How to Checkmate in SaaS with the Power of Free

There’s no such thing as a Free lunch.

But what if there’s a thing called Free launch that gives you…

A) better features than your major VC-funded competitors

B) unlimited usage

C) an impression that the founders must be out of their mind?

And what if they use COMPETITORS BRANDING in their MARKETING…

…and get a notice from a competitor’s legal team as a result?

I don’t know about you but to most people his might seems like an risky-bold-orangutan move to start your SaaS with.

Especially if the founders are playing with the own money and have 100% skin in the game.

But let’s see why it’s actually brilliant & likely leads to a CHECKMATE:

So there are several things going on here that I like:

Founders mean real people, and they’re going against VC funded big boys.
FREE after FREE vs paying several hundred dollars per month
The reference to competitors as incumbents (anyone with a permanent vacancy in a market is likely to get too comfortable in time)

So my limbic brain is now on overdrive with dopamine - I need to justify taking action with some logic:

This is pretty much all the logic I need.

But I’m a true skeptic so…

…if I’m a user in one of these incumbents’ platforms - how do I know that this is the real deal?

I need to check if others have successfully migrated to this platform.

PLUS I don’t trust any reviews on company’s own testimonial sites if they’re not in video format. (Commslayer, this is your CTA. Faces are good, videos are better - combined in building social proof they do MAGIC for conversion rates)

So I have to check 3rd party sites like shopify app store.

(I get reminded where I’m coming from on their website btw)

I click on that ‘Install on Shopify’ -button and here’s what I find:

My conclusion is they’re still in the early stages in terms of customer adoption.

So we might need a larger simple size to make a more detailed analysis.

But we can also dive into the quality of the reviews.

One of them, from ‘bldblz’ (US), reads as follows:

‘‘Was evaluating this vs Gorgias and the value and product offering this has is leaps and bounds better for a way better price. If you're looking for a customer support platform with all the essentials you need, look no further than Commslayer! If I could give this 100 stars I would!’’

100 stars is 20X than what’s allowed, so this user must be pretty happy.

Let’s check another one, this time from Patina (DEN):

I was about to write "by far the best value for money support platform," but that seems silly when it's totally free.

So, instead, I'll just write that it's the best support platform of all the platforms we've used, and we've been through a few: both Gorgias (too expensive), Re:amaze (buggy UI), and DelightChat (also buggy UI). CommSlayer is my favorite — by far.

My current favorite feature is the Superhuman-like keyboard shortcuts that allows me to go through tickets blazingly fast

Both of these are what I would call raving fans in marketing lingo.

Maybe this is the real deal?

One thing is for sure in SaaS:

People can’t resist the Power of Free if your offer is GOOD.

And it seems to be the case here:

Now migrations are typically PITA (pain-in-the-ass).

You don’t want to do one unless you absolutely have to.

But it doesn’t come to me as a surprise by now that…

smoothing this pain is covered on the migration page as well:

This strategy is straight out of Alex Hormozi’s playbook with a nice SaaS twist:

Give more value to the market than anyone else, for free.
Mock people who charge ridiculous amounts for products that you give away for free
Delay making money as long as you can while you keep giving value and serving your core market

Prediction:

Competition intensifies (but is it competition if some alternatives are Free???)

A flood of Shopify merchants will migrate from incumbents.

This is a CHECKMATE move with the Power of Free in SaaS Helpdesk niche.

Well played!