“Summit Pass” in Ascenum Marketplace

As you have probably noticed, Ascenum is a brand that references “climbing” often, and the top of the climb is the “Summit Pass” in our Marketplace. The purpose of this article is to give background to our Members on both why we built the Summit Pass, and how it helps Members connect precisely curated Service Providers.

As we built our Marketplace, we thought a lot about established B2B Marketplaces and the impressive range of services many offered. One economic aspect that we often noticed, and never favored, was that many Marketplaces were compensated by Service Providers after the Provider collected revenue from a Buyer/Member in the Marketplace.

We thought that created too much dependency on Providers by the Marketplace. We did not want that to be our model. We instead focused on a better way to stay objective and generate great value for Members, while still creating new opportunities for our Providers to grow.

We created a model that puts full control of Member – Provider interactions in the hands of Members. Our Members are never solicited by Providers. We allowed all of our Members – even Embark (Free) subscribers – to search and learn in our Marketplace. And we focused our Marketplace outcome on “connections” – Members connecting with Providers who are precisely matched to their business characteristics and service requirements, and Providers connecting with Members who meet their Ideal Client Profile.

We think that’s a very high-value connection. And the Summit Pass unlocks that value. After reviewing anonymized profiles of their Provider connections, our Member has the option to purchase a Summit Pass (presently $99 – $249/pass, depending on the category of service) to reveal all of the Providers’ profile and contact information.

For their fee, the Member gets the benefits of:

• Precise connections
• Total control of next steps
• Curated Providers – the Ascenum team meets and admits every Provider
• Full results in 1-2 minutes of effort

Should a Member and a Provider agree to engage, that engagement is between those 2 parties. Ascenum is interested in outcomes/satisfaction/and eventually tracking satisfaction with reviews in our Marketplace. But Ascenum does not have financial or legal stake in such an agreement.

We believe our Marketplace will help our Members with some of their highest impact service decisions, and will help our curated Providers grow their business. The Ascenum team is working continuously to expand and improve our Marketplace.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_5VbDGq6o4