We strive to be Less Annoying in everything we do—that means our product, our customer service, and, yes, our pricing. We try to keep our prices as low as possible, our pricing structure as simple as possible, and pricing increases to an absolute minimum.
But in order for us to serve our customers, it’s also important that our business model is sustainable, which means charging enough that we can cover the costs of running LACRM. That was why in 2020, for the only time in our 14-year history, we raised prices. Since July 22nd 2020, anyone who signed up for a new account was asked to pay $15/user/month instead of the original $10 price.
At that time, we didn’t raise prices on existing customers. We wanted to reward our early users for their loyalty by honoring the original $10 price for as long as possible. For the last 3+ years, that’s exactly what we’ve done, and collectively, those customers have saved a combined $3 million as a result (for perspective, our entire annual revenue currently is around $3.8 million).
We took a lot of pride in being able to offer that discount to so many people for such a long time, but unfortunately, it’s no longer economically viable. As we all experienced over the last few years, the cost of everything, including running a business like this one, have increased meaningfully. We priced LACRM at $10 way back in 2009, and $10 just isn’t worth nearly as much now as it was back then.
For that reason, as of July 22nd, 2024 (four years from the original price change), we will be ending the legacy pricing discount. All of our customers will be charged our standard $15/user/month (or £14 if you’re in the UK) after that date.
What is this money going towards?
Aside from having a low price, we try to set ourselves apart in two ways:
- Having the easiest CRM product available
- Offering the best customer service available
The way we manage to continue improving our product is by hiring and retaining an amazing team of developers. This year alone we’ve already launched a much-improved design, Zapier integration, a brand new API, and tons of other features. We have a really exciting roadmap of upcoming improvements including more bulk actions, automatic email logging, and a built-in forms tool. Note: Those priorities might change, but that gives you a sense of the things we have planned.
If you’ve ever interacted with one of our CRM Coaches, you probably already know that our customer service is unlike anything you’ll get from any other tech company. Not only are our CRM Coaches knowledgeable (the average CRM Coach has worked here for five years!) and friendly, but they’re given enough time to actually work with each customer in-depth instead of rushing through each interaction as quickly as possible.
There’s a simple way to maintain our quality on both of these teams: Pay people well so we can hire the best of the best. For example, a new CRM Coach starts at $70,000/year salary with guaranteed $5,000 raises each year after that. This approach is key to hiring talented, caring people and retaining them for many years.
As inflation causes the price of everything to increase (including our employees), the old $10 pricing simple doesn’t allow us to maintain the level of quality you’ve grown to expect. Even at $15, Less Annoying CRM is one of the most affordable CRMs on the market, and this change will allow us to continue serving small businesses at the same high standard you’ve come to expect for many years to come.
The importance of sustainability
If you’ve been buying business software for a long time, you’ve probably experienced something that’s all too common: You finally find software that works for you, only to have the company that makes it get acquired or shut down. It’s hard to rely on any technology being around for very long these days.
This can all be traced back to one thing: almost every tech company raises money from venture capitalists. Raising money offers short-term benefits by allowing tech companies to artificially underprice their products so they can grow as fast as possible, but it comes at a price. It’s incredibly risky (when the investor money runs out, most companies aren’t profitable) which is why so many tech companies fail. And even if they don’t fail, the investors expect unrealistic ROI which causes the winners to jack up prices, cut back on quality, or sell to another company. Raising money is a recipe for getting rich, but not for providing long-term value to customers.
That’s why we decided not to raise any money. We’re 100% funded by our customers, and the company is entirely owned by my brother and me. This is a family business, and we’re in this for the long haul.
This means that sustainability is one of our top priorities. I want to still be working here when I retire (which hopefully won’t be for another 30 or so years), and I want the company to continue on long after that time. In order for that to happen, we need to make sure that we have a rock-solid business model.
$15/user/month gives us that stability. While that’s still less than almost any other CRM, it’s enough for us to maintain what we’re doing and have enough of a buffer to handle inevitable bumps in the road in the future. By ending the legacy pricing discount, every one of our customers can be even more confident that we’ll be here to work with you for decades to come.
If you can’t afford this, we can work with you
Less Annoying CRM is meant specifically for small businesses, and that means that our customers don’t have the deep pockets of large enterprises. Over the years, we’ve worked with countless customers who hit lean times and needed a financial break. We’ve always been happy to help.
For most of our customers, a $5/month increase shouldn’t be a big deal. Again, we’re still significantly cheaper than most other CRMs, and we hope you agree that LACRM is well worth the price.
But it doesn’t matter whether LACRM is worth $15 if you don’t have that money to spend. If your business is going through a rough patch and this extra $5/month would create meaningful hardship for you, please reach out and let us know. That’s what we’re here for.
And for those of you who can afford this, thank you so much for supporting us through all these years. It’s because of your loyalty that we can continue improving the product, offering the best customer service in the industry, and offering a bit of financial relief to your fellow small businesses when they need it.
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