Someone wants to buy my software OEM licence. - Please help

James_Bond

Hi there.

I know Its a long-shot, but I'd appreciate any help.

Basically, I own a small software website and I've just recieved a valid looking email, personally addressed to me (although it may be spam) enquiring about purchasing an OEM licence for one of my software products - for a specific country.

However, I have been asked a list of questions and I have no idea what I should charge?..

- What is you volume licencing policy?
- What is your price for unlimited OEM licence for a year?
- What is your price for exclusive OEM licence for <insert country here>a year?

Any ideas how to deal with this? What price should I ask for.

The email address it comes from is from a domain (not hotmail etc) and I've tried gogling the email/ email address and it appears not to be spam.


...although if it is.. I;ll look a right idiot.:o:D

Anyway, I'm not sure if I'll get any replies, but if anyone can help me, I'd be delighted.

Soulistic

I guess it would depend on the software, and what you offer on the website?

James_Bond

Soulistic wrote: »

I guess it would depend on the software, and what you offer on the website?

It's a simple website blocker which I sell for about £6 a copy.

Lakeuk

for Q1 and Q2 just send him a banded price list, stating where one of charge or yearly, ie:-

Licences
1 PC = £6
10 PC = £54
100 PC = £500
unlimited PC = £1200

For Q3 the question isn't clear but he maybe asking what the cost is in his local currency

James_Bond

Lakeuk wrote: »

for Q1 and Q2 just send him a banded price list, stating where one of charge or yearly, ie:-

Licences
1 PC = £6
10 PC = £54
100 PC = £500
unlimited PC = £1200

For Q3 the question isn't clear but he maybe asking what the cost is in his local currency

Thanks for that.

But what about 50,000 copies? :eek:

This is what I cam up with...

100 - 999 = £3.50 each
1,000 - 4,999 = £2.50 each
5,000 - 9,999 = £1.50 each
10,000 - 49,999 = £1.20 each
50,000 - 100,000 = £0.90 each




I've suggested 90p for 50,000 but surely that's too high? I really don't want to lose him. But at the same time, I want to get as much cash as possible.

Blimey though, they wouldnt pay over £40k for a licence would they??

Any ideas?


Also, whats the difference between an unlimited OEM licence for a year and an exclusive OEM licence for <this country>???


Replies appreciated. It really helps.

Lakeuk

50,000 - that's alot of licences, wouldn't of thought a company would have that many pc's - I wonder if his intention is to resell the software in his country, hense his 3rd question

Little_John

Exclusive would give him the exclusive rights to sell licences in his country.

Things to take in to account when priceing things up is how is the software and licence distributed? is it automated with licence keys and the software via download. Who would host the downloads and key issueing system? depending on the size of the download somones bandwidth use could go crazy and incure huge hosting charges could the 90p per download cover your hosting especailly if you received a few thousand download requests a month extra?

The buyre could be a systems builder and is looking for software to bundle with his PC's just like Dell do with Microsoft they don't pay anywhere near the cost of an OEM licence they work out an unlimited licence fee so they may pay a telephone number price but the cost doesnt change if they sell 1000000 pc's or 2000000 pcs in fact the more they sell the better it is for them sa they can make money as people pay £50 per licence or what ever.

Your priceing structure seems to be a little off.
you start with a reasonable price for yourself on the low quantities £3.50 but once you get to 5000 or more your prices are less than 50% I think your selling yourself short. 5000 isnt a lot for a system builder of reasonable size, I know that you don't want to risk looseing this customer but if he buys in the top bracket then he is saveing 10k almost on buying less than 50000 licences. What would the money from this deal be used for? pay 1 developer's wages for the year?

I would consider the unlimited licence on an annual subscription basis, you don't want to give the guy a lifetime of use for £45k now do you? buying 50000 licences could last him a few years it depends on how many systems he sells. So find out how many he is likely to need anually, factor in the cost of provideing that number, if he is just wanting to sell the software, what is the size of his market how many could he sell to? you wouldnt give the guy exclusive rights to the licensing in the USA as that could be a huge market but if it was a smaller country where your likley to not get a similar offer then it may be worth giving him the exclusivity.