# The real alternatives, including doing nothing > Another school, a private tutor, free videos and apps, or no lessons at all: find what buyers really choose instead of you, and what each option costs them. - Course: [Pricing: Set, Package and Raise Your Prices](https://productovi.com/courses/pricing.md) - Module: What do buyers compare us with? - Lesson 5/32, ~22 min - Source: https://productovi.com/courses/pricing/the-real-alternatives ## Who the Club competes with **Alex Tutor:** Last module gave every price a floor from costs and a ceiling from the buyer's next-best alternative. This module is about that alternative: what buyers really compare Klasna with. **Nazar:** Easy for the Club. I keep a slide of competitors: three other schools with speaking clubs, 390 to 520 a month. We're at 450, right in the middle. **Sofia:** Do Club members actually move between those schools? **Nazar:** I ask everyone who cancels where they're going. Forty answers since spring. I haven't added them up yet. **Alex Tutor:** Then the slide is a guess and the forty answers are evidence. Let's read them before we trust the slide. > **Where 40 members went after cancelling the Club (from its summer 2026 launch to September 2026)** > > | Answer | Members | > |---|---| > | Stopped practising for now | 17 | > | A free AI chat app | 9 | > | A private tutor once or twice a month | 6 | > | Another school's speaking club | 5 | > | A free meetup or language exchange | 3 | > | **Total** | **40** | > **Exercise:** What share of the 40 members who cancelled went to **another school's speaking club**, the alternative on Nazar's slide? In %, to one decimal. ## Four kinds of alternative **Alex Tutor:** Sort alternatives into four kinds. The **same kind** of offer from someone else: another school's club. A **different kind** that does the same job: a private tutor. **Do it yourself**: free apps, videos, meetups. And **doing nothing**. **Sofia:** Competitor slides usually show only the first kind. **Alex Tutor:** Because it's the easiest to find: same category, prices on a website. But buyers don't shop by category. They have a job to get done, here speaking English with confidence, and they compare every way of doing it. **Nazar:** So my real competitors include an app that costs nothing and people quitting. **Alex Tutor:** Why does a competitor slide end up this narrow? > **Exercise:** Nazar's competitor slide lists three schools with speaking clubs. What is the main thing it misses? > **Exercise:** Match each Club alternative with its kind. ## What "nothing" costs **Sofia:** If the biggest alternative is doing nothing, and nothing is free, doesn't that push the ceiling to zero? **Alex Tutor:** Doing nothing has no price, but it has a cost: the problem stays. A member preparing for an English speaking exam keeps freezing when it's time to talk. That cost is the reference, not zero. **Nazar:** And people who "stopped for now" often come back. Some of them left in June and rejoined in September. **Alex Tutor:** Then for them the Club lost to a quiet summer, not to a rival. That's a timing question for a later module, not a reason to cut the price. > **Exercise:** A member pauses the Club a month before an English speaking exam. Which of these are real **costs of doing nothing** for them? Choose all that apply. **Alex Tutor:** And the members who left in June and came back in September? > **Exercise:** Members who "stopped for now" in June and rejoined in September show that the Club's price is too high. ## The cheap substitute **Nazar:** The AI app worries me more. Nine people left for something free. Should the Club get cheaper? **Alex Tutor:** Ask what the app doesn't do. Our members practise with real people in a group and a host who corrects them. An app gives practice, not that. **Sofia:** So for members who want live speaking, the app isn't their next-best alternative. For members who only used our AI partner, it might be. **Alex Tutor:** Exactly. Different members, different alternatives. That split will matter when we design Club plans later. > **Exercise:** Because nine members left for a free AI app, the Club's ceiling for **every** member is close to zero. ## Asking, not guessing **Nazar:** Forty exit answers is all I have. How do I learn alternatives from people who stay? **Alex Tutor:** Ask new members what they did before joining: what they tried, what they paid, why they stopped. Past behaviour, not opinions about rivals. **Sofia:** Could an AI tool sort the free-text answers into the four kinds for us? **Alex Tutor:** It can draft the sorting quickly. Then a person reads every answer it was unsure about and checks a sample of the rest. The categories drive a price decision, so they get a human check. > **Exercise:** Which question to a new Club member best reveals their real alternative? **Alex Tutor:** Last one: Nazar wants an AI tool to sort the answers. > **Exercise:** Nazar wants an AI tool to sort free-text answers about alternatives into the four kinds. What is the right way to use it? ## Your turn: fix the slide **Nazar:** Leo will see my competitor slide at Monday's review. Help me rewrite it so it doesn't mislead him. **Alex Tutor:** Replace "three schools" with the real alternatives and their shares, and say what that means for the price. Short: it's a slide. **Sofia:** And mention that forty answers is a small sample. **Alex Tutor:** Good. Honest about the evidence, clear about the decision. > **Exercise:** Nazar's slide lists three other schools' speaking clubs at 390–520 a month and puts the Club, at 450, "right in the middle". Rewrite it in 3–5 sentences: the Club's real alternatives from the 40 exit answers, and what they mean for the Club's price. > **Key ideas** > > - Buyers compare every way of getting the job done, not one product category: the **same kind** of offer, a **different kind**, **do it yourself** and **doing nothing**. > - Find the alternatives from evidence (exit answers, purchase stories), not from a competitor slide. > - Doing nothing has no price but has a cost: the problem stays. Price against that cost and make it visible. > - A cheap or free substitute is the next-best alternative only for the buyers whose job it does; alternatives, and ceilings, differ by segment. **Alex Tutor:** Next: putting the alternatives on one picture, benefit against price. - Previous lesson: [Case: a price corridor for NMT Sprint](https://productovi.com/courses/pricing/nmt-sprint-corridor-case.md) - Next lesson: [A value map: benefit against price](https://productovi.com/courses/pricing/a-value-map.md) --- Productovi Learning. Free, no sign-up needed to read.