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Comment by Travis | Hacker News Reader

I can't offer any absolutes, but I would recommend that you continue a conversation with them before quoting a price.

Try to determine (estimate) their budget. You'd be surprised at how easily corporate employees will reveal budget.

Then charge a percentage of that budget.

Alternatively, try to figure out their internal cost estimates/budget for your component. Then double that.

You have a ton of negotiating room, but always do it as a percentage of what they were expecting to spend on the project/your component.

In my (light) experience, I've always at least doubled the amount of money coming in. Working with a corporation is a different beast than directly estimating value delivered / standard consumer stuff.

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Good ideas. I was thinking of charging per success rate. My application increases exposure over several social channels. If my application is successful in providing them what they're looking for I am sure they'll be willing to pay for that value. I am not sure that on first glance they'll trust my app enough to pay a straight on high sum. What is your take on this?

In my experience, a corporate employee needs to be able to relate a fixed cost (or fixed cost estimate) to their superior. This mostly holds when the project is a line item, and they need a signature on a purchase form (instead of a comparatively expensive exec buy-in).

If your app is unique (or offers them a unique and important-to-them value prop), they have to trust you. If your product isn't unique, it must have some unique value props. Emphasize those! Strut your stuff, so to speak.

The attitude of many F500 purchasers is this: does it meet my criteria? Does it meet my budget? Then purchase. (Often, it's not the end-user [e.g. engineer, product manager, etc.] who makes the decision, but the purchasing agent.)

My only caveat is that corporate sales are tough. You may get a "yes, yes yes" all the way along from your POC, but they may not be the decision maker. It's easy to spend months purchasing a sale that you never had a chance at, but didn't know that. You have to judge by the conversation tone these things.

I wouldn't worry too much about the "do they trust my product" process. They trust you enough to ask for a price -- that means they're sizing you up for their budget. It's tough to think like a corporate buyer if you've never been one... but they have different incentives than consumer purchasers (who, after all, have to live with their purchases...)

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