Should I Publish My Prices On My Website?

Many businesses spend hours debating whether or not to publish their prices online.    

So what’s the answer?

My invariable advice is that you should always be open and transparent in your pricing.  

People on your website want to know.

Think about the last purchase you made. Once you’d set your sights on the product or service you desired and started doing the research, I’d be prepared to place a bet that one of your burning questions was, “How much is this thing going to cost?”

How would you feel if you couldn’t find out?

Satisfied and happy to go on and do business with that company? Or would you find it frustrating; bounce off their site; go back to the search engines and look at other websites that openly display their prices?  

So, what is this fear we as business owners have about discussing money?

Generally speaking, there are three main objections that we hear. Let’s have a look at them, and I’ll explain why they’re unfounded.

1. My competitors will know what I’m charging.  

Guess what, they already know!

Do you know what your competitors charge? If not, then why not? Your competitors – if they’ve done any amount of market or competitor research at all – will already know what you charge, it’s not a big secret.  

Most businesses will already have been mystery shopped by a competitor, and they’ll know more about you and your business than you think...

...and that includes your prices.

2. Our offering is different for every customer.

This is a more justifiable excuse. However, it still doesn’t hold water.  

A lot of businesses, especially in the service industry, will have bespoke packages and won’t offer a one-size-fits-all price.

But the remedy, in this case, is simple.

You can easily talk about the different elements of your service, the pricing model and what is going to impact the pricing.  

For example, at SpotDev we provide different services; therefore, we have a points-based pricing model where each deliverable that we do carries a different point value depending upon the value it delivers to the client, the time taken and the technical expertise required for the delivery.

So it’s difficult for us to say how much your service will be, but what we can do is explain how the pricing is made up, the different levels of service that we offer and why we charge in the way that we charge.

We can also offer a range of pricing whether it’s a starting from price, or a variety of different packages, explaining what makes the package up and how it impacts the pricing.

3. We’ll scare customers off.

Really? If they’re scared of the pricing, then the likelihood is that they are not a good fit for your company and they were never going to buy from you anyway.

Would you rather have fewer sales calls with people that are aware of your pricing and are happy to discuss it or more sales calls that react adversely when you spring your prices?

You’re just as likely to scare people off by not discussing pricing on your website as people may be thinking that you’re either going to be too expensive or there’s something dubious due to the fact that you’ve shied away from the subject.

The prospect will feel that there’s going to be a nasty surprise for them at the end of the sales conversation.

Address the elephant

As mentioned at the start of this post, I believe that you should address the elephant in the room –  be confident in your service so that you can be transparent in your pricing.

What you’ll find if you do is that the sales conversations you have will be of a better quality. The discussion takes a different slant when your leads already know how your charges are structured and what they’re likely to be paying.

And if your sales team are speaking to someone who hasn’t seen the information online, or are facing objections, they can direct the prospect to the content and make the conversation a lot easier.

To my mind, there are only upsides to displaying information about your pricing on your website. It may not be appropriate or even possible to put up a price list, but there’s no reason why you shouldn’t establish how your pricing is derived or give a range so that your prospect has a point of reference.

And yes, before you ask, we’ve done just that.  You can find information about our pricing here.