MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Bill It, Kill It, or Keep It Free?

B2B companies can seize new sales by charging for services they’ve been giving away.

In tough times, companies hunt for new sources of profitability and growth, frequently ranging far beyond their traditional offerings. Yet in doing so, many of them overlook opportunities for generating sales from services they’re already giving customers for free. Though it sometimes makes sense to stick with a free model, companies too often make that the default option. That’s a costly mistake.

The solution is easy to articulate but, naturally, much harder to implement. Simply put, managers must determine which services they can stop giving away and then start charging for them. We call this the free-to-fee, or F2F, transition. When evaluating any particular service, the challenge can be boiled down to this question: Should you bill it, kill it, or keep it free?