VP Operations at Versature -- Jonathon has spent more than 15 years helping organizations change the way they do business through technology.
With a background focused on the internet, hosted technologies and most recently 'cloud services' Jonathon now focuses on helping firms of all sizes see the business changing benefits of industry altering services such as Salesforce.com, Google Apps, Asana and of course hosted communications such as Versature's Hosted PBX.
Jonathon is excited to share his passion for the business altering technologies of today and the future.
I would suggest that the convenience of annual payments is actually for the vendor - especially early stage firms who haven't yet automated charging clients. The only exception I can think of is if you are willing to give clients net 30 terms on the annual charge. I suspect you might see larger companies take this up.
In the common B2B world (often under $250/month) I suspect most buyers will see annual payment as a contract that handcuffs them and will slow down the buying cycle because of the larger cost. This could be as simple as additional approvals for a spend above $1000 or purely psychological.
For example I have seen Salesforce.com run into this with small offices, even after they do a successful trial they suffer from sticker shock when they see the annual per seat rate they are quoted. If Salesforce.com had automatically moved these same businesses into a monthly per seat charge on a credit card they wouldn't have batted an eye but instead it drags the buying cycle out.