direct response to a value play. You must decide whether to compete on the same metric (e.g., number of users) or to shift the conversation to a different area of value where you are stronger (e.g., specific features you have that they don't). |
Analyze the financial impact of matching their limits.
Work with Finance and Product to model the cost and potential revenue impact of increasing the limits on your own plan to match the competitor's new offering.
Decide whether to match the new limit or differentiate.
Make a strategic decision. If you match, you neutralize their advantage. If you hold firm, you must have a strong, clear reason why your plan is still better despite having lower limits.
If matching, announce the "even better value".
If you decide to increase your limits, update your pricing page and launch a marketing campaign announcing that your plan is now "even more generous" to capitalize on the change.
If holding firm, launch a campaign focused on unique value.
If you don't match their limits, run a campaign that reinforces your unique differentiators, such as superior ease-of-use, better customer support, or exclusive features that provide more value than a simple increase in usage units.
4.3 Re-evaluate Your Own Value Metrics
ⓘ Best for: When the competitor's change suggests that the market's primary value metric is shifting (e.g., customers care more about "per usage" than "per user"). | ||
Goal: Ensure your pricing remains aligned with how customers perceive and derive value from the product category. | ||
Strategic Rationale: Use the competitor's move as a data point in a larger strategic review of your own pricing structure. This prevents a purely reactive move and ensures your long-term pricing strategy is sound and customer-centric. |
Conduct customer interviews on perceived value.
Talk to current customers and lost prospects to understand what they value most. Do they care more about the number of users, the amount of storage, or access to specific features?
Analyze product usage data to identify value drivers.
Dig into your product analytics to see where your most successful customers find the most value. This data can help you identify the right value metrics to align with your pricing.
Model alternative pricing structures.
Based on your research, work with Finance to model 1-2 alternative pricing structures based on different value metrics that might better align with customer value.
Present a strategic recommendation to leadership.
Synthesize your findings into a formal recommendation on whether and how to evolve your own pricing and packaging strategy to stay ahead of the market.