Increasing costs for ProAdvisors again: Is Intuit nuts?

CHART SHOWING NEW AND OLD PROADVISOR PROGRAM, SIDE BY SIDE
The cost goes up $100 next month* for new QuickBooks ProAdvisors, and the annual renewal fee goes up by $50 in November**, a pretty steep increase at a time when budgets are paper-thin. Is Intuit nuts for raising prices on what could easily be called their “best customers”? Wouldn’t it make more sense to offer the software and services “a la carte”and reduce the ProAdvisor membership fee accordingly? I don’t think so, and here’s why: The “80/20 Rule”, a principle that I have applied religiously to my own business with great success, states that 80% of your business comes from just 20% of your customers so you should focus your efforts on the top 20%, which is exactly what Intuit is doing. I apply the 80/20 Rule at the end of my year by looking at my top 20% are and asking myself what more I can do for them, and am I sure they have the most efficient and most up-to-date accounting software support available. I check in with my my QuickBooks meetup groups, I check out the newest Sleeter Add-Ons, and I check out the developing software on Intuit Labs. By applying the 80/20 Rule my best customers get the best of my practice, and they benefit (and pay) accordingly.

A la carte pricing, so that ProAdvisors would pay based only on the software they need, would do nothing to help ProAdvisors support their clients, and it would mean that new programs would have to be put in place to support price levels of the least advanced ProAdvisors. It goes against the 80/20 Rule altogether and besides, the more software ProAdvisors use ourselves the more we will know what to recommend to our clients.

Intuit is offering more services and support to the Advanced Certified ProAdvisors, the ones who have been around for at least 3 years of Certifications and have taken the toughest tests. This chart shows the old and new programs side by side and how Advanced Certified ProAdvisors get the the best of everything from Intuit, like 35% discounts on software (no more sending clients to Costco!). Those of us, me included, who have been putting off our Advanced Certification are definitely going to get it done, which makes us better QuickBooks consultants. So that's how the 80/20 rule, put it in practice, works: the best proadvisors get the best services. Now go put it in practice with your own clients!
Here is the link to Intuit's ProAdvisor pricing, terms, testimonials, and offers: The QuickBooks ProAdvisor® Program

*September 2011
**November 2011