Jul 17, 2012 Virtual Data Room Pricing Models – Do You Really Want The Lowest Price?
“The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.” Anonymous
4 Things More Important Than Low Cost
You get what you pay for. Consumers sometimes get so focused on finding the lowest cost solution that they forget about some of the more important components of a purchased service. In reality, price or lowest cost is virtually never the primary reason that people make a virtual data room purchasing decision.
What is more important than price when selecting a Virtual Data Room provider?
Ask yourself if these factors are more important.
- An easy to use, user-friendly virtual data room software.
- A vendor relationship that is personal, supportive, trustworthy and dependable.
- Personalized immediate and responsive virtual data room support when issues arise.
- A vendor that reacts to the needs of the buyer rather than offers a one-size-fits-all solution.
Cost Benefit
When choosing a virtual data room provider there are factors to consider over and above features and price. Sadly, many parties make their choice based on cost and miss what is important. Since the cost of the virtual data room is a very small part of the transaction costs, choosing a vendor that provides confidence and trust and uses a fair based pricing model will still likely provide a substantial cost benefit. After 12 years of providing virtual data rooms, I find that astute buyers want a vendor that they can trust with the data and the operation of their online data room site.
Confidence and Trust More Important Than Low Price
Having the confidence that the virtual data room component of the sale or buy side process does not disrupt the transaction process but rather enhances it, is more important than low price. Answer these questions to determine your level of trust. Do I know the person that I am dealing with and relying upon for dependable responsible service? Do I know where my data is stored and where the servers are located? Is it stored at a major data center, like Rackspace? Is the virtual data room vendor’s software home-grown or built on a proven, reliable, scalable platform like Microsoft SharePoint?
Fair and Predictable Pricing
Another reason, many clients leave vendors is over pricing disputes. There are numerous bad experiences that have resulted when virtual data room providers start out with low prices and then charge by the page, or “hit” the client with unexpected extra charges at the end of project. There have even been incidences when vendors continue to charge clients after a data room is closed. Each circumstance is different but the key to customer satisfaction is whether or not the vendor seeks the solution to these disputes that completely resolves the issue in the minds of the client.
A vendor should provide virtual data room pricing with these characteristics:
- a price that matches the requirements of the buyer
- a price that is easy to understand
- a price that is fixed and predictable at the start of the project
What’s More Important, Quality of Service or Lowest Price?
Your mission is to share documents securely, quickly and easily with other users with a high degree of confidence. Choosing a virtual data room vendor that is fair, dependable, experienced, personal and reliable should be significantly more important than selecting the vendor that offers the cheapest price.