Year-2 Economics
Parent: Pricing & Engagement
The conversation
Year 1 — Build cost $47K, labor recovered $117K. Net: +$70K.
Year 2 onward — Build cost $0. Labor recovered $117K. Net: +$117K every year.
Why this works late in the call
Most prospects evaluate year-1 ROI ("4.8 month payback"). When you flip to year-2 framing, the deal stops being a project and becomes an annuity. The pitch goes from "is this worth $47K?" to "this is permanent margin recovery."
What "every year after" actually requires
- Their own systems — Azure tenant, Excel, SharePoint, Sage. They were paying for those anyway.
- No subscription to us. No retainer. No SaaS fee. This is the line that lands hardest.
Post-warranty support model
The 30-day warranty fixes production bugs at no charge (new vendor email format, API hiccup, edge case the test data missed, Bluebeam template tweak that breaks invoicing). After 30 days:
- On-demand at $225/hr — pay only when you need something
- No retainer. No monthly minimum.
- Any new workflow is a separate quote (same $25K base, no Foundation re-charge)
What to say if they ask "what if something breaks in year 2?"
"You own the code and the infrastructure. If something breaks, you can fix it yourself, hire any contractor to look at it, or come back to us on-demand at $225/hr. Most of our customers go entire years without needing us — and when they do come back, it's usually to add the next workflow, not to fix the first one."
Why we don't push annual maintenance retainers
Lock-in retainers undermine the "you own everything" pitch. We'd rather have customers come back hungry for the next workflow than feel trapped paying us monthly for a system that runs fine.
Last updated: 2026-05-24