Pricing Overview

Slack has mainly been used as a communication platform for people within the same organization, as well as a way to connect with others outside of the organization. Slack values customer partnerships and often times looks to help companies grow over the course of the relationship. The pricing structure is dependent on the number of licenses and what level of service the organization decides to move forward with.  Since June of 2025 - Slack adjusted it's pricing plans.  Slack now offers three paid pricing plans; Pro, Business+ & Enterprise+.  Business+ and Enterprise+  will now include Slack AI and Elevate features, which were previously sold as separate add-ons.  Starting August 1, 2025 all Slack renewals will be subject to the new structure as there are not currently clear options to retain legacy tiers, but most likely being sunset August of 2026.  See breakdown below:

Pricing model comparison:

• Pro: This SKU is normally too limited for many organizations because of the lack of user provisioning & SAML. This pricing is $7.25/user/month and is not typically discounted given it is the lowest tiered plan type.  
• Business+: This tier covers many SMB and Mid-Market organizations with its user provisioning, SAML and data exports.  This now includes AI workflow generation and AI steps, AI recaps/summaries/search.   This pricing recently increased from $12.5/user/month to $15/user/month.
• Enterprise+: This has now replaced both Enterprise Select and Enterprise Grid.  Organizations that lean toward Enterprise+ require HIPAA compliance, backup, and domain claiming. This pricing increased from $32/user/month to $45/user/month.

General Strategy

1. Leverage Growth and Contract Term

• Emphasize Growth: Highlight any current or projected user growth to negotiate better terms. Be conservative in your growth projections to maintain leverage throughout the negotiation.
• Opt for Multi-Year Contracts: Secure a multi-year agreement to mitigate annual uplift fees and lock in better rates. This approach often leads to more substantial discounts and price stability. Multi-year deals lock in the discounts and avoid the 9% Year over Year uplift Slack applies.
• Utilize End of Month or Quarter Timing: Accelerate negotiations to align with Slack's fiscal deadlines (end of month or quarter) to capitalize on their urgency to close deals, which can lead to better discounts. EOQs are January, April, July, and October.

2. Strategic Use of Contract Features

• Annual vs. Quarterly True-Ups: Push for annual true-ups instead of quarterly to manage costs more effectively and avoid frequent renegotiations. Slack will push customers to quarterly true -ups, but it is recommended to hold firm on annual.  Annual true-ups offer "free" growth throughout the term until you true-up at the next renewal.
• Price Caps and Lock-Ins: Negotiate for price caps between 3%-5% within the contract to protect against unexpected price increases, especially when committing to multi-year terms.
• User License Management: Regularly review and adjust the number of licenses based on actual usage to ensure you are not overpaying services not being utilized.

3. Negotiation Tactics and Relationship Management

• Build a Relationship with Your Slack Rep: Engage with your Slack representative to explore creative solutions that meet your budgetary needs. A strong relationship can lead to more flexibility during negotiations.
• Customer Escalation and Strategic Partnerships: Use customer escalation strategically to gain last-minute concessions and emphasize the importance of your account to Slack, especially when discussions are stalling.
• Highlight Historical and Future Commitments: Use past commitments and future potential as leverage, demonstrating the value of your continued partnership to Slack.

4. Prepare for Uplifts and Price Adjustments

• Anticipate Standard Uplifts: Prepare for an annual uplift fee (9%) and discuss this upfront. Use it as a negotiation point to either reduce the fee or offset it with other benefits.
• Secure Discounts for Additional Users: If agreeing to add more users, negotiate to remove or reduce the uplift fee, leveraging the increased user base as a commitment to Slack’s growth.
• Be Aware of Slack’s Pricing Changes: Stay informed about Slack’s pricing strategy, especially any shifts due to its full integration into Salesforce and with AI, to anticipate changes and adapt your negotiation strategy accordingly.

