One of our delegates at our seminar asked this very same question…because she had been told by another web designer that you SHOULDN’T list your prices.
At this point I gasped and thought to myself… “now there goes another web designer who doesn’t know a hoot about marketing and how to sell online.”
Some points of view out there might express that it depends on what you are selling and what your strategy is….I say balderdash to that
I have heard excuses like…
- It depends if you are selling a product or a service. If you are selling a recipe book then price is good but if you are selling your bespoke services then you shouldn’t
- If you offer bespoke services then you want them to contact you for a quote not just look at your rate card
- If you need to do a needs analysis then you can’t set a price on different services
- Your site should pose you as an expert so they should contact you for a price and that way you know their interested
- You don’t want your competitors knowing how much you charge
- I want people to contact me and not care about price
- I want to be flexible so that I can charge more if the deal feels right
And I say foooey to all those excuses
Simple experiment:
Do this simple task for me and then come back and comment. Ask your 5 closest friends would you go to a website for a takeaway…. decide what you want and then call up for prices?
You will find the answer to be NO!
Let’s cut through the excuses:
Here are my replies to those excuses…
1. If you are selling products then clear and simple pricing will increase sales, that’s simple…and if you are offering “bespoke services”…. clear and simple pricing will also increase sales. If your business has worked with a typical client then your typical client has the same issues and problems as each other which can all be solved by the same “tailored services” rather than bespoke. Attract more “typical clients” by developing bespoke packages that will solve their pains and problems…this will make it easier to structure your pricing and increase sales.
2. There is massive fallout from people visiting your site to then enquiring (go back to my experiment) whilst checking out a new webinar system the other day, I just couldn’t find the page called “Prices” or “Packages”. All I could do was to either sign up for a free 30 day trial or fill in a form for someone to contact me….my brain told me that was too much effort. By not having the price on their website easily accessible, my only thoughts were “bet they are too expensive or too complicated”
3. If you offer a free consultation to figure of the needs analysis of your prospect then you have to invest in the systems to actually book these up and then invest the time to do them, only for the prospect to turn around and say “Thank you I will think about it”. We all really know what they mean “Thank you…but you are too expensive” I much prefer to have proper conversations with people who want a result out of me and know the price of that result… it reduces the cost per sale by about 12%
4. Please go back to my experiment… even people who are ready to buy want a price…I have too many other things going on in my life and too many other advertisements to see (approximately 3000 per day) for me to fill out a form to get a price and then come back and compare against your competitors a day later (or even have a free consultation) to then come back and decide to buy or not to buy. I simply won’t purchase with you… I will purchase a service from your competitor as the value proposition he or she has delivered outweighs your non-existent one!
5. This is one of my favourites…and the health and fitness industry is the worst for it. Get over yourselves and be proud of what you offer! Who gives a poop if your competitors know your prices, your packages, and your results? I actually use my packages as bragging rights as I know my competitors can’t compete with me. For my template services they can’t beat me on price or quality and for my high end and expensive services they can get the results that I get which warrants the premium – I was at a networking event the other day and they openly stated that they can’t get into a bidding war with us because they can’t do what I do…they had to find a different angle to survive.
6. Again go back to my experiment… people will always care about price. People who are coming to your site and who are ready to buy will still want to know price. They have probably shortlisted you against other services and want to make a decision right there and then. If you don’t list a price then they can’t compare….you are giving them an “easy out” of the buying process
7. If you don’t want to list the price so you can change your price structure depending on who you are talking to then I am guessing that you have lost sales just because you are trying to be greedy. Properly define how you solve people’s pain, properly define a package to facilitate it and decide on your profit margin. If your price structure is fluid then I am accusing you of being greedy and also not having a robust and sustainable business model.
Working through each of these excuses I will always come back to that simple experiment… and the fact that if your enquires go down after posting your prices then I have just saved you time and money on people who can’t see the value of your work and are only going to waste your time asking for a bespoke quote
If your enquiries stop altogether then the blame falls on you for not having compelling enough copy and content to propose an irresistible offer to your audience.
Please let me know if you have any more excuses or if you agree with me or if you find you get more sales and profit by posting your prices.
