Year-2 Economics

The year-2 annuity framing for late in the sales call

Version 1 · June 29, 2026 referencepricingsales

Content

# 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.

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_Last updated: 2026-05-24_

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