Custom Strategies

Strategy #1: For current customers considering Enterprise+ upgrade

• Step One – Lean into Growth: Start by aligning internally on current and future software usage. Use admin console reporting tools to confirm what your team truly needs. This allows you to plan for both immediate requirements and anticipated growth.
  • For the upcoming renewal upgrade with, share with the rep that your user count reflects growth over time.
  • Emphasize the volume of users and commitment to the new plan. Frame it as: your team is asking you to justify the increased cost for the upgrade,  but you are willing to go to bat to ensure success, but it needs to be at the right cost.
  • Commit to the lowest realistic user count now to control costs while forecasting future growth to secure more favorable unit rates.
    
    
• Step Two – Multi-Year Commitment with Budget Constraints: If considering a multi-year term, frame it as driven by budget constraints and to move the needle on the rate. This provides leverage: the sales rep has reason to internally advocate for stronger discounts and “avoiding an uplift” is not considering cost savings to the Finance team.  There must be key discounts tied to the long term commitment.
  • A 2-year term or longer should be recognized as a significant commitment. If expected growth aligns with your team’s goals and budget, factor that in and push for that to directly improve unit rates.
  • Reiterate to the Slack team that you rarely approve multi-year agreements and approaches these very strategically. Extending beyond a 12-month term requires clear, compelling incentives, as this type of commitment is not typically granted without strong justification and hitting expected pricing.

• Step Three – Upgrade: The new Enterprise Plus package, while early in adoption, shows promise. Based on past trends with Slack products, aggressive discounts are often offered to drive adoption of this new upgrade.
  • Anchor pricing: Use an aggressive pricing target as the expectation and what is needed to get this approved. This is a new SKU and you want to take advantage of that to get the best pricing.
  • Bring up the total spend you have across any and all Salesforce agreements. Given the visibility and scale, push that you need more competitive terms aligned with expectations before you can even can bring this forward to leadership.
  • Position your ask around the need for substantial discounts to justify bringing this internally to leadership with growth, a long term agreement, and signing quickly.
  • Reference external market trends (e.g., Salesforce price increases) to reinforce that securing a competitive rate now is crucial for long-term success.  You can share your Finance team has seen the news about price increases from Salesforce, and they expect similar trends from Slack/Salesforce renewals going forward. With this new upgrade, they want to feel confident they’re starting in a strong position.

• Step Four – Timing: Timing can be a flexible lever depending on negotiation progress.
  • If needed, signal willingness to sign in quickly to help the sales rep hit end-of-quarter targets - but only after maximizing other negotiation levers and to push for clear incentives with signing quickly and early.
• Step Five – Annual Rate Increase Cap: After leveraging all other strategies, secure protection against future cost increases.
  • Negotiate a cap on annual rate increases. Slack typically applies a 9% uplift; requesting a cap in the 3–5% range provides meaningful long-term savings.
    
    

Strategy #2: For current customers with plans to increase headcount on any plan.

• Step One – Lean into Growth: Start by aligning internally on current and future software usage. Use admin console reporting tools to confirm what your team truly needs. This allows you to plan for both immediate requirements and anticipated growth.
• For an upcoming renewal, note that your volume reflects growth in Year 1 and the team is open to considering additional growth in Year 2. Be conservative in projecting Year 2 growth, as this can always be adjusted later to create additional leverage. With this growth commitment, the team should be able to secure better rates in both years.
• Emphasize the high volume of users and commitment to the platform. Frame it as: your team has asked you to perform an audit to cut costs, but you are willing to maintain this user count to ensure success, but it needs to be at the right cost.
• Commit to the lowest realistic user count now to control costs while forecasting future growth to secure more favorable unit rates.
  
  

Step Two – Multi-Year Commitment with Budget Constraints: If considering a multi-year term, frame it as driven by budget constraints and to move the needle on the rate. This provides leverage: the sales rep has reason to internally advocate for stronger discounts and “avoiding an uplift” is not considering cost savings to the Finance team.  There must be key discounts tied to the long term commitment.

• A 2-year term or longer should be recognized as a significant commitment, even though they are allowing the legacy plan to be locked in. If expected growth aligns with your team’s goals and budget, factor that in and push for that to directly improve unit rates.
• Reiterate to the Slack team that your team rarely approves multi-year agreements and approaches these very strategically. Extending beyond a 12-month term requires clear, compelling incentives, as this type of commitment is not typically granted without strong justification and hitting expected pricing.  
• Tropic typically aims for a drop in uplifts (0%-3%) with the long term commitment, which should be part of our goal here.

Step Three – Lean into Market Trends/Strategic Spend: Reference external market trends (e.g., Salesforce price increases) to reinforce that securing a competitive rate now is crucial for long-term success.  You can share your Finance team has seen the news about price increases from Salesforce, and they expect similar trends from Slack/Salesforce renewals going forward. With this legacy pricing, they want to feel confident in locking this in for a longer term.

Step Four – Timing: Timing can be a flexible lever depending on negotiation progress.

• Timing the renewal for EOQS/EOFY can help the sales rep meet targets.
• This tactic is usually most effective after we’ve maximized other negotiation levers and are ready to make a final push with a message like, ‘If we can reach X rate, we’re ready to sign by the end of the week.’

Step Five – Annual Rate Increase Cap: After leveraging all other strategies, secure protection against future cost increases.

• Negotiate a cap on annual rate increases. Slack typically applies a 9% uplift; requesting a cap in the 3–5% range provides meaningful long-term savings, especially if they push the team to upgrade at the next renewal.

Step Six - Align on payment terms as a final push: Payment terms are generally easier to adjust than rate reductions.  Therefore, this is best suited for a final ask.  The team can position this as a request from Legal/Finance to move all vendors to quarterly billing to better manage cash.

Strategy #3: For current customers with plans to reduce headcount, but upgrade.

Step One – Audit Usage and Plan for GrowthStart by reviewing actual usage and aligning with stakeholders on current and future needs. Use admin console reports to compare required usage versus what’s provisioned. It’s common to find that your team may need fewer seats, but with Slack’s ELA plan (which true-ups at renewal) usage may also have grown.

• Confirm to your rep that current counts reflect any growth over time (even if that isn't necessarily the case).
• Enter negotiations with a clear, realistic usage number to avoid being anchored to an inflated count.
• Commit to the lowest practical user count to control costs, while forecasting growth to secure better unit pricing.
• Choose a conservative but realistic seat count.
• If pricing is unsatisfactory, position a potential further reduction or tier downgrade as a response to budget constraints, anchoring discussions on cost.

Step Two – Request a Quote for Reduced Volume with Upgrades

• Ask for a quote based on the lowest required volume along with any planned upgrades.
• Expect the rep to initially provide close to list pricing; this is typical when reducing seats but upgrading features.
• This is an opportunity to secure discounted pricing on new features while right-sizing your volume to avoid overcommitment.
• Overcommitting now can lead to higher rates if reductions are needed later.
• Slack has historically offered strong discounts on new products and upgrades to drive adoption, so you want to take advantage of this.

Step Three – Multi-Year Commitment with Budget FramingStart by negotiating a 1-year term. Any discussion of multi-year commitments should be framed as driven by budget needs, not a long-term obligation to Slack.

• A 2-year term can be positioned as a compromise.
• A 3-year term may be reasonable if prior commitments make it necessary.
• For upgrades, emphasize that substantial discounts are required (even with seat reductions) so leadership can approve this increase in commitment. Slack has an incentive to drive adoption for new tools, which can support this leverage.

Step Four – Leverage TimingUse timing strategically to influence negotiations.

• Renewals at EOQ or EOFY can motivate the sales rep to meet targets.
• Timing is most effective once other negotiation levers have been maximized, using a message like: “If we can reach X rate, we’re ready to sign by the end of the week.”

Step Five – Cap Annual Rate IncreasesAfter negotiating reductions, secure long-term value by requesting an annual rate increase cap.

• This protects against steep cost increases over multiple years.
• Slack typically applies a 9% annual uplift; negotiating a cap of 3–5% can lead to meaningful long-term savings